# Planning Commission Zoning (Sub) Committee - July 2, 2026 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Commission · July 2, 2026 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6821 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6821?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2026-07-02 - **Body**: Commission - **Last revised**: July 2, 2026 - **Length**: 26,699 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 Zoning Committee met on July 2, 2026, at 1:30 p.m. ET at the Phoenix Building, 3rd Floor Conference Room, with Chair Davis presiding. The Committee considered four agenda items, took four motions and votes, and heard four public comments during the session. Of the four items on the agenda, two were approved and two were postponed. The Committee approved PLN-MAR-26-00013 concerning the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local No. 452 Building Corporation and PLN-ZOTA-26-00004, an amendment to Solar Energy Systems regulations. The Committee postponed consideration of PLN-ZOTA-26-00006 regarding Attended Donation Center Regulations and PLN-ZOTA-26-00008 concerning Data Center Regulations. ## Attendance The following individuals were present at the Commission meeting on July 2, 2026: * Chair Davis * Dalton * Jeremy Young * Chris * Cheryl * Scott * Commissioner Molly Davis * MR. Michler * MR. Wilson * MR. Nichol * MR. Forester No members were absent or late. ## Votes and Decisions **PLN-MAR-26-13: Zone Change for Plumbers and Steamfitters Local No. 452 Building Corporation** [timestamp: 0:25:22] The Commission voted unanimously to approve a zone change for Plumbers and Steamfitters Local No. 452 Building Corporation. The motion was made by MR. Wilson and seconded by Commissioner Molly Davis. All six commissioners voted in favor: Chair Davis, MR. Michler, MR. Wilson, Commissioner Molly Davis, MR. Nichol, and MR. Forester. The approval included conditions provided by staff, with restrictions numbers one, six, seven, and nine struck from the restrictions list. **Solar Energy Systems Regulations** [timestamp: 1:12:26] The Commission voted unanimously to approve staff alternative text for solar energy systems with modifications. The motion was made by MR. Michler and seconded by Commissioner Molly Davis. All six commissioners voted in favor. The approval included a modification to return intermediate scale solar to a conditional use permit with additional criteria. **PLN-ZOTA-26-00006: Attended Donation Center Regulations** [timestamp: 1:38:56] The Commission voted unanimously to postpone consideration of PLN-ZOTA-26-00006 Attended Donation Center Regulations. The motion was made by MR. Wilson and seconded by Commissioner Molly Davis. All six commissioners voted in favor of the postponement. **PLN-ZOTA-26-00008: Data Center Regulations** [timestamp: 2:08:04] The Commission voted unanimously to postpone consideration of PLN-ZOTA-26-00008 Data Center Regulations. The motion was made by MR. Nichol and seconded by MR. Forester. All six commissioners voted in favor of the postponement. ## Public Comment Four public comments were submitted during the July 2, 2026 Commission meeting. **Amy Clark** addressed three separate topics: - **Zoning for Plumbers and Steamfitters Local No. 452 Building Corporation** [timestamp: 0:23:17]: Clark expressed concerns about traffic and the potential uses of the property, emphasizing the need for careful consideration of community impact. - **Solar Energy Systems ZOTA** [timestamp: 0:54:12]: Clark raised concerns about the brownfield exemption and the potential for solar energy systems to occupy valuable infill land. - **Attended Donation Center Regulations** [timestamp: 1:36:08]: Clark expressed concerns about the potential for warehousing and distribution without a retail component, suggesting that such uses belong in B-4 zones. **Dean Pulsifer** addressed one topic: - **Data Center Regulations** [timestamp: 2:03:15]: Pulsifer emphasized the need to separate artificial intelligence concerns from data center regulations and ensure local businesses can operate server rooms without excessive restrictions. ## Contested Items The Commission addressed two contentious matters during the July 2, 2026 meeting. **Solar Energy Systems in Agricultural Zones** The Commission engaged in significant discussion regarding whether intermediate scale solar installations should be permitted in agricultural zones. The primary disagreement centered on land use policy and economic impact. Concerns were raised about the implications of allowing solar energy systems in areas designated for agricultural purposes, though the specific positions of individual commissioners and the final outcome were not detailed in the available meeting records. **Data Center Regulations** The Commission held a heated discussion on data center regulations, with focus on determining appropriate size parameters and assessing potential impacts. Commissioners expressed concerns about local economic development effects and infrastructure capacity related to data center operations. The specific nature of the regulatory disagreement and any resolution reached were not documented in the available materials. ## PLN-MAR-26-00013: Plumbers and Steamfitters Local No. 452 Building Corporation [timestamp: 00:01:56] This agenda item addressed a petition for a zone map amendment affecting property located at 1770 and 1800 Harrodsburg Road. The proposal sought to rezone the parcels from a Single-Family Residential (R-1C) zone to a Corridor Business (B-3) zone. Key speakers during the discussion included Dalton, Chris, and Scott. The Commission considered the presented information regarding the zone change request for the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local No. 452 Building Corporation. The Commission voted to approve the zone map amendment, changing the designation of the subject properties from R-1C to B-3 zoning. ## PLN-ZOTA-26-00004: Amendment to Solar Energy Systems This agenda item addressed a text amendment to establish regulations for large-scale solar energy systems in agricultural zones, create provisions for brownfield development, and develop criteria for review of such projects [timestamp: 1:28:36]. **Presentation and Discussion** Traci Wade presented the amendment to the Commission. The proposal focused on creating a comprehensive framework to govern solar energy systems development, particularly in agricultural areas, while also addressing opportunities for brownfield site utilization. **Key Components** The amendment included: - Regulations for large-scale solar energy systems in agricultural zones - Provisions to facilitate brownfield development - Established criteria for project review and approval **Outcome** The Commission approved the amendment. ## PLN-ZOTA-26-00006: Attended Donation Center Regulations **Item:** II.b **Type:** Text Amendment **Summary** This agenda item addressed a text amendment to add a new definition for attended donation centers and allow their use in specific zones. **Presentation** An Applicant Representative presented on this matter [timestamp: 1:29:46]. **Outcome** The Commission postponed consideration of this item. ## PLN-ZOTA-26-00008: Data Center Regulations **Agenda Item:** II.c **Type:** Text Amendment **Overview** This agenda item addressed a text amendment to create regulations pertaining to data center uses. The proposed regulations are designed to address operational impacts including power grid effects, water consumption, and noise levels. **Presentation and Discussion** Daniel presented on this matter [timestamp: 1:39:28]. **Outcome** The Commission postponed action on PLN-ZOTA-26-00008. --- ## Decisions - **PLN-MAR-26-13** — passed (0-0): Approval of zone change for Plumbers and Steamfitters Local No. 452 Building Corporation - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of staff alternative text for solar energy systems with modifications - **Motion** — postponed (0-0): Postponement of PLN-ZOTA-26-00006 Attended Donation Center Regulations - **Motion** — postponed (0-0): Postponement of PLN-ZOTA-26-00008 Data Center Regulations --- ## Full transcript Thank you. July 2nd, 2026, and this is the meeting of Lexington-Faylor-Urban County Government's Zoning Committee. Before we begin, Ms. Wade has an introduction. Thank you. Chair Davis, members of the committee, I just want to introduce Dalton Belcher. He is a senior planner in our office, and he has previously been reviewing Board of Adjustment cases and handling activities associated with that board. but he has graciously accepted my request that he shift positions within our section from Board of Adjustment to Zoning Planner. And so you'll be getting to see him monthly from now going forward. In addition, Mr. Young is still with us, Jeremy Young. He will be taking, you'll see him on other Thursdays, he'll be taking over the responsibility of reviewing waivers specifically. So you'll continue to hear from Chris and Cheryl on development plans and subdivision items, and then Jeremy will lead the waiver review and staff reports for that. So just some information, and then we're currently searching for a new BOA planner. Great. Thank you, Tracy, and welcome, Dalton. We're happy to have you. Our first item on the agenda today is PLNMAR 2613. Can you hear me? We good now? All right. I'm a little under the weather, so sorry for my voice. I apologize for that. So this is PLNMAR 2613 Plumbers and Steamfitters Local No. 452 Building Corporation. The request is for a, excuse me, the zone change from a single-family residential R1C zone to a corridor business B3 zone. The acreage, 4.912 net, 6.047 gross acres. The address is 1770 and 1800 Harrodsburg Road. The requested place type is corridor. The development type suggested by the applicant is low-density, non-residential mixed use. And this request is to establish a trade school at this site. And so you can see here on screen the subject property highlighted as well. It's in white here. And then the property is fronted. It has frontages of the Harrodsburg Road, Clay's Mill, and McCubbin Drive. And I can zoom in here and show that a little bit better. So here's Harrodsburg Road, here's McCubbin Drive, and here's Clay's Mill Road. So the yellow zoning is residential zoning around the property. Red and then kind of a darker red here is more of your business uses. And then light blue is professional office uses. So this property here across McCubbin was not too long ago rezoned, and it is currently in the process of a coffee shop being built there on site. you can also see here on screen the property has a circle drive here and then a parking lot as well and then here is the existing structure so the applicant is not proposing to make very many changes at all it was previously operated as a trade school by the Fayette County Public Schools and because the applicant is a private organization they are not exempt from zoning so the zone that the property is in currently R1C does not allow for a trade school and so Fayette County Schools was able to operate because of the exemption but now that they want to operate a trade school they have to do this zone change so not very many changes or not really any changes proposed at all. The applicant is they are going to be conducting apprentice training for plumbers, HVAC technicians and pipe fitters in this location with classes twice a week on Monday and Wednesday, typically lasting from 6 to 9 p.m. And then they will be adding some bicycle parking and suggesting that students carpool to reduce the amount of traffic coming to the site. So as I mentioned, the applicant has picked the place type corridor, which staff is in agreement with, but they did select a low-density non-residential mixed-use development type. This is not, as you can see here on the screen, staff is reviewing this under the medium density, non-residential mixed-use type because low density is not one of the suggested place types within the corridor, excuse me, one of the suggested development types in the corridor place type. Staff finds that while the applicant is not proposing to further intensify the site at this time, the proposed B3 zone does allow for denser, more efficient redevelopment opportunities in the future, and we are in agreement with the B3 zone. And then here on screen is the staff's recommendation of approval. We find that the proposal is in agreement with the comprehensive plan's goals and objectives for the following reason. It will provide training opportunities to enhance the workforce in the area by providing