# Planning Commission Work Session - May 30, 2024 > Auto-transcribed civic record · May 30, 2024 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6122 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6122?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2024-05-30 - **Last revised**: May 30, 2024 - **Length**: 4,468 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Planning Commission met on May 30, 2024, at 1:30 PM in the Phoenix Building 3rd floor Conference Room. The meeting focused on three informational agenda items, with no formal votes taken during the session. The commission received informational presentations on the Greenway Master Plan and the Trees and Landscape Ordinance, along with discussion of other business matters. No public comments were recorded during this meeting. All agenda items were handled as informational discussions rather than action items requiring formal votes or decisions. ## Greenway Master Plan [timestamp: 00:00] Demetria Kimball Mehlhorn presented an update on the Greenway Master Plan during this informational agenda item. The presentation covered several key components of the ongoing planning process. Mehlhorn discussed the project team structure and outlined the primary goals of the Greenway Master Plan, which aims to create connected green spaces throughout the community. A central objective of the initiative is to enhance public awareness of greenway opportunities and benefits. The presentation included details about community outreach efforts that are part of the planning process. Mehlhorn also provided information about the upcoming schedule for the project, giving attendees insight into the timeline for future developments and milestones. As an informational presentation, no formal action was taken on this agenda item. The update served to keep the governing body and public informed about the progress and direction of the Greenway Master Plan initiative. ## Trees and Landscape Ordinance [timestamp: 00:00] Eve Miller presented an update on the draft language for a zoning ordinance text amendment regarding trees and landscape requirements. The presentation focused on proposed changes to the existing ordinance and the stakeholder engagement process that has been conducted. Miller provided details on the draft language that has been developed for the zoning ordinance text amendment. The discussion covered various aspects of tree and landscape regulations that would be affected by the proposed changes. The presentation included information about stakeholder engagement efforts that have been undertaken as part of the ordinance development process. This engagement appears to have informed the proposed changes to the current tree and landscape requirements. The agenda item was structured as an informational presentation, allowing Miller to update the meeting participants on the current status of the ordinance development work. The discussion provided insight into the ongoing efforts to revise and improve the municipality's tree and landscape regulations. This was a presentation-only item with no formal action taken during the meeting. The update served to inform attendees about the progress being made on the zoning ordinance text amendment and the stakeholder input that has been incorporated into the draft language. ## Other Business [timestamp: 00:00] The meeting included a recognition segment honoring Larry Forester for receiving a civic leadership award from the Kentucky Chapter of the American Planning Association. Larry Forester was acknowledged for this distinguished honor, which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and contributions to the planning profession and their communities. The Kentucky Chapter of the American Planning Association presents these awards to celebrate outstanding service in advancing planning principles and practices throughout the state. This recognition was presented as an informational item during the meeting, with no formal action required from the body. The acknowledgment served to highlight Forester's contributions to civic leadership and planning within the community. --- ## Full transcript Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I'm sorry. Could you put your microphone off? You might need to push the microphone straight down. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, so I'll start it over. All right. Since I get to start over, It is my youngest son's birthday today, so I'm going to say that now publicly. So if he's seeing me, happy birthday, Atlanta. It's going to be a short meeting. May 30th, 2024, it was 1.30. Welcome to the Planning Commission work session. First on the agenda, we have Greenway Master Plan, Ms. Demetria Kimbrough-Melhorn, Division of Environmental Services. Thank you. Thank you. Can I get this thing up? He was fussing with it earlier. How's that? Okay. Thank you. My name is Demetria Kimball-Mellhorn. I am a program manager senior under the Natural Resource Protection Section of Environmental Services. I'm here today to talk to you about the Greenway Master Plan update. Maybe. Aha. So today we're going to, it's a fairly quick presentation just to kind of give you an overview of the master plan update. We'll talk about our team, project team, the goals for the master plan, how we're completing our community outreach, and our upcoming schedule. Our community, I'm sorry, our project team started with, we hired a consultant through the purchasing process. That was Lord X Sargent, LAS. I hate saying their name, so I just refer to them as LAS. They have a really great subconsultant team of Ulta, Biohabitats, and EHI. In addition, we also have a stakeholder group that meets monthly to discuss this master plan. They are made up of our representatives from the Green Space Trust, Planning, Parks and Recreation, MPO, Environmental Services, and LAS. The original master plan