Wednesday, February 26, 2020, the Danville-Boyle County Planning and Zoning Commission will hold its regular meeting at 9:00 A.M. at City Hall.

The commission has a packed agenda which includes seven subdivision approvals and seven public hearings.

The subdivision approvals used to be presented by the engineers who have drawn the plats after working the properties. Under Director Steve Hunter’s streamlining of various processes, he now presents the requests and the engineers speak only when spoken to.

The public hearings are handled in much the same way. People can speak to the item under consideration after being recognized and moving to the podium.

Four of the seven public hearings involve zone changes. These zone changes come just a very short time after a complete revision of the Joint Zoning Ordinance.

For that reason these zone changes must be considered spot zoning.

“Spot zoning is the application of zoning to a specific parcel or parcels of land within a larger zoned area when the rezoning is usually at odds with a city’s master plan and current zoning restrictions.” From Wikipedia.

No. 7 under Public Hearings is a request to change AG Agricultural to OP Office Professional, which is a new zone. This location is along Ky. 34, Lexington Road. There is nothing commercial from the county line to the city limits, with the exception of Old Bridge Convenience Store, which has been there since the beginning of time.

If there is justification for commercial development in that area, it should be an item for community discussion, not just the first olive out of the jar.

Spot zoning cannot be considered Smart Growth in any sense of the phrase.

Anne Ferguson

Danville