specialized training and experience to trade such as plumbing, HVAC, and pipe fitting. The commercial character of the proposed development matches the character of this portion of Harrodsburg Road corridor while keeping the scale of the operations compatible with adjoining single-family residential development. and the proposal will improve a desirable community by working to achieve an effective, equitable, and comprehensive transportation system as they intend to add bicycle parking at this location where none currently exist and encourage students to carpool to limit vehicular traffic. Excuse me. And then staff finds that the proposal is in agreement with the policies of the comp plan for the following reasons. First, at the existing scale, the building and use are sensitive to both the adjoining commercial and single-family residential context. Second, the proposal features internal and external sidewalks, which create a pedestrian-friendly walkable block. Third, the proposal activates a former school site within the community, providing an educational opportunity to develop necessary skills to work in various trades. And fourth, the proposal offers alternative post-secondary educational opportunities to develop skills that will allow students to explore specialized vocational opportunities. And then we find that it is in agreement with the development criteria of the comp plan for the following reasons. The proposed rezoning meets the criteria for land use as it activates the use located near a neighborhood serving commercial areas and along a major corridor and Lex Strand operates in the neighbor vicinity. The proposed rezoning addresses the transportation and pedestrian connectivity development criteria as the proposal includes sidewalk connections to transit and the applicant has more parking than they will need for the number of students and they will encourage carpooling to reduce the amount of traffic accessing the site. And then third, the proposed rezoning meets the criteria for environmental sustainability and resiliency as the development does not impact environmentally sensitive areas and will maintain the existing landscaping and trees present on site. Fourth, the request meets the requirements for site design as there is access to the main parking area from McCubbin Drive and a secondary parking area will have limited use only by employees of the school, and the site has been used as a similar trade school use in the past and has adequate facilities on site to accommodate the school operations. And finally, the request meets the criteria for building form as the request is at an appropriate scale to the surrounding structures and provides a pedestrian-friendly atmosphere with internal and external sidewalks to connect to the interior parking area and the nearby neighborhood. Sorry, that was a lot of reading. And then next, the applicant has provided us with conditional zoning restrictions of the list that they provided us. Staff was okay with the majority of them. We did choose to remove three that were on the list, which we removed rehabilitation homes, day shelters, and adult daycare centers. We found that these uses are substantially similar to other permitted uses proposed to be retained and that these restrictions are appropriate due to the property's close proximity to established residential neighborhoods. So there's about 18 listed there, and they're also in your packets. and that's what I have for status presentation at this time if you have any questions for me Thank you Dalton Do we have any questions for Dalton at this time on the zone change? Yes sir Mr. McClure Can you bring that list back up? Yeah This property is along a corridor and it separated from the residential neighborhood largely by another major corridor of Clay's Mill, right? It's actually adjacent to residential on kind of the rear side. Can you go back? Can you go back? So between the property and Blue Ash Drive, there's like 10 maybe. Okay. You're correct. It's separated here, but there are residential. properties here adjacent. And then if you go back to that restrictions list, that list does seem pretty long for a zone change that does seem to be in a fairly appropriate location on a corridor. I understand the staff's note here, and I appreciate that you all removed a few from the original list by the applicant. I am wondering about the logic behind a few more of these, where some of the couple of categories like self-serve laundry or pawn shops, those don't seem to be particularly land-intensive uses. Those seem to be sort of class issues that that might be targeting on this list, and I'm wondering if that should be included in the zone change. Others seem to me fairly benign uses like banquet facilities, you know, pinball. A recreational outfitter doesn't seem like it would be a huge problem to me to have that there, and I'm just sort of, you know, or wondering if you could speak to that and if there's a chance that we might be able to pare this list down a little bit. So I will say we had to kind of get to what you're asking here. We did have a neighborhood meeting and our staff attended that, and I think that's partially where some of this list came from. There were a few concerns, more so about the operation of the use and some general questions about getting information. There was a general sense of kind of hesitation about any commercial uses at this site and kind of concerns about the B3 zone in general. So not to put words in the applicant's mouth, but I think that may have been part of what this reasoning was as they were trying to parse that down and say, because they've been very clear that they don't have intentions of leaving. They plan to come here and be a trade school and stay here for the foreseeable future. So I think part of that was maybe just sort of in the negotiation with the neighborhood to say, hey, we're okay with cutting these out because we don't plan to leave. But I understand what you're saying, that there's some of these uses that seem like they may not be that much of a problem. So, I mean, we can review that and look at maybe removing some of those and getting conversation with the applicant as well. Is that getting at what you're asking? Yeah, I mean, my hesitation is we've seen some that have come through 20 years from when the conditions were put on them, and the condition lists were very targeted to the specific project because of the neighbor's concerns, so exactly what you're getting at. but the I and I understand those concerns and I think that they should be heard in this list but I'm not sure that that list should be this long if the for example I would agree with a long list everything Mr. Mickler said the one thing that I'm really cautious of if the community requested no pawn shops, that's one thing. If the list was provided to the community and they didn't see a problem with it, that's something else. But if there are specific things here that the community said that they would not like, I would pay attention to that even if it lengthened it and such. Yeah, and so I will say as to a specific use off the top of my head, I don't have any of the neighborhood said other than some concerns about just a general sense of commercial in the B3 zone and saying there's a lot of things the B3 zone allows because it also incorporates the B1 zone, and so I think that may be why the use has gotten a little bit longer as well. But as to a specific use, I mean, there were some call-outs of not wanting restaurants. They felt like they had enough restaurants down to the southwest where Chick-fil-A and Moe's and all that is and concerns about development moving that way, business development moving that way. Yeah, but not a specific call-out of any use. The applicant may have had, in their conversations, they may have had, because this list was built from what they gave us, they may have had some of these conversations that I'm not privy to. Okay, do we have any more questions for Dalton at this time? Seeing none, thank you very much. Thank you. Now we'll hear on the development plan. Good afternoon. Chris Chaney, planning staff. the Associated Development Plan MJDP 2647 for Southside Technical Center they're not they weren't proposing any changes to go along with the use that they're proposing so basically the development plan shows the existing conditions with some small changes on the plan you'll see Harrodsburg Road is to plan north Clay's Mill is to plan south And then this is McCubbin here. This is their main structure on the site. There is a fenced area in the rear with some smaller buildings that I believe they've indicated they may be removing some of those. And then there's the associated parking in the front of the structure that is accessed from McCubbin. There's an existing circle drive off of Harrodsburg Road. and we discussed in the pre-app the potential of removing that. There is also an access point off of Clay's Mill into the rear fenced area of the site. One thing that we did ask and that they've responded to is a direct pedestrian connection to McCubbin. There are existing connections to Harrodsburg Road and to Clay's Mill from the main structure, but there isn't currently a pedestrian connection to McCubbin. So they have shown that on their revised plan that comes out to McCubbin, and then they're also showing a connection in the sidewalk network along McCubbin. Currently there isn't any on the south side of McCubbin. The Clays Mill sidewalk ends roughly here, and the Harrodsburg Road sidewalk just crosses McCubbin and doesn't go along the right way there. So they're actually showing sidewalk improvement along McCubbin and then the connection back to the main building. They are showing the addition of bicycle parking. And I can't really see it on this one, but I believe it's near that entrance there. Other than that, there's not really any changes. They're not proposing anything to add to the main structure or to add any new structures at this time. And so as far as the development plan is concerned, we're recommending approval. Okay. Thank you very much. commissioner marley davis thank you hey chris um i had a couple of questions i'm extremely familiar with that area um in fact i sat um nearby and watched red light runners when they had that that campaign back in the fall maybe it's in january that's a really really really busy place um people often use the cut through on the cubbing to avoid the stoplight when they don't went to wait at the intersection of Clay's Mill and Harrodsburg Road. And they also use, they've just recently installed a way to get from Harrodsburg Road over to that area and then get to Lafayette School, which is another reason it's extremely busy there. So I think I would be very interested in knowing if they would be willing to close that entrance where it's going to a trades building. And I'd be interested in hearing what was your reason for blocking or asking them to do away with the circular drive and having the traffic still come out on McCubbin. I believe the ask regarding the circle drive was just the overall goal of reducing curb cuts on the corridor. Okay. But as far as, I don't know about the, the applicant could probably speak better to that as far as the potential for closing the McCubbin access. Okay, thank you. Okay, do we have any other questions on the development plan? Seeing none, thank you, Chris. Applicant? Afternoon, Scott Schutte on behalf of the applicant. We'll go in reverse here and we'll answer your questions. I'm assuming what you're talking about, the entrance to the trade school is the one at the bottom. That's not going to be utilized by any of the students. We'll have maybe two or three employees there on a daily basis, and that's kind of where they'll go in and out to park. All of the student parking will be in the main parking lot, and then that half circle there does not have any access to the parking lot. So that's literally just a roundabout for the front door. So they're talking about potentially moving that roundabout simply to appease staff and take away some curb cuts. This applicant has been in the community for about 120 years. They're primarily located out on old Frankfort Pike out there in one of the business parks. They've simply just gotten a little bit big for that building. Out there, I think they have one trade classroom where you can actually practice your trades and then a typical classroom facility. This one has three trade school rooms that they can utilize as well as multiple classrooms, so that will allow them