Junction City Council quickly passed the first reading of its new zoning ordinance at a special called meeting Tuesday night without any discussion. Once the second reading is approved during its regular meeting on Feb. 13, and a summary of the ordinance is published, zoning regulations will once again be in effect for the first time since the city left the Boyle County Planning and Zoning Commission in 2011. 

Junction rejoined the P&Z Commission in 2019 and has since been working on “procedural things,” such as its future land use and zoning maps, said P&Z Director Steve Hunter.

“They went through every page” of Danville, Perryville and Boyle County’s zoning ordinances, and decided Junction’s ordinance would be consistent with Perryville, he said. The main difference that Junction and Perryville have in their ordinances from Danville and Boyle County is that zoning permits will not be required within the city limits, Hunter said. Only a building permit will need to be issued.

“It’s a one-step permit process,” he explained.

The new zoning ordinances will affect “all future development and uses” in Junction City, he said. For example, if someone wants to convert a house into a daycare facility or turn an old gas station into some type of small manufacturing facility, the developer will only need to get a building permit, and not an additional zoning permit.