was completed in 2002. This master plan was actually a really great master plan that was completed back in 2002 and has some really great information that's still applicable today. But we're talking about 20 years later. A lot has changed in 20 years. So as part of this process, we actually gathered a significant amount of information and other plans that have been done throughout the years. As you can see here, there are several plans that have been done that we're incorporating and talking with all of the people that were part of these plans to make sure that they are in the Greenway Master Plan. That includes the Urban Growth Management Plan area and TSW. We're working with them directly to make sure that everything corresponds and includes and are put together. So in a master plan, in any project, we want to look at the how, what, and why to really make sure that we are completing a good project. The what? Updating the Greenway Master Plan to make sure it's a comprehensive document that creates a usable, connected system of parks, trails, and green spaces. How? We're gathering all of the background data, so not only what the plans that I had shown you earlier, but we have a significant amount of GIS data that has been collected over the years, canopy tree cover project that has been completed, additional trail systems that are not only installed but also proposed for future and then our parks trails and green spaces the how I'm sorry the why to enhance and preserve preserve the unique natural ecological benefits in areas of Lexington Fayette County and to build a stronger network of parks trails and green spaces. The goals of the 2024 plan are to identify and elevate public awareness and unique natural and ecological resources. We want to create a comprehensive plan that for usable connected system of parks trails and wildlife course corridors so everybody has accessibility to those areas. We want to ensure good stewardship and maintenance of all these green ways that That includes both public and private. We want to create an implementable master plan and associated actions with the master plan. So to do that, we need to have some action items and how are we going to achieve these goals. As I had mentioned, gather all of our background information, determine significant Greenway corridors and priorities, and that's some of the things that we're working on currently. To do that, we also need to identify parcels and quarters of land that we need to protect and conserve for ecological purposes and also connectivity. Develop short and long-term actions for this implementation. We also, as part of this, want to suggest ordinances and policy updates. That is the one thing that was significantly lacking in the 2002 master plan is the actual implementation and the authority to implement that master plan. So we're working on that moving forward. We want to create a Greenway Open Space Management Guidebook for HOAs and NHAs on private property. So they really have a good way to move forward on that private property, what they can and cannot do. We've got questions like, what do we do with beavers? Can I put a building in a floodplain? So we have a lot of different questions. We want to create a good guidebook for them. And then the last thing is we would really appreciate your help by putting this and adopting this under the 2023 COMP Plan, 2045 Imagine Lexington Plan. When I was going through to see how the Greenway Master Plan really dovetailed into the 2045 Imagine Lexington Plan, I found that there was an action under every single pillar, under every single section that this Greenway Master Plan really did look at and address in some way. So you may be questioning why is that? What are some of the benefits of having a Greenway Master Plan in Greenways? So there's a significant amount of benefits that are listed here that we will continue to talk about. We have our bike ped transportation which is a big hot topic as we move forward we want this also improves health through active living as we all know through covid our parks were one of the highest areas visited that includes our green spaces and passive recreation protect our waterways and wildlife and increase climate resiliency by not only protecting our corridors but also enhancing them protect people and property from flood damage and then enhance cultural awareness and community identity. Lexington and Fayette County already has a great identity. Greenways are just another way we can do that. Through our community outreach, we have started our community outreach and done several different items. On March 20th we did an ecological forum where we had bio habitats take the information that they had gathered really to look at some of the areas to preserve and enhance and so we're going to include that in the Greenway master plan when we start identifying the corridors that we want to continue to keep one of the things that we asked the people that were able to attend is what does a Greenway master plan mean how will it be successful for you what does that mean for you as you can see a couple of them were to make sure that the transportation bike ped was really addressed but the other thing is we had several people talk about the implementation of the master plan and making sure that we can continue to move it forward we had a great youth presence Reese Lyle worked with councilmember Sheehan as an intern this year and she wanted to know how she could help promote the Greenway master plan and help so she actually did a survey for us with the 18 and under crowd the crowd that we don't get to see very often, right? So she put together a really great survey, had 97 responses, and she asked a variety of questions. A few of the questions are, what are the structures that you would like to see? A variety of walking trails and community gardens. How important, or