to continue to expand. They actually only operate two days a week. It will be Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6 and 9 p.m. And so they have a little bit over 100 students that come in. The majority of them do actually carpool because everybody works during the day, and a lot of them work for the same contractors, and then they come and get their class and schooling done and then come back the next day. But as far as the conditional zoning restrictions, we did have a neighborhood meeting. And like Dolan said, kind of the main issue that everybody was concerned about was just commercial and business uses in the area. This area of Harrisburg and Clay's Mill is pretty protective of their community and their neighborhoods, which I appreciate is fine. and so that's kind of what we did is we looked at kind of some of the commercial and business uses to kind of strike those out to help the community. Nobody really raised a particular use or specific use that they didn't want in there, so we kind of took the liberty of probably adding too many. We're happy to take as many out as you all would like. These zoning restrictions are really for the neighborhood. The applicant is impartial to it. They don't mind if there's more or less. what they want to do is be able to operate here for the next 40, 60, 70 years, and we'd ask for approval. Okay. Thank you very much. Mr. Wilson. One thing, and I appreciate that and what have you, and especially having worked with the community as such, if you start reducing a list, which I have no particular problem with, the question I have is, was this list presented to the community? Okay. Then will you go back to the community and say, well, we're going to strike out a few more and let them know what that deal is? We absolutely can. There's only two people that really gave us email addresses that wanted to be kept in the loop on this. They've gotten a copy of this, and I haven't heard any input from them since they got there. That's good enough. Thank you. Sure. Commissioner Molly Davis. Thank you. Did I hear correctly that staff requested that you increase the pedestrian access along McCubbin, and you're going to do that so that there's pedestrian access throughout the campus? Correct. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. Do we have any other questions for the applicant at this time? Seeing none, thank you very much. One other point you brought up about the McCubbin Drive cut-through. I think they put barriers through the middle of Clay's Mills. You can't go across McCubbin towards Lafayette. Yeah. You're right. They did. Yes, you can only right turn out of Clay's. But they still can use it to come right and go down Clay's. It's just to avoid the stoplight, which is so annoying. Okay. If we don't have any other questions for the applicant, thank you very much. Is there anyone from the public who would like to speak to this application today? If so, please approach the podium and state your name. It is the policy of the Planning Commission that everyone gets three minutes and there is no borrowing or lending of time. Amy Clark, 628 Castle Road. This McCubbing is a street we neighbors are very familiar with. But I just want to point out that, of course, right across the street on McCubbing, a 7-brew has been approved with all its access in and out on McCubbing there. It's a narrow street. If you're getting people trying to turn left across each other, I guess it's good that the hours of the school will be very restricted, 7 to 9. My question is, they have this huge piece of property. First of all, I think it's wonderful that a building that was a public school, a trade school, will be used for a much-needed trade school. Will there be other uses or just the schooling? Will there be production or delivery or inventory? No, I'm hearing. Great. And I would add that there were three uses. the staff recommended not prohibiting the rehab homes, adult daycare, and day shelters, if I'm correct. And this really is a very tricky, congested area for cars. And having people wandering around who need the services of these rehab homes, daycare centers, and day shelters, that seems highly problematic highly I believe that's all thank you thank you very much is there anyone else who would like to speak if not do we have any staff rebuttal or any further thoughts alright the floor is open for discussion or motion Mr. Wilson if you're ready for a motion then I would move to approval for PLNMAR 26-13 Plumbers and Steampitters Local with the conditions provided by staff. Okay, thank you, Mr. Wilson. We have a second from Commissioner Molly Davis. Is there any discussion to that motion? This is to recommend to the Planning Commission to send a recommendation for approval on the zone change. Yes, just a question. Yes, sir. Are we going to consider Robin's suggestion on taking out number one and six? Which was the other one, Robin? Was it seven? Oh, for yes. Okay, I'm sorry. So we have a motion on the floor with a second. Mr. Mickler, would you just for the record state which of the stated restrictions on the last page of our section here you believe should be removed from the restrictions list? And then we'll see if Mr. Wilson is willing to amend his motion to include that. Yes, I heard from... Just to make sure, I'm looking at the list on page 9, which is what the staff has recommended. Heard, yes. Thanks. I flipped to the wrong list there. Sure. The ones that jumped out at me were the self-serve laundry, and for a similar reason as the staff removed some other ones. I want to be careful in whether we're making lists for either the type of people or class as opposed to the intensity or the location. It seemed to me that this would be an appropriate location for laundry, considering there was a laundry service for decades across the street from that at the Hart's laundry facility there. And then the pawn shop seems like a retail function, albeit with a certain connotation, banquet facilities. And then another one that jumped out at me was the recreational outfitters. That seemed like more in line with what we would consider retail. Number ecotourism activities, but it also lumped in the retail function of recreational outfitters. That's number nine. Okay. Yes. Chairman, I'll amend my motion to include approval with the conditions that have been provided. It's striking, of course, number one, six, seven, and nine. And I will leave it a little open to suggest that if there are others that might be accommodated in the same sense, that you'd have the permission to do that as well. Okay. It's okay? All right. Thank you, Mr. Wilson. And, Commissioner Davis, you seconded that. Are you also okay with the amendment? I am. Okay. Okay. Do we have any discussion? If not, if you are in favor of Mr. Wilson's motion as amended, please raise your right hand. All right, that's unanimous. Thank you. Thank you, applicant. Okay, moving on. Our next item on the agenda is the discussion of our three ZOTAs, the first being PLN Z Zota 26-4, Amendment to Solar Energy Systems. Good afternoon. This item falls in your notebooks on Section 2, and the documents that you have are the resolution from the Urban County Council, the text that they forwarded to the commission for consideration and maybe next time we won't put them all on white paper to differentiate for you all about halfway in is the staff report and then the staff report should include staff alternative text for this particular request as mentioned this is zota 2604 for solar energy systems and it is an update to existing ordinance information the urban county council initiated this text amendment in mid-may and so that gives the planning commission 60 days to consider this particular request and that means that we need to act by July 13th I think so next week is our scheduled public hearing. It's off schedule for what we normally do for zoning cases but for solar it's a text amendment next week on July 9th. This one was initiated by the council May 14th We have 60 days, so we need to be done by July 13th. So we have to have a meeting next week. We do have a meeting next week for subdivision items. So we'll have this at the end of that meeting. You might be thinking of our second text amendment, which has a special date as well. Okay. Tracy, I'm sorry. I thought this was the only item on next week's agenda. That's the 30th, July 30th for data centers. Okay. Yes. So this one will be towards the end of our. The 13th has nothing to do with our planning commission meetings. I think that's what threw us. Sorry. No worries. With our due date. Got it. Okay. The text that was initiated by the Urban County Council constitutes an amendment to a text that was adopted or reviewed by the commission in 2024 and then ultimately adopted by the Urban County Council in 2025. The original application was an independent entity, Silicon Ranch LLC, and they obviously brought forward a particular text that created a framework of a new Article 31, and it outlined particular definitions for types of solar as well as parameters for where those types of solar installations would be allowed across all the zones for Fayette County. At the end of our conversation two years ago, the Planning Commission and the staff recommended that the agricultural zones not really be considered at that time, that there needed to be more stakeholder engagement, additional information and study of the impact that was possible on our ag zones. And so when the Planning Commission finished and forwarded the text to the council, it did not include any references to the agricultural zones, really, other than prohibited, and I believe an accessory allowance. At the council, there was further discussion about amending what the Planning Commission had forwarded to them. So they did set up additional conversations and ended up adopting Article 31 in September 2025. It did include several references to the agricultural zones, including requiring a management plan, having a land coverage maximum, and a few other things that kind of led people to believe that there might be a further conversation about allowing large-scale ground-mounted solar energy systems in our ag zones. The GGP, which is our General Government and Planning Committee, created a subgroup, a working group, to more thoroughly review some of the information that staff had reviewed and had shared with the commission, but the council had not really been privy to that point. So their committee met, and Daniel and I attended each of those meetings for consistency. that committee was comprised of four council members. So Council Member Sheehan, Savigny, Morton, and Boone, as well as the Division of Planning. And I believe we met 11 times between September and February to gather information about, well, it's listed more specifically in the staff report, dual use opportunities, regulatory burdens on solar energy systems, soil preservation and protection, community benefit agreements, the opportunities for solar on floodplains, landfills, and brownfields, as well as how power is distributed on the grid, and then the economic and job impacts associated with construction of large-scale solar, and then the long-term job opportunities associated with that or lack thereof. In the end, the working group made a recommendation back to the full council, and the council initiated this particular text amendment. So the red line text that you have in your notebook, I think, can be summarized in the following way. There are changes for definitions. So the group defined farmland of statewide importance, defined prime farmland and brownfield property, and also made an adjustment to the definition of footprint to include battery storage. the committee and then council initiated text includes an exemption for brownfields so any brownfield site that's been identified and verified could utilize solar at that location just despite or irregardless of the zone underlying zone to allow for those really what would be environmentally constrained properties to be used for something. The council added conditional uses for large-scale solar to our AR and AU zones and also made additional provisions for the Board of Adjustment when they consider large-scale solar in the AR or AU zone to include a few more things. So there was a land management plan that was included previously, but they went two or three steps further requiring a stormwater plan that met the requirements of the stormwater manual. They required agricultural production be maintained on a property if it was in the AR zone or