Planning Commission moves HB 443 ZOTA to Council
The Square commercial center in downtown Lexington. Source: Carol M. Highsmith
Last Thursday, the Planning Commission approved the Ministerial Review of Development Plans Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment (HB 443 ZOTA).
The HB 443 ZOTA aims to make Lexington’s planning and development regulations objective; LFUCG’s Division of Planning developed it in response to a new state law — House Bill 443.
House Bill 443 was passed by the Kentucky State Legislature in 2024. It requires all city planning and development regulations to be objective, measurable, and applied “ministerially” — meaning that government staff or elected officials cannot use personal judgement in approving a plan.
Commissioners Robin Michler and Bruce Nicol were the sole votes against approving the ZOTA. Commissioner Larry Forrester was absent from the meeting.
Planning Commission changes to the HB 443 ZOTA
Planning Commission members made some changes to the HB 443 ZOTA, including:
The original text contained different regulations for single-lane drive-thrus and multi-lane drive-thrus; the approved language now regulates both drive-thru styles the same.
Language in the original text that allowed development plans approved by the Technical Review Committee to be appealed was removed.
The Technical Review Committee is a body of LFUCG staff from various Divisions like Engineering, E911, Waste Management, and more who are the first group to approve a development plan.
Currently, Final Development Plans are sent from the Technical Review Committee to the Planning Commission for final approval.
Once HB 443 takes effect, the Technical Review Committee’s approval of a Final Development Plan will be the final step in officially approving and certifying a plan.
The original ZOTA required that if a developer applied to redesign an existing building by removing or adding space to the building’s floor plan, they also had to redesign the parking lot under certain conditions. Now, developers will only have to redesign parking lots if more than 30% of a building’s floor area is being changed.
This only applies to buildings with parking lots that stretch into the public right of way. Most examples of this are older commercial businesses such as Chevy Chase Hardware or businesses off Rosemont Garden like Pietana.
The Planning Commission also voted to formally recommend that Council, who will begin working on the ZOTA in May, find some way to add public comment back into the Final Development Plan approval process.
As a reminder, the ZOTA removes the ability for members of the public to comment on Final Development Plans and Preliminary Development Plans that do not require a zone change.
If a developer is seeking a zone change as part of a Preliminary Development Plan, members of the public can still provide comments.
The Planning Commission will still be allowed to deny a zone change request even if a plan meets the new objective regulations once HB 443 takes effect in July.
While members of the public will still be able to send comments to Planning Staff, they will not have public comment periods in Planning Commission meetings if this ZOTA is approved by the Council.
Division of Planning staff’s rationale for removing public comment is that HB 443 requires development plans to be approved if they comply with the new objective standards.
Currently, the Planning Commission can disapprove a plan due to community opposition, even if the plan meets all of the standards the City currently has.
But once HB 443 takes effect in July, the Planning Commission cannot use public support or opposition as a reason to approve or disapprove a plan if that plan meets all the objective regulations.
So under HB 443’s new rules, public comment would be effectively meaningless and could frustrate residents who expect their opinions to influence decision-making.
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.
If Council chooses to pass a ZOTA that keeps development regulations intact, the precise details of those regulations — such as whether a raised crosswalk in a large parking lot should be required to be 5-feet, 3-feet, or required at all — will likely be debated.
Next Steps
Council’s General Government and Planning (GGP) Committee will hear a presentation on the HB 443 ZOTA in their May 6th meeting. At the Council Work Session that same day, Council will have the opportunity to take some kind of action on the ZOTA: most likely, they will vote to place the ZOTA into the GGP Committee for further work and deliberation, but they could theoretically move it forward to receive First Reading and Second Reading.
HB 443 will take effect on July 1st, 2025. Council will have until then to approve some version of this ZOTA. Much of the debate will center on not only the public engagement portion, but also the technical regulations amended/added in this ZOTA.
CivicLex will provide major updates to work on the ZOTA as they arise.