choice of greenery, they really wanted to see wildflower fields, looking at the pollinators type of species. How important is access to water? Out of five, they redid that as a four. And then some of the comments were plant trees we can climb on more shaded areas and more public access to green spaces in addition LAS has put together a green way survey for us that has been out on the public out on the website and available to the public as of March 14th we had 265 responses we had a one to five categorized most important least important kind of questions some of the top things that we have found were most important continuous trail network increase and protect our native species and our plants and our top was restoration of tree canopy as you can see some of the additional comments were some public art within our green spaces a variety of trail connections completing our trail connections throughout the city and then connecting our suburban areas downtown as we move forward this is our schedule and timeline we're right on on schedule to actually complete this master plan in the first quarter of 2025 so throughout the year I'll be giving small presentation updates so that you guys can kind of see what's going on if we have any questions or we would like your help that's some of the times and actually I have one of those now the survey is still available and available through tomorrow so we ask that you take that survey if you have not already so we can get your information and in your input thank you for your time short and sweet I just wanted to give you a brief update okay thank you do we have any questions Yes, ma'am. So this is really sort of beyond the purview of your group because it's outside urban county government. But we've seen a few elementary schools that have no green. Is there an opportunity to have some conversations with the school system to see about increasing trees and pollinators in the school yards? I believe that Heather Wilson with our group is here, and she is already working on that and conversations with the school. Thank you. More of a comment than question. I appreciate what the intern did as far as reaching out on survey for 18 and under, because that's our future. you know really and truly uh i really highlighted on the point that they they really they highlighted on water uh i've i've been preaching uh here often you know it seems like our retention basins our water what could be water features a lot of times have been pushed to the back and not pay much attention to but you know you said passive water I think if we really focus on that it could provide a lot of amenities for us down the road so I appreciate those thoughts thank you actually and our consultant is here today so I know those are some of the things that he'll be looking at as we move forward one of the things that we are also looking at our points of interest throughout the city to make sure that those are included easily accessible and looking at our priority corridors. Just to touch on that a little bit and just elaborate, because we've been discussing this as part of the growth plan as well, is when we look at the maps of a lot of the recent neighborhoods that have been developed that have preserved greenways through them, A lot of those greenways are visible when you're looking from the sky, but not when you're on the ground because they're lined with houses and yards. And so, you know, as you sort of look towards that sort of missing policy element, I'd really like to see specific policies that do more to make those more of a visual component as well as the ecological component. Thank you. Okay, I thank you for all the work you've done so far and look forward to seeing you in the remainder of 2024. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, so next up, Eve Miller, Trees and Landscape Ordinance. Good afternoon Planning Commission my name is Eve Miller it's nice to see you all again this afternoon and I'm here to also quickly provide to you an update on the draft language for our first phase zoning ordinance text amendment regarding article 5 article 18 and article 26 since our last presentation to you in mid-April staff have continued to reach out and engage with stakeholders and community members about phase one of the zoning ordinance text amendment proposal including meeting with local landscape architects as well as the building industry Association of Central Kentucky we've also attended several events to engage with residents throughout Lexington to gather their feedback as well both meetings and events have provided staff with really great insight into the proposal as well as how we can better educate the public on our protection and importance of our natural landscapes and possible additional edits to the proposal to the language in the draft which will briefly touch on later today in our slideshow so since our April 18th meeting which we were here last we have officially filed our zoning ordinance text amendment for the Planning Commission's review and at this time the only major change that we made from April 18th to our filing date of May 6 was to include language regarding about mulching and article 18 section for landscape materials so the draft from April 12th listed mulch as use around trees shrubs and other planting materials shall be a minimum of three inches deep and installed per the planting manual and we listened to the feedback that we received from the Commission and we changed this language to say mulch use around trees shrubs and other planting materials shall be placed at a depth of two to four inches and installed per the city's planting manual we believe this will resolve some of the concerns the Commission had about the minimum versus maximum three inches depth as previously worded and is also in alignment with the city's current version of the planting manual so