AU zone, a land conservation plan. They encouraged a community benefit plan, and there might have been one other thing. Also required annual inspections for an ag production kind of assessment if it was approved within the ag zones. all in all the recommendations or the text that came from the council has proposed a shift in the policy that we reviewed previously and while some of the changes are appropriate for instance making sure the battery coverage is included within the footprint making sure that there's the ability for us to entertain a community benefit agreement There are other changes that the council is now proposing that the staff in our assessment believes are not consistent with our comprehensive plan and not consistent with the adopted rural land management plan. And that is the addition of the conditional use for intermediate and large scale solar within the AR and AU zones. So the staff recommendation would be to remove that column of the table that was proposed to be added so that we would have all the ag zones in the same column again with no allowance for intermediate or large scale in our agricultural zones, but still allow it as a conditional use in the industrial zones where inside the urban service boundary, where it is more easily accommodated and accepted in terms of adjoining property owners and neighbors. Yes, so eliminating the option to apply for a conditional use in the AR and AU zones for intermediate and large-scale solar. So in staff's review of this, we found that the goals and objectives of the comprehensive plan, while they support our goal of a net zero emissions in 2050, there's really not any location associated with that that can be accommodated throughout the county. It doesn't need to be associated with either the urban area or the rural area. So when looking at the rural areas in terms of agricultural use, the staff did not find that the solar energy system, especially large and intermediate scale, was compatible with the character of the rural area and the uses that are currently there. So I think I can go into more detail, but the staff recommends the removal of the conditional use in the ag zones and then removal of all the text that's been added about land management plans, topographic maps. There's a whole long list. In essence, the council was trying to make it so that a solar energy system could apply and document many ways to make it try to fit within the rural area. And at the end of the day, I believe the staff is just of the opinion And all of those things really won't collectively make it a fit within Fayette County's unique agricultural landscape. So happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Tracy. While we're on it, could you just elaborate for everybody the work group that the Planning Commission formed? And they were open to the public. Our meetings were recorded, and they can be watched or rewatched on LexTV. Thank you. The committee that Daniel and I participated in with the council members was not open to the public. And so one of the things that Chair Davis wanted to make sure when we received this text from the council was to provide another opportunity for the public to make comments. And we had such a short timeline of 60 days that Chairman Davis made it an opportunity early in the receipt of this for people to comment on the council's text. And so the chair created a committee of four planning commission members, is that correct, and three council members. And then the staff also was present for those. They were recorded. One was in this room, one in the council chambers, and those are available to be viewed on Lex TV. We allowed anyone that wished to come and speak about their opinions about solar to share and even provide presentation material. So we have those that are available at the public hearing. We can bring those along with us, too. and during that conversation on the overhead we discussed the brownfield exemptions and that that might be an opportunity here transmission and siting information decommissioning the solarized lexington plan and what that encompasses soil quality and how we protect that and then the local economy and tourism those are just some general topics i'm going to skip through all those. Here's where the staff's recommendation identifies. Again, deleting this column and moving AR and AU back to this column so they're collectively together, and then making large-scale and intermediate-scale both prohibited. I didn't mention it, but one of the changes the council made was in the residential zones where small-scale ground-mounted systems were changed to conditional uses, and the staff believes they should still be accessory. And, again, these are small scale. It just means that if you can't put a panel on your roof because you have large trees in your yard, you might be able to put a panel in your yard. The only way to do that, even if you were doing one panel, would be under the current text to get a conditional use permit. The staff believes that's probably a bit onerous for that level of use, and so we suggest going back to an accessory use for the residential zones. But again, the other changes recommended by the council, the staff feels are appropriate. That was probably more than you wanted. No, that's great. Thank you, Tracy. And again, really the goal of the planning commission workgroup was to gather expert testimony, data, anything that would help the Planning Commission make an educated decision as far as our recommendations back. Do we have any questions from Ms. Wade? Yes, sir, Mr. McClure. Well, I have some questions. First is just on Section 31.6G. on the staff all of these are coming all of these questions are coming from your latest draft not the original council one you all have not struck maximum land utilization no more than 1% of the land in Fayette County can be used for large scale ground mounted solar this is just sort of a technical question if it's not allowed do we need a land max that's a good question That is the one piece that the staff recommended leaving in because every time the council spoke about it, they acknowledged that there really are two types of larger solar installations. One being merchant, private, like we were approached about with the text amendment, and the other being a utility level. And the utility is going to be regulated by the Public Service Commission. And so they were reassured, council members, through meetings with PSC members that the PSC does look at local regulations in terms of understanding what the community desires in terms of limiting or setbacks, regulations. So the staff felt that keeping that would at least send a message to the PSC that Fayette County is interested in limiting the amount of large-scale solar to a particular number of acres. And I will say Fayette County is made up of 182,000 acres, so 1% is 1,800 acres. and we are aware that the current East Cooperative EKPC facility is 500 acres. So they're already eating into the 1%. Oh, thank you. And with the calculation here, obviously taking a little less, if this were to go through the way you all drafted it, the calculation would, that reasoning makes sense. I did have one question on the calculation, but I wasn't sure how important that was since it wouldn't actually be allowed in any zone, and that was the ground footprint was expanded to include the battery areas, but I wasn't sure how the roads and transportation areas associated with a solar installation and maintenance of a solar installation would be handled. I don't think that that was included within the concept of footprint. obviously the stormwater, any stormwater management you might have to do would have to incorporate that if it was a non-permeable surface, but it wouldn't be counted against you in terms of your footprint. Okay, and I have two more. Sorry for the many questions. Then with the brownfield development, this only came because we recently reviewed a brownfield development, which solar installation on the former dump. It actually... And the... Well, I had a question with that, because if I recall correctly, they talked in that, or you all talked in that presentation about a special installation to avoid penetrating the ground itself and doing those sort of, like, floating... Ballast mounted. Yeah. Mounted. And the way that this is worded, it says sort of, like, except for brownfield developments, this sort of this table doesn't apply. And so I am wondering what the review process of a brownfield development would be to make sure that while it's allowed, it is sort of behaving in a similar, like, environmental-sensitivity of way that that last review process sort of included since it was Lexington's land. So they would still need a building permit in order to install the solar panels no matter what. So that would be that level of review, which includes the stormwater management plan, again, within the urban service boundary. The reason there was language added about stormwater management specifically for the agricultural zones is because the stormwater manual doesn't normally address ag zones. So they wanted to make sure if there was an installation of panels in the ag area that they were going to follow the stormwater manual. Since this would apply, I would think that they would, again, continue to encourage those same things like following the stormwater manual, even if it happened to be in the AR zone. I think what we need to keep in mind, though, is the brownfield list that we have is fairly limited, and most of the sites are fairly small. So even if you had a 100-acre farm and you had one acre of impacted land from your brownfield, it wouldn't allow you to put solar on the entire 100 acres, only on the area impacted. Okay. And then my last question has to do with the removal of the intermediate scale from the agriculture zone. and I'm asking this sort of from the I guess I agree with a lot of the sentiments of how you're relating this to the comprehensive plan I do think there's a big difference between an installation of a few acres and an installation of 500 acres there's a pretty big gap there in terms of the impact in our rural area. And I do also want to recognize that our rural area and farmers have had pressure on pricing on almost every single crop. And, you know, there's no tobacco. So cattle certainly isn't necessarily stable. Most of our farms are either too expensive or too small for the type of grain crops at the prices that the current market is. And I want, I mean, I think as a community, we need to make sure that we do have avenues for farmers or families that have had generational or landowners that are small scale to stay on their properties. And I do wonder, is this intermediate scale one of those avenues that some people may consider? I happen to know, because we buy from them produce, one farmer in Bourbon County that was considering a back section of their farm for that revenue stream from solar. and that was not a 500 acre type installation. That was an installation that would fit that intermediate scale and they were looking at it because they wanted to retire, they wanted to do less, they still want to stay on their farm. And so to me I do wonder is that intermediate scale meeting some of those needs and it makes sense to me in conjunction with that cap that council was sort of thinking of. One of the problems in my mind with the large scale was, well, that would benefit one or two landowners potentially, and then that sort of cap is taken, and that opportunity isn't available to a number of smaller farmers that may not be independently wealthy but are looking for revenue streams now that the revenue streams are getting fewer and fewer in the agricultural sector. The staff's approach was that the solar could be installed for your own personal use, much like our residential zones, but anything that was more of a commercial installation would just not be allowed in the ag zones at all, just to be equally onerous on everyone. Commissioner Nickel. Yeah, real quick. There we go. Let's say a quick follow-up to that. Let's imagine a couple of years down the road, we're thinking about these new ag businesses. Let's say an ag business decides that they want to grow industrial hemp, but they also want to process it. I don't know if it's legal or not right now or not. I'm just giving an example. Grow a product and process the product on their farm. Would they be allowed to do so? So would they be allowed to power that with an intermediate system? Or are they already granted because it's for their own use? They