Woodford County denies housing rezoning for edge of Versailles

The Woodford County planning commission on Thursday night denied the rezoning of agricultural land for the proposed Woodford Place development that would have put 255 residential units on the eastern edge of Versailles.

Commission member Chad Wells said the request didn’t comply with the comprehensive plan, nor with the plan’s objectives and goals for commercial and residential development.

“There’s no substantive and persuasive evidence in the record that supports a finding that there have been major changes of a physical, economic or social nature” to warrant the rezoning, Wells said.

Furthermore, there is no evidence that the current agricultural zoning is inappropriate, given that adjacent uses on three sides are agricultural, Wells said.

“Development for this site is premature in that it leapfrogs other development in contradiction to guidance of the comprehensive plan,” Wells said.

There was no discussion on the motion, except that commission member Ed McClees said it was “very well put.”

The applicant who sought rezoning, Walter Edward Schott, had no comment after the vote.

His company, 2101 LLC, had planned to build 83 single-family homes, 28 townhouse units and 144 apartment units off U.S. 60 east of Versailles.

Some retail/office space would have also gone in the development.

In 2006, the planning commission recommended approval of rezoning the land, along with adjacent land, but Woodford Fiscal Court denied the request. At that time, the proposal would have added more than 900 residential units, and the fiscal court was concerned about overcrowded schools, strains on sewage-treatment capacity and increasing traffic congestion.

The fiscal court was sued by a different applicant that time, but after extensive legal appeals, its denial of the rezoning was upheld by the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 2010.

In 2014, Versailles City Council annexed the land.

In another matter, the planning commission postponed a vote that would have opened the door to a new hospital in Versailles. The new hospital is part of a proposed mixed-use development for Edgewood Farm that would run along U.S. 60 from the new Kroger east to Paynes Mill Road.

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 8:02 PM with the headline "Woodford County denies housing rezoning for edge of Versailles."