HB 443 ZOTA moves to Council Committee

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 to be objective, measurable, and applied without discretion.

Public Comment Changes

The Planning Commission voted last month to approve the HB 443 ZOTA and send it forward to Council. They 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.

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.

Republished from CivicLex.

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