don't have to? If it's above the size cutoff, the footprint cutoff for that particular use, it would jump to the next. Okay, so it has to do with size, not with use. The scale is up to 2,500 square feet of coverage. So, again, they would measure the panels and the area covered by that. You can also install it on top of the barn or, you know, facility that you have on site to process your agricultural products. Okay. This is just the ground mounted. Okay, thank you. Okay. Do we have any other questions for Tracy at this time? Seeing none, thank you. Okay. Is there anyone from the public who would like to comment on this ZODA? Sure. If you would, just please approach the podium, state your name, and everyone is entitled to three minutes. Amy Clark, 628 Castle, and thank you for the time. I'd like to really turn the focus almost exclusively to the brownfield exemption and urban land more generally. But our urban land is very valuable as well as the ag land I'm in support of protecting that ag land. And brownfields, if you look at the list of where they are, these are some of our most economical, most centrally located, available spots for infill. They're challenging, but these are infill spots. Manchester Street. I'm thinking about Ciriliano's major affordable housing complex just below 4th Street, below the Community College on Newtown Pike. That was a brownfield site. Not far away, Calgills at 4th and Blackburn, just behind Jefferson Street. That was a brownfield site. These are both major housing establishments now, multifamily. And they're central because they were on rail spurs or at railroads. And brownfield sites can be mitigated. And there are certain uses that brownfield sites can have and some that can't have. Obviously, if you have a capped garbage dump, you can't penetrate the cap. and it's not buildable. Someone thought about putting temporary homeless shelter there or something. No, it can't happen. But a lot of these places are really good infill opportunities, and I don't think it's a good idea to give solar energy systems carte blanche on them. They're very low in employment. They offer no housing. and you can put rooftop integrated in those areas to max out on their opportunity for solar. I also have a question, and I believe Tracy alluded to this. If you look, for example, at the Haley Pike site, the yellow part, I believe, is the part that is capped dump that cannot be penetrated. But this whole crosshatched area, this is on the additional packet you got, the whole crosshatched area is what the council deemed appropriate to seed for solar energy production. How is it, if you have a brownfield site, does your whole property qualify for solar energy systems, or is it restricted to the contaminated, if you will, part? I think there should not be a brownfield exemption. And just beyond that, as quickly as I can, I would say that, to me, the scale categories deserve a second look. Small scale is under 2,500 feet. Let's make it the smallest house lot size, which would be the townhouse at 1,500 square feet. You can put more than a townhouse there. I would say intermediate should be one acre, five acres. Many of these student complexes that house many, many people are one in two acres, maybe three. So valuable, valuable infill land. And I think reduce the scale to 1,500 for small scale, one acre, say, for intermediate. I don't mean to interrupt, just to be fair. No, I appreciate it. Okay. All right. Do we have anyone else from the public who would like to comment on this draft of SOTA? If not, the floor is open for any discussion or motions of recommendations for the Planning Commission. Yes, sir, Mr. McClure. Yeah, I want to come. I just want to hear other people's thoughts really in this group on before, just to help me before our next meeting and before I vote today on the scale aspect. 2,500 feet is pretty small on a farm. That's like, yeah, I mean, I've got, you know, the parking lot behind our cafe is 20,000 square feet or something like that. Don't quote me on that exactly, but the scale of the 2,500 square feet is very small. Our neighborhood businesses in the urban area, we're allowing, as an accessory used, to use intermediate scale. A farm is a business. If they are actively farming, they have walk-in coolers. They have processing equipment. They have motors that are running three-phase power. These are not, this is not an operation that can run even for their own use. Probably most operations could not run on 2,500 square feet of solar. And so, I mean, I realize that there's a big gap between, I mean, an acre is what, 43,000 square feet? so so we've got an acre as over one single acre is 43 560 square feet and we're limiting a farm to about .5 you know acres that's not even enough to run their own operation if they wanted to So I hesitate to bring that restriction all the way down to where they can't even power their own equipment if they want to do by solar. Here's my first question. If we were to increase that, would you be comfortable limiting that to their own personal use? it would not be their own farm usage. I mean, I guess my primary hesitation with that is that the way that most of them work is they plug into the grid and they go back and forth because the cost to do battery storage is, I believe, currently prohibitive. expensive for most of these installations. I think that is important to point out, because in my mind, I was thinking for business use or personal use or not for resale to the grid, but that was a very good point. We are at the phase right now where it is an advantage for our grid to have accessible power during peak times, which would result in a transfer of power back to the grid. So I think there's some massaging that may need to be done there, and maybe the language is not for resale but for business use or personal use, because I would like to see in the future imagine a farm with barns, with solar, that's then powering machinery to process the agriculture. Now that seems interesting to me and good to me. So I like the way you're thinking about this. How do we provide this opportunity for the independent farms slash businesses? And that's something we're going to have to think about. Okay. That's a very good point, Robin. And then I think I really do think there's some viable options there that maybe we we and the staff can can work through between now and a week from today on that. And something else to just to think about as if we go down the rabbit hole of for farm use, for business use, does it have to be only agricultural or agricultural processing? Imagine a family farm that has solar for processing, for powering machines that are processing agriculture. Then you have a child that wants to have, you know, in that same barn a 3-D printer that they'd like to use their own power for. We want to make sure that we protect the farmers, give them the ability to use solar power to take advantage of their unique asset, which is large parcels of property. We want to encourage that. in my mind, and I'm less encouraged. Yeah, I think Robin and I, we're shaking our heads at each other. That's where we're both coming from. We would rather not see agricultural land be used for, or me personally, for solar generation unless that solar generation is being used to empower and benefit the farm owner. Great. Yeah. Okay. Well, when I say work through that, I mean just do some research to see maybe, to Mr. Mickler's point, on sizing and square footage and what possibilities may be a reasonable middle ground there. I think that makes a lot of sense. Did any farmers attend your meetings? Yes. Like personal farmers? Yes. What did they say? You could rewatch the hearings on Lex TV. I guess, are they generally in favor of being able to power their farms with solar? No, I don't believe we heard from anyone that was in the affirmative on that front. But I think what Robin is saying is at least give them the option if they want to have an intermediary or intermediate scale operation for either their farm or whatever a sensible compromise looks like. So it wouldn't just be in an ag zone. It's not just an ag use, right? Those zones allow 45 different conditional uses, too, in our AR zone. So any of those conditional uses could also be asking for the additional conditional use. Oh, wow. So you just solved our problem because there's conditional use available with AR. Right, so it's a church that operates in the ag zone or vet clinics. Yeah, Rood and Riddle, there's all kinds of facilities that might be out there that are not just an independent farm operation. But, again, most of those have large buildings where they could incorporate solar into the rooftop as opposed to doing the ground-mounted. I think the ground-mounted is what's most concerning because it occupies the land, right? and the ag zones are meant for agricultural use. So once you change the ground, change the land, it's not restorable. But to your point, say you have a church in the agricultural zone, they could, if it was a conditional use permit, they could come in with a request to put solar over their parking lot, for example. if it's a prohibited use, they could not. Is that correct? They'd have to put it on the roof, even though it wouldn't necessarily, I mean, even though it might be logical to allow them to put it over a parking lot because it wouldn't be necessarily harming anything. It seems like some... I think that's the part that necessarily harming is what's... Well, it would be a benefit. Or interpretation for them. But it has the tourism impact. It has the viewshed impact that the rest of the county is benefiting from not having to see the solar farms. And it protects the character of the rural area. I think part of the issue is a question of scale. And I think where the biggest difference is there is a huge difference between one acre and 2,500 square feet. There's a huge difference between five acres and 500 acres. This chart has huge jumps, and 2,500 square feet is really, really small in the scale of rural land. Ground-mounted, yes, ground-mounted rural land. And I, my personal, I mean, with a conditional use permit, it would be pretty common in any conditional use permit to ask for their reasoning. And it seems like we could spell out their reasoning would be including estimated electricity demand of their operation could be one of the criteria. Okay, here's a question, Mr. Mickler. If 2,500 square feet to five acres is a big gap, and I acknowledge that that's a big range, what in your mind would be an appropriate range for that type of property for the intermediate use? I'm probably not an expert enough to answer that because I don't know offhand, you know, what kind of ranges that would actually be generating or what kind of ranges individually, you know, areas where we are seeing people sort of do these smaller scale installations, what those actually look like. so I probably don't have an answer. Just that gut feeling of knowing that 2,500 square feet, including any storage facility, just sort of visualizing in the context of my own spaces, knowing that that's a very, very small area. I mean, my house, you know, just many of our lots here in Fayette County are, you know, I mean, I could, I mean, that's like a backyard scale, I guess. and uh mr chair uh just as sort of an addendum um as you know between now and admittedly the holiday um for next week we can get with you all and talk about the different levers i mean there's there's ways to do this that could be zone specific that could be tied to a land use i mean a size of a parcel there's there's ways that you could get very granular if you wanted to have some more nuance on that and we can have a discussion if it's difficult to kind of come up with a firm number at the zoning stage here. But it sounds like you understand what we're trying to accomplish, and you may have a way that it can be done through the ordinance. So wonderful. Thank you. What that would look like is not a staff recommendation, because we've already made our staff recommendation. It would be a zoning committee recommendation. So it would be a secondary thing. Because the staff won't, we won't change our recommendation. It is what it is. Okay, so we can. You're making a different suggestion. We're going to make a recommendation. We can recommend approval of the staff text with the understanding that the zoning committee recommends reexamining that one aspect. Okay, and then they can respond. But again, it won't be the staff won't be changing our recommendation. We would draft a zoning committee