HB 443 ZOTA moves to Council Committee
The Square commercial center in downtown Lexington. Source: Carol M. Highsmith
In Tuesday’s General Government and Planning (GGP) Committee, the Committee will hear a presentation from Principal Planner Daniel Crum on the Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment (ZOTA) related to House Bill 443, a recent law passed by the Kentucky Legislature in 2024.
The “HB 443 ZOTA” is meant to bring Lexington’s planning and zoning regulations into compliance with the law, which requires local planning rules The Planning Commission voted last month to approve the HB 443 ZOTA and send it forward to Council.
What does the HB 443 ZOTA do?
The regulatory changes made throughout the HB 443 ZOTA are extremely granular, detailed, and exist throughout the entirety of Lexington’s zoning ordinance.
Staff argues that almost none of the regulatory concepts in this ZOTA are new. Most of them have existed within the zoning ordinance or other LFUCG documents, but until now, they have been closer to strongly suggested guidelines than rules — they haven’t been used or adopted as regulations that developers must follow.
Because HB 443 requires Lexington to have clear standards that developers must follow, the HB 443 ZOTA compiles many of those previously existing guidelines and adds more enforceable language to them.
The ZOTA also revises language that has existed in the zoning ordinance to make it more objective, as required by HB 443. Words open to interpretation such as “adequate,” “strongly encouraged,” “appropriate facilities,” etc. are removed and replaced with specific dimensions and definitions that developers are required to meet.
Public Comment Changes
As part of their vote to advance the HB 443 ZOTA to Council, the Planning Commission also formally recommended that Council explore ways to reinstate public comment in the development plan approval process — something that the ZOTA would eliminate.
Under HB 443, if a development proposal meets all written regulations, it must be improved, regardless of community input.
Planning staff argues that City staff and Planning Commissioners would not legally be allowed to consider public comment as they approve or disapprove a plan.
The only exception to this if a Preliminary Development Plan was tied to a zone change. In those cases, public comment would still be allowed because zone changes are explicitly permitted to involve discretion under HB 443.
If Council amends the ZOTA to include public comment in the development plan process, it is unclear whether that input could legally be considered in the final decision — or if it would be included only as a formality.
Concerns about the HB 443 ZOTA
Commerce Lexington, Lexington for Everyone, and several other business associations and developers have raised concerns about the HB 443 ZOTA.
They argue that the current text’s technical regulations (including drive-thru design standards, rules surrounding bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and others) should be discussed and voted on separately from the parts of the ZOTA that change the development process.
They argue this because they believe most of the proposed regulations are too strict and deserve more discussion and revision, and that HB 443 only requires changes to the development plan process, not the content of regulations themselves.
Commerce Lexington published their own alternate text that does not alter any language, but deletes most of the technical regulations while retaining the proposed process changes.
They are advocating for Council to use this alternate text as the basis for discussion, not the entire 60+ page ZOTA passed by the Planning Commission.
Kentucky State Representative Chad Aull, who represents Lexington and sponsored HB 443, wrote an op-ed for the Herald-Leader arguing that he and the legislature did not intend for Lexington to rewrite so much of the City’s planning regulations, nor does he think the bill requires staff to remove public comment from the process.
The GGP Committee presentation from Crum will provide an overview of the ZOTA’s changes to technical regulations and the development plan approval process. You can view the presentation slides starting on page three of this packet.
You can learn more about the content of the HB 443 ZOTA in our previous coverage of the HB ZOTA here and here.
The General Government and Planning Committee will meet on Tuesday, May 6th at 1pm in Council Chambers. You can attend in-person or watch live on LexTV.