we know that this will be easily implemented moving forward Next in our discussions with the public, we felt that a few areas within the current draft are worth diving into a little more for clarification purposes. The first being the columnar tree discussions that we've been having. Staff from Environmental Services and Planning wanted to clarify the mention of columnar trees in Article 18, Landscape and Land Use Buffers, versus Article 26, Tree Protection Standards. In Article 18, the use of columnar trees for required landscaping is prohibited. In Article 26, however, columnar trees are allowed to count towards required tree canopy coverage. So they can be used for a small tree canopy count up to 100 square feet. And we wanted to make that clarification and perhaps state in the next draft of our proposal that clarification to make that distinction more clear. So to visually provide that information I thought this slide would be helpful to demonstrate what we're talking about and this slide demonstrates the significant difference in the impact and usage of columnar trees in development. These are two different sites that you see both are near each other but the visual and environmental impacts of the columnar trees and the other normal canopy trees are distinct. You can see in the left-hand side images we have normal canopy trees being used for shade and VUA screening and on the right-hand side we have columnar trees with the loss opportunity to plant normal canopy trees because there's no overhead utility lines and also you can see the loss and shade opportunities as well as habitat coverage that we're missing here. So moving to the last article, Article 26, Tree Protection Standards. This article, as you all know, provides environmental services and our urban forester the ability to protect our tree canopy by working with developers to ensure that tree canopy is not lost and also protected during construction and development. And a part of phase one of our zoning ordinance text amendment, we're proposing to update the significant tree definitions. And we wanted to reiterate today that that will be a part of our proposal that we're bringing forth to you all. So like I mentioned earlier, we planning staff and environmental services staff met with the Builders Industry Association, or BIA, about the ZODA proposal. And we heard their concerns listen to their feedback and the staff both from planning and environmental services were reconvening early next week To look at incorporating some of their comments into the next draft of our proposal Because of this we are looking to ask you all next week for a Postponement at the June zoning committee next week for just one month postponement To include their feedback into a new draft and as a final reminder and refresher our main goals for phase one is to codify current processes and modernize our landscaping and tree protection standards a second phase ZODA is recommended to ensure the ordinances require development to be more environmentally friendly especially in light of the 2045 comprehensive plans goal to be carbon neutral by 2050 we see phase one as the foundation for phase two leading to the more comprehensive policies that environmental services and planning would like to achieve the policies and phase two looking towards that is requiring native plant species to be planted in landscaping as a requirement the repeal of landscape corridor ordinances which we have discussed previously and then the creation of a mitigation fund which seems to align with many of the concerns and feedback we've been hearing so we know we're on the right track with our work so on this last slide I have updated the timeline following the ask for a postponement for a month so we would like to come back to to you all in July I believe that's July 3rd zoning committee meeting for and then also a public hearing on July 25th so we are just asking for one month postponement to include those updates and we believe we can provide to you all really great draft in July. And with that, I will take any questions or concerns you all may have. Thank you. Thank you, Eve. Do we have any questions? Yes, sir. Yeah, I've got a couple questions. In the earlier draft, we saw an elimination of the, I guess, the fence alternative to reduce the landscape buffer between, say, like a residential zone and a business zone. what was the and and i i think i expressed some concern as we are trying to implement the comprehensive plan where we allow more and more properties to be neighborhood business to adjoin residential properties including smaller um urban lots and so i wanted to see if you all had discussed that and uh could respond to that and just for clarification do you mean the wood plank fence proposal that we initially brought forth or no if I recall correctly so currently um if like a neighborhood business adjoins a residential property there's a um I'm gonna get the feet wrong but it's something like 15 feet and if they do a fence they can reduce it to six feet which when you look at small infill lots I think I mentioned like last time like Kenwick table when you look at these lots that are in residential neighborhoods i think that ability to apply a fence and reduce the width is important to implement that component of the comprehensive plan and so i was wondering if you could speak to that yeah i actually might yeah i'll pass that on to demetria um yes i know exactly what you're talking about and we did bring that up in the the BIA meeting, and we are going to re-include that. That's one of the comments that we're going to address. Instead of going down to, actually it was a five foot, we're going to the eight foot, which is consistent with the VUA. So we will be adding that back in. Okay, thank you. And then I think the clarification on the mulch is helpful. I do want to just ask what the advantage of codifying it in the ZODA would be as opposed to saying mulched according to the planting manual. Oh, yes. I appreciate that feedback. We'll definitely talk about that. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for your work on this. Thank you. Clarify for me, when you first started talking about collumer trees, I think you said in Article 8 or maybe Article 5, it was going to be, columnar trees were going to be prohibited? For required landscaping in Article 18. Prohibited. Yes. But would count towards tree canopy in 26, I guess. So are you saying that if they're already there, they're okay, but we're not going to plant any more? On a current development plan? Yes. Or currently, I believe they're being used. but we're looking to prohibit that in landscaping moving forward i think they're already being used for article 26 standards and they they will continue to be allowable for article 26 okay so just to clarify people plant trees other places that where it's not required right so anywhere they choose to plant a column or tree say down a median where it's not required they can choose to use the columnar and get a canopy credit but their canopy credits can be pretty small because it's only a hundred square feet per tree that's very if it's required along the Vua or zone to zone not they wouldn't be able to use the columnar in that situation thank you Okay, Ms. Miller, thank you. Thank you all. You're welcome. All right, Mr. Duncan? Mr. Chair, we'd like to recognize you. Earlier this month at the Kentucky Chapter of the American Planning Association spring meeting, Mr. Forrester was recognized, and we've asked Hal, who is a board member of Kentucky APA, if he would bring us that information and make that presentation. Yes. Thank you very much. So the Kentucky chapter of the American Planning Association is an organization that brings together planning practitioners, planning officials, students, and interested citizens or community members into a single and stronger community development forum. For over 30 years, the APAKY chapter has worked to make the Commonwealth a better place for all Kentuckians. Today, the organization continues the mission of promoting responsible planning actions and practices that will create more resilient and sustainable communities. As part of the mission of the APAKY, it is imperative that we uplift those that excel in the responsible development of Kentucky communities. The Distinguished Civic Leadership Award is one opportunity to celebrate the achievements of a citizen, board member, or elected official who has advanced solid planning practices in the public arena. The City of Lexington Division of Planning nominated Mr. Larry Forrester for the 2024 Distinguished Civic Leadership Award. Mr. Forrester has been a distinguished leader in Lexington planning efforts since his appointment to the Board of Adjustment in May of 2014. In July of 2018, Mr. Forrester was appointed to the Urban County Planning Commission and is currently serving in his second term as the chair. Since July of 2021, when Mr. Forrester was nominated by his peers on the commission, he served as the chairman. Under Mr. Forrester's chairmanship, he has provided vital guidance and advice for Lexington's 2023 Comprehensive Plan update, Imagine Lexington 2045. During this busy period, Mr. Forrester was also tasked with serving as the chair for the advisory committee to identify acreage for future development of Lexington as part of the city's first expansion of the urban service area since 1996. The conclusion of this effort, which will be seen in the currently underway Urban Growth Master Plan when it is completed in the fall of this year, December 1st at the latest. So at this spring 24 APA conference, Mr. Forrester was recognized and awarded the Distinguished Civic Leadership Award for his longstanding commitment to the City of Lexington and the planning practice. So we would like to give Mr. Forrester a nice plaque that we have here for him and invite him up to the front. Thank you very much. It's all right. That's nice. I'm not going to say nothing much. Go right in. Yeah, listen to time. We doing good on time. I do want to say thank you to my planning cohorts because I couldn't do it without all of you, even the ones that are not here, the ones that have retired on, we like to say. One, Mr. Penn, Mr. Owens, Mr. Wilson, I wouldn't be doing this if you all didn't give me your leadership early on. So this was unexpected. All I'm going to say is I do appreciate it. I thank the staff. I couldn't do it without none of you guys or ladies. This is your job. This is your thing. I like to say this is your pony. I'm just riding it. But this means a lot to me. It means a whole lot. So I'm going to cherish this. I'm going to put this in my office and show my boys. And they won't believe me, but this is recorded, right? Okay. They'll know I did not make this up myself. But thank you. And whatever we can do to help, I'll just try to do my best. It's not perfect. It's never easy. It's always hard. Sometimes we have to make hard decisions. I think we all kind of know that by now. I think as Mr. Penn used to tell us, if you want to run for office, don't be in the planning commission. So I don't think I'm running for nothing. But thank you again for the nomination. It does mean a lot to me. And again, you know I hold you dear in my heart, and I'll do whatever I can for the city of Lexington as long as I'm here. So thank you. And Mr. Chair, I believe that's all the business we have. I remind you all that you do have your committee meetings next Thursday, June the 6th, 830 and 130. And then we will be providing at the Planning Commission work session, likely on the June 20th, some additional updates about the master plan. Thank you. Thank you. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you. I'm out.