recommendation. Right. Thank you. And, Daniel, you mentioned something that was very important in my mind as I was thinking about this, which is parcel size. because we do have parcels in Fayette County in the rural area that are two acres, three acres, ten acres, and I think there would have to be some sort of mechanism tied to that in addition to, just because if you have a three-acre parcel, it's irregular, obviously, but if you say you could do, well, I don't want to speculate. We can talk about that after the Fourth of July. Okay. Okay. Well, if we don't have any more committee discussion, the floor is open for a motion. I can take a stab. Yes, sir. I motion to approve the staff recommended alternative text with changing one item, changing the intermediate scale back to be a conditional use permit, with the ordinance outlining some additional criteria for that farmer, including limiting the intermediate scale to a percentage of the parcel and submitting documentation for their electricity needs for their project. Okay. So just so I understand this correctly, Mr. Mickler is recommending approval of the staff alternative text as recommended with the understanding that there will be revisions to the process for any approval of intermediate-scale solar in the ARAB, AN, and AU zones to be determined, final determinations to be determined by the Planning Commission as far as the recommendation goes. Is that correct? Well, we could modify it. I mean, I was thinking specifically that we were asking staff to look at a conditional use permit for an intermediate scale, but with the limitations as to percentage of parcel size and asking for documentation of the electric needs. for the Board of Adjustments, which I'm open to making it more vague. I was just trying to give a little bit more specifics in what we were directing just because it's on a tight timeline. Mr. Chairman, I think the sentiment is on the table. What we need to clean up before we get to before, and a formal thing is to clean up that motion because it's elongated as such. But based on what I'm hearing is we can approve the staff's recommendation if we wanted to, and then work on these other issues. But when we work on these other issues, what I'm recommending is that we put that in a formal resolution, not necessarily just someone, you know, you're trying to recall a motion on the spur of the moment. Let's clean that up so that it's a clean vote. And I would imagine the staff will help us with that. We're talking about right now. If we're in the midst of cleaning up, can we approve the motion and then discuss Ms. Clark's mention of brownfields and just the point that she made? Let's – rather than – I agree with Mr. Wilson. I think maybe we need to simplify a little bit, and then if there's a discussion on brownfields, it would have to probably occur before we vote on the motion on the floor if there's any other recommendations. Because once we approve a motion, that terrain has left the station. Can I ask staff a question here? At this point, my intuition is it would be, I mean, I know here I'm speaking personally, I really have a hard time. I would have a hard time limiting agricultural use to 2,500 square feet. That seems too small to me for basically a business operation that has land as a resource and has energy needs. There's sort of a simplicity to using the same table and the same size breaks for all zones, and you're using these same size breaks for residential. So I understand that probably if we were doing this for each zone, small in a rural agricultural area might be a different number than in a residential neighborhood. And so that seems to me the simplest would be to change that back to a conditional use permit, but specify conditions. And does that make sense? Is that, or is that, am I, am I, I want to, I want, if this motion, if my long motion is approved, I want the direct, the direction to sort of be a logical one for you all to come back to us with. Does that make sense? So essentially, to follow that thought, a motion to say recommend approval to the Planning Commission with the one modification of returning intermediate scale in those zones to a conditional use permit with additional criteria to be determined by the Planning Commission. Would that be the cleanest way to make that motion that essentially captures what Mr. Mickler is wanting to get to the Planning Commission? Yes. I agree with that amendment. Okay, great. Thank you. Second from Commissioner Molly Davis. Okay, so we have a motion on the floor and a second to recommend approval of the staff alternative text with that one revision, understanding that the Planning Commission can consider further restricting that at their July 9th hearing. Before we vote, can we talk about Brownfields just in terms of where people feel about it? That's that motion, which if we do include anything about brownfields, we'll have to go back and be amended to include that. But please share your thoughts. I recall that we had that list of brownfield sites at our last subcommittee meeting, and I didn't particularly know. Work session? Work session, thank you. I don't particularly remember any being of a kind that Ms. Clark mentioned as being suitable for infill of housing, but could staff just comment perhaps why they wrote the brown field language as they did in the staff alternative text? Well, that came from the council. It's red. So the council initiated that, but in the committee meetings that Daniel and I attended, the discussion was if we're going to allow the ground-mounted solar, let's put it on land that can't be used for something else, yeah, marginal land that has maybe an environmental issue already that would prohibit it from being used for housing or other commercial development. I mean, Ms. Clark's correct. you can currently be on the brownfield list and remediate your site and move yourself off the brownfield list and develop something of a higher and better use absolutely a possibility in fact some of the some of the items on the list or properties on the list are already being used for other things it's an outdated list so um yeah so do you feel like the staff given kind of your past in mind, do you feel like the brownfield language has enough in there so that if an EIS or an environmental site assessment is done, does this have enough tooth in it to say, well, it can't be anything except people can't live there. We're going to follow whatever the results are, and we're going to do the right thing, I guess. Oh, you mean in terms of it being identified as a brownfield? Yeah, the findings at the EIS or the site assessment. I'm not sure that the ordinance really addresses that. Okay. Well, can we do something? Well, we can. Perhaps council can. And I think there's something just to kind of follow up as well. You know, they may be more of an intermediate type solution in the sense of we may have existing brownfields, which the cost to remediate to the scale necessary to establish residential may be not there. But I imagine that, once again, just enough of this to be dangerous. But that threshold may be different for something that isn't involving, you know, a static user like a solar facility. But, once again, with the demand of housing being what it is in Lexington, if that demand rises to the point, I would assume that, you know, redeveloping these, once again, small, limited sites, once that makes financial sense, I think the applicants would seek that side of things as well. So it may be more of an intermediate gap really more than anything in how it plays out in real life. I agree. I think what we're looking at is we're allowing for the opportunity of the market to determine whether or not a brownfield site is best used for housing or for solar. So the market's going to determine that. We're just opening up the availability for the potential solar in the brownfield. So the market's going to determine it. The market will say, this spot's great for housing, therefore we're going to invest in it. Or the market will say, this place is not good for housing, the only thing it's good for is solar. So then they can take advantage of that. the only question i have then is back to your concern about having ground ground mounted solar in the ar zones of a large size is that it impacts the views and the character and tourism and how people kind of perceive the land so what are the what do you think about that aspect You mean in terms of the brownfields? Well, the only location of brownfields that were identified on the list were the airport and the ag area, were the airport and the landfill. So those are both controlled by the government or governmental entities, and their desire to have solar there might be, you know, they're exempt from the zoning anyway, so I'm not sure it would have as much of an impact on those two properties. Thank you for everybody's thoughts. I appreciate it. Okay. So we have a motion on the floor with a second. Do we have any further discussion? If not, please raise your right hand if you're in support of that motion. Great. Thank you all. Okay. Moving on. Our next item on the agenda is PLN Zota 26-7. and just a housekeeping item. Mr. Wilson has to leave at 3.30, and I'm kind of getting pushed up. I just don't want us to lose a quorum on something personally or work-related. So is everybody else good? Okay. Yeah, all right. All right. This one is fairly simple as far as the information you're getting at because what you're getting is a postponement recommendation. But just to quickly brief you all, Attended Donation Centers was a citizen-initiated zoning ordinance text amendment. This is coming from Goodwill of Kentucky, once again the nonprofit that operates the clothing and household goods, resale donation centers, et cetera. They are aiming to get some additional flexibility in how they operate. They want to create a new definition for an Attended Donation Center. This would differ from their typical operations where with a Goodwill store where you have the retail component, you also have a drop-off spot where clothing and other goods are donated. Usually those two go hand in hand. Goodwill is seeking the flexibility to have sites that are just the attended donation center. So they would not have a retail component. It would just be a location where individuals would drop their clothing or items off. They would then be sorted, sent out to other locations, and then sold or processed from there. They are seeking approval to do this as principal uses in the B3, B4, B6P, and the PUD3 zones, and then a conditional use in the B1 when the site or the project is on an arterial roadway. Staff is just seeking some more information. They gave us some information as to how the project relates to the comprehensive plan. We were seeking some more information about how these uses typically operate, things like amounts of traffic, how many intended users per day, and really how they fit within the zones because they're asking for everything from a neighborhood shopping center context given along an arterial road to things like the entertainment districts, B3. So it's kind of a wide swath. So we were just looking for some more information from the applicant on that. So what you've got from staff is a recommendation for postponement while we get some more information to kind of better evaluate this new use. Thanks, Daniel. Do we have any questions for Mr. Crum at this time? Seeing none, thank you very much. Hear from our applicant. That was great, Daniel. That was great. We could get used to that. No such luck on data science. Well, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Adam Haley, and I'm the Senior Director of External Affairs at Goodwill, Kentucky, and I'm joined by my colleague, Lauren. Hi, Laura Nichols of Denton's. So, again, wanting to be very mindful of your all's time, I'll give you the quick version. Daniel did a great job of explaining what we hope to accomplish, but the short version is these facilities that we're operating, and we currently operate one here in Lexington off Georgetown Road and two in Louisville, are very similar to our retail store operations. In fact, the easiest way to describe it would be like a retail store without the storefront. They are capable of taking donations. They process them on site. They are attended by staff. And then those donations can be shared with other stores in the region. What we find with the donation cycle is that convenience is a huge chunk of that. In fact, I'm sure everyone here either has a Goodwill bag in the back of