The Boyle County Fiscal Court has given a first reading to an ordinance that would overhaul its planning and zoning ordinance. Magistrates could finalize approval on Tuesday, Nov. 26.

The first reading passed unanimously last week and included what officials have been calling the “Cullen Amendment” — named for Magistrate Jason Cullen — which creates rules for short-term rental businesses such as AIrbnbs.

The ordinance would allow all kinds of short-term rentals in agricultural zones, as long as a conditional use permit is obtained first. Short-term rentals wouldn’t be allowed at all in residential and “rural residential” zones.

The new zoning ordinance also renames the county’s zones to bring them more in-line with terminology used nationwide; updates the county’s sign rules to bring them in-line with a Supreme Court ruling that prohibits content-based regulations; strengthens existing protections against hazardous pipelines running through residential areas; and updates agricultural lot sizes, among other things.

The Danville-Boyle County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the large-scale amendment on Aug. 28; Boyle County and the three incorporated cities that participate in P&Z must each reject the recommendation or approve their own version before Thanksgiving. If the county or a city doesn’t take action one way or the other, the amendment would become law 90 days after it was recommended, which would be Nov. 27, Hunter said Monday.

 

Other business

 

Last week, the fiscal court also handled these items:

• Parks & Rec Director John Bell told magistrates Danville is closing in on a “participation agreement” that would represent how the city wants to proceed with funding parks through its new city department, rather than the current joint agency.

“We’ve kicked this can down the road long enough,” Magistrate Phil Sammons said. “We need to do something; we need to come to some kind of agreement on what we’re going to do in the future.”

• Art Center of the Bluegrass Executive Director Nikki Kinkade received general approval for a plan to use Constitution Square for a revamped Danville Art Festival, which would be split away from the Great American Brass Band Festival, when it had previously occurred. Instead, the Danville Art Festival would be held in the fall, probably late September, and would “pay homage” to the Constitution Square Festival that used to be held annually.
• Boyle County Treasurer Mary Conley informed the fiscal court that Boyle County is the only 911 call-center entity, known as PSAPs, in Kentucky that received a clean audit from the state 911 board. That’s because Boyle is the only PSAP following state law on how landline and cell-phone funds should be spent in proportion to each other, Conley said.
• Magistrates approved a revised contract with New Vista to provide a behavioral health associate or a qualified mental health professional at the Boyle County Detention Center to help inmates in need of services. The prior contract only allowed for a qualified mental health professional, but New Vista has not yet been able to hire one and officials including Jailer Brian Wofford say the position desperately needs to be filled.
• Magistrate Jason Cullen called on the fiscal court to review and update its ethics ordinance. Cullen, who runs the Hub Coffee House at Third and Main streets in downtown Danville, also said recent vehicle vs. pedestrian wrecks at that intersection are unacceptable and something must be done to improve safety.

Cullen said there are too many street lights out, and those that are burned out, including one in front of his business, often remain burned out for months.

And he said he thinks the timing of traffic lights along Third Street should also be modified so the lights at Martin Luther King, Walnut and Main aren’t green at the same time. “It becomes a drag strip,” he said.