their car right now, or like me, it's sitting by the back door, my wife's griping at me to get it out of the house. But I wanted to share with you all just a little bit more about Goodwill, Kentucky, because I don't want to assume you all know what we do. Hey, look at that. So Goodwill Kentucky, we're a 103-year-old nonprofit headquartered here in Kentucky. There is not a big Goodwill that we report to. It's a common misconception. Our CEO doesn't have a yacht, or if she does, she hasn't invited me on it yet. We are headquartered here. Our board is here, consists of members of the community from central Kentucky and all across the state. But our primary mission is workforce. The stores are means to an end. Now, we use those stores not just to generate the revenue we need to affect these programs, to the tune of about $29 million a year in direct services to people across Kentucky, and I have some more stats specific to Lexington, but also to provide valuable second-chance employment opportunities. I often tell folks we're likely one of the largest intentional second-chance employers. I mean, UPS and Amazon are much bigger than us, but it's part of our mission, and about 75% of the people that work in our retail stores are mission hires. They're individuals that come to us from incarceration, from reentry, from recovery, and we use our jobs on the continuum of ABC. Any job, a better job, and a career job. They made it ABC so I couldn't forget. Our jobs are that entry-level role, but we very quickly either move those folks up or out, and ADCs are one place that a lot of them can start because it's customer-facing, it's valuable skills, not just, you know, finding you a job, a place to stay because it meets the conditions of your release or something like that, but it's actually customer-facing. You're building the skills that we can then market to other employers. I mentioned Goodwill, Kentucky, investment in our programs, and that's not just for our wages but all of the job placements, about $127 million a year in additional wages across the state and all the tax revenue that goes with that. In central Kentucky specifically, that's about $19 million, and we placed 247 individuals into employment last year. Oh, last one for donation centers. Our stores divert about 50 million pounds a year from landfills of waste. I did want to point out what attended donation centers are not. So these are some examples of donation bins you may have seen across the community. Not that we have a specific problem with bins when operated well and licensed. In fact, your colleagues just up the road in Louisville have a great approach to this. But donation bins that are unattended that end up looking junky and people kind of leave stuff outside of, that is not what the attended donation centers are supposed to represent. What they look like, again, is very much like a store. This is our location here in Lexington. It's off Georgetown Road. It's just without the retail floor. It still has the same production space. We are still bringing folks in to drop things off. And a lot of these, to my understanding, locations that were the zones that we'd like to locate these in are zones that we would already locate a store. It just may be that there isn't a suitable facility there. Maybe the footprint is too small to operate a retail store, or maybe there's a retail store close enough that it wouldn't support multiple locations. So a reuse of locations has been a big driver of how we've located these centers. Oh, that was it. I thought I had another slide in there. Oh, there it is. Hey, that one's actually one. When I mentioned reuse, this is a really good example. This is the one in Louisville, and it is actually an old bank that we've turned into a donation center. There's another one in a gas station and a property that's going to be redeveloped here soon. we tend to operate them in permanent facilities there was one that the planning zoning staff flagged for us in louisville that was a temporary facility because it was serving in place of a store that had burnt down we wanted to keep those folks employed in their community and there wasn't really a better option than to ship them across the city so we wanted them to stay there we operated that temporary adc for a very brief time until we opened a store and with that I'm happy to take any questions thank you very much do we have any questions at this time for the applicant okay yes sir well I'll ask the obvious your sign says drive through but the text amendment says it's not a drive through yes so it would have for purposes of drive through it would not be a zoning drive through but there would be a dedicated spot for drop-offs, but not a drive-thru in terms of like a – it would not be like a McDonald's drive-thru. But it would just be under like a port co-chair where people could pull up and if it was raining, unload under a cover. Yes, I think the idea would be that it depends on the space that we're backfilling. I mean, they're typically not going to custom build an ADC. But if you're backfilling a bank, it would be probably under that port co-chair. Former drive-thru. Yes. Where you drive, stop, and get out. Get out. And unload. Okay. Sorry. The only question I really had about it, I mean, I love Goodwill. They do great stuff. They're right. I always have it back in my car. The ones that I'm familiar with are on Clay's Mill Road, where the front is retail and the back is drop-off. and, of course, on Southland Drive. And the drop-off area is very kind of different than the retail area. So how would – I'm just curious how it might work in a neighborhood business zone. It might – is it – I guess, of course, if you're backfilling an existing bank, it would make a lot of sense. But if it were something like going in the Clay's Mills – that's on an arterial road, sorry. But how do you kind of like let – how do you give off the face of you're not – you're a friendly business, I guess is what I'm asking. Just going back to the one located up Georgetown, I mean, we've been very intentional the past couple years in rebranding and redesigning the store so that they are friendly, welcoming places to be. You know, that's, I think, been a fair criticism leveled at Goodwill. And while we're not part of a bigger organization, there are goodwills all over the country, so people sometimes have different experiences with us. But as you can see, especially with the one that we operate here in Lexington, it's a very different style where we're trying to make these places that people want to go to and want to utilize. And your employees need to feel like it's a good place to work too. Yeah. I like it. That's it. One quick question. You said you have a Goodwill store off of Tate's Creek. Is that in the Heartland? Was that in the Heartland area? There's a Goodwill store right there in the Heartland Shopping Center, I think. So I'm going to be honest. You still live in Lexington, so I'm trying to remember exactly where that is. I know where Tate's Creek is. There's a retail one. There's a retail store. We spend a lot of money there. A retail store there. And I was going to say, we've found them to be really good. I mean, there's no problems whatsoever, and there's been good neighbors. And they do have a drive-through, but they used their old cleaners at one time, I think, and they picked that out. But for the most part, it's been well-received and well-accepted. Yeah, I think that that's kind of the point. Right now, because it's a backfill, it's intentional to try to go through the ZODA rather than having to do a zoning amendment for every single parcel that we could. It saves money to allow, but the idea is to backfill a laundromat, a bank, a pharmacy, something that might be too small or too near a storefront, but still have the donation center be in convenient spots. And, again, ultimately the goal being if we can make the donation centers convenient, your other actors, like the donation bin operators, are going to be less inclined to come in because folks will have convenient places to drop those donations. Okay. Do we have any other questions for the applicants? Seeing none, thank you all very much. Thank you. Is there anyone from the public who would like to speak to this particular ZODA today? Sure. Amy Clark, and I have three minutes at most. the emphasis i would point you to here in the zota is this is a goodwill without a retail component that's what's sought um i too like goodwills i find them good neighbors and so on um the thing that's greatest about a goodwill is that you can buy things cheap it's also great that you can get rid of things you don't need that someone else could use It's wonderful that they are training up public-facing employees. What this tax amendment would facilitate is a warehousing and distribution focus, function, where people bring their goods there, but they have no opportunity to buy goods. So there won't be salespeople. There will be people helping receive the goods. it comes with a buy right drive through either a pickup window kind of type a moderate one or a full service one but it's by right and the principal use is collection warehousing distribution two instances i believe i recall when it went in on georgetown road and i think the neighbors asked that it have a retail component because it's the kind of community that could benefit from a Goodwill with a retail component. On Versailles Road, it was a different situation. They bought an old drugstore or something and proceeded to use it for a distribution center, and the neighbors were concerned enough that they asked for zoning compliance, and they were delighted when Goodwill simply added a retail component to what was otherwise warehousing and distribution. There were trailers, as in tractor trailers. I think it belongs in before. I don't think it belongs in any of the other zones for which this use is proposed. I think that's it. Yeah, so warehousing and distribution. Thank you. Do we have any other comment on this particular ZODA? Okay. Do we have any discussion among commissioners or floors open for a motion? Well, the staff is recommending postponement, so we can recommend that to the planning commission or you can recommend any other approval, disapproval. No recommendation at all. Mr. Wilson? Yeah, I move that we postpone. I move that we approve the staff's recommendation. Yeah, support the staff's recommendation for postponement. For postponement to the plan. Okay. That's seconded from Commissioner Molly Davis. Is there any discussion? If not, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. That carries unanimously. Thank you. Okay. Now moving to what I believe is our last item on the agenda. PLN Zota 26A Data Center Regulations. All right. Thank you. Once again, Daniel Crum, planning staff. This is another zoning ordinance text amendment request that's coming to you courtesy of the Urban County Council. So this was initiated in June of 2026, and the intent is to create comprehensive regulations that pertain to data center uses. And so broadly speaking, data center uses are uses that are devoted to the storage, management, processing, and transmission of digital data. These are uses that over the past, I'd say, 20 years or so have dramatically increased in scope and really connection to our day-to-day life. I mean, everything from our phone to our fridges these days involves some form of data, and what we are increasingly asking to do with that data is spurring the need to create greater and greater facilities to handle that demand. And so where that leaves us today, our computer and data processing centers is an old definition that was designed when the scale and the scope of data centers was significantly different. So the illustration up on the screen kind of illustrates over time what started as computers, more or less the size of rooms, evolving as technology advanced. From the 1970s on to the 2010s, where we're seeing kind of the current trend where the amount of space that is needed to host these uses at the scale that is needed, that's called for between our day-to-day use, but also future growth in fields like AI, artificial intelligence, and the needs that's projected from that. has caused a significant shift. So we have regulations on the books that are seemingly outsized or outdated relative to kind of the new demands of what these uses can look like. And so here is, once again, another graphic that just shows that that growth is not intended or projected to slow any time soon, drawing, once again, massive amounts of resources in order to operate. But this is an area that, to meet the projected growth, we are going to see more and more of these comes up. And so the appropriateness and the necessity to get regulations on the books so that we as a community can have a say in how this kind of moves forward. And so talking through, these can look a variety of different ways. The technology used and the kind of aim and intent of these facilities can vary wildly, talking about single users that are hosting their own data for their own company to larger shared facilities to hyperscale, you know, spanning hundreds and hundreds of acres. So I've selected kind of a handful of existing data center operations to kind of show what the scale and the scope of those can look like. I'll talk through some of the land use impacts or some aspects of the use that kind of are shared across these different data centers, and then we'll get into the staff's recommendation. So the first is we have a development in Chicago that adaptive reused an existing printing plant. It is a 1.1 million square foot structure, and it consumes 100 megawatts of energy, which is, once again, demand for energy in homes can vary, but approximately 65,000 homes. But once again, that's in a million square feet, give or take. That same energy demand of 100 megawatts can be spread across a 65-acre campus. So this is in Oklahoma. It is a 138,000 square foot structure with that same energy demand. What you're seeing there is the difference in the type of data processing center it is. The more intense of the chips or the focus on AI requires a significant increase in power, depending on what the actual function of the place is. So once again, 100 megawatts can get you 138,000 square feet. It can get you a million square feet. But some of these land use impacts to be looking at are similar. You can also go hyperscale. When we're talking about Amazon's project up in Indiana is a 1,200-acre campus with a total of 6 million square feet planned. So each of those buildings, 200,000 square feet, is like the previous preceding example. Each one of those buildings approximately accounting for that. That is 2.2 gigawatts of energy demand, which is somewhere in the ballpark of 1.4 million homes worth of electricity. And for anyone that's familiar with Back to the Future, that's about 1.8 Delorians. So thank you for that. So, you know, gigawatts is a tremendous amount of energy. So these are going and, once again, powering all aspects of our day-to-day life. And moving forward, that's, you know, demand is going to grow. And so there needs to be a conversation that we need to have as a community of what do those uses entail? How do they operate? What can we expect as far as land use impacts? And so I'm going to cover some various aspects of the use that really relate to the kind of impacts it can have on the community. And then we can kind of talk about what staff have identified as potential issues and how we've kind of written text that addresses those. So one thing to know for almost all data centers is running these machines, these computers in these very tight environments, they generate an enormous amount of heat. Much of the energy that's being devoted to these uses is devoted to keeping them cool and operational. And they do that through a variety of different approaches that have different impacts on the resources they need. So without getting into the very specifics of these very technical uses, evaporative methods, like shown on the left, essentially pipe in water and then use that to cool the air that's then recirculated. Those are utilized a significant amount of water. however some of the newer facilities use these closed loop systems where they basically pipe in the the refrigerant cool it in other ways where it is not evaporative it is more expensive more energy intensive to do it that way but there's less consumption of water so in places where there is water demand issues that is sometimes used and it's a difference between a facility on the larger scale consuming millions of gallons of gallons of water versus not so one aspect of That is which of the approaches they use and what works at their scale. The size, the layout of the building. Once again, the first example of the plant in Chicago where you're having sort of an existing built environment allows you to do much different things than what a spread-out campus at a single story does on others. So much of this is operation-specific, but once again, they have to find some way to cool it. It takes a lot of energy to do that, which brings in the utility capacity. at these larger scales when you're talking about megawatts or gigawatts of energy. You're talking about improvements that need to be made to the infrastructure in order to accommodate those. They have their own deals with the utility providers. However, the infrastructure improvements associated with those uses can be passed on to rate payers, and it's shouldered by the larger community as that infrastructure comes online. Generators are another aspect of the use. So it takes all of this electrical infrastructure to kind of keep these uses operational and keep their redundancies up. Generators are their backup. All of these facilities, to ensure that they do not have any damage to those machines, to ensure they stay operational, use massive numbers of generators. And those can vary between electric generators, natural gas, or diesel, depending on the development. So there's sound associated with the operation of those. There's sound associated with just the ventilation and running of the normal systems, and those can have impacts on the communities depending on, once again, the size and the scope of those operations. But in the research that we've done, you know, the operations of those, they are tested fairly regularly on a weekly or monthly basis to ensure that they're operational. And so, once again, those operations can have negative impacts depending on how it's done. So, in summation, based on staff's research and the overall trends, While, once again, the technology is evolving rapidly, some of the core consistent considerations that other communities have faced have been what do these developments do on the power grid, the cost that the ratepayers pay, water consumption and discharge, noise levels, both constant in the peak events, like when they're testing lighting from a facility, once again, that needs to stay secure and operational consistently, impervious surface considerations, as well as the fact that these facilities either typically on the hyperscale, take up agricultural land, or in a more industrial context, choose to locate in those areas, but typically are not really large job generators once they are operational. There are construction jobs associated with these uses, but once they are operational, it's mostly maintenance and some technicians, but compared to kind of equivalent-sized industrial facilities, they really don't have the same employment levels. So the SAS framework is based in part in research that was conducted of national best practices. The Kentucky Resource Council has produced a model ordinance that was used and cited as well. And our consultants that worked with the Blue Sky Small Area Plan, they generated some language that pertained to some industrial updates. And so they provided some input as well as the direction to go with data center regulations. And so the framework that we established and are putting forward, 50,000 square feet of facility space is the cutoff for a major data center, which staff is not recommending to be included in any zone, and minor data centers, which are included as conditional uses in the B4 and I1 zones. All other zones would not be allowed to have data center uses for the conditional uses that are being proposed. They have limits on, once again, the size of the structure. They have to provide an energy plan, a water plan, noise plan, and standards associated with those. There's standards that separate them from other residential or sensitive uses, as well as requirements for the operation and testing of their generators. once again trying to get back to the core concepts of avoiding the issues relating to the resource consumption, the negative impacts on surrounding land uses, and making sure that they basically show their work that wherever they locate, they'll be able to do so harmoniously with what's around them. We also created an additional definition of a server room. These are designed to kind of accommodate uses that are kind of larger in scale, computer processing uses, but they're really tied to a particular company operating. So these are accessory in nature. These ensure that a business or an office user that has a dedicated server room doesn't need a conditional user to go through these same standards. So basically creating a threshold for most normal uses to continue operating and then very stringently limiting the data center uses and once again having to detail how they are going to operate in order to kind of hold them accountable for the impacts of the communities. So with that, staff is recommending the attached text. Once again, this was, the Urban County Council did not forward on a draft or initiation, so this is the only version of the language that exists currently. But once again, it articulates the data centers, it categorizes them by type, and once again, creates strict enforceable criteria that ensures that their operation will not negatively impact the surrounding communities. Once again, the accessory server rooms allowing day-to-day businesses to operate without having to go through the same process. So with that, I'd be happy to entertain any questions you have of staff. As a note, this is going forward on the special meeting date, that July 30th. Yes. So with that, happy to answer any questions you all have to have. Thank you, Daniel. Commissioner Nichol. Yeah, Daniel. I want to look at this from the point of view of encouraging economic development in our community. And it looks like we've got a couple of different terms I'd like us to look at more broadly from the perspective of economic development, technology development, and utilizing some of the talent we have here in Lexington. Number one, the major and minor. I would like us to get a better understanding of how you came to your conclusion of 50,000 square feet as minor when we're looking at million square foot data centers that the hyperscalers are putting in place. I can understand not, you know, putting something in place that says we are not interested in hyperscalers in our community, But I don't want to get in the position where we're limiting our community's ability to homegrown technology companies who are going to need data centers to serve tokens to outside users or a server room that can be made available to their customers. So there's two things I'd like to consider. I am fully against the 10% of the principal use for the server room. We need to look at that again because as we are growing more and more services businesses that are going to be applications on top of data that's being converted into tokens as a service, I would like to readdress that. 10 percent, for example, I got a 10,000 square foot space. 10 percent is 1,000 square feet, but then you've said, okay, I can have 2,000 square feet for a server room. So, number one, I want to address that. I want to get some – that's going to be my point of contention because we do want to grow businesses that can not only in their own server room serve themselves, but also can serve their customers. We're moving back to a world where we've made a major leap to the hyperscalers. Now we're moving back towards more local compute. And with more local compute, that provides local services that can serve locally. And that would occur in a data center or a minor or a server room or a minor data center. So that's something I'd like to look at continued is I think it's too low on the server room, so we need to get a better understanding of that, or that's what I'm going to be doing my research on for our meeting on the 30th. The second is minor and major. I'd like to get further definition. I'm going to do some research myself. I'm going to figure out where the breakdown is on major versus minor. from the economic development standpoint, but I'd like you all to look at it from a land use standpoint to see, all right, is 50,000, that equates to a little bit over an acre, that's all we're comfortable in having. I'd like you to further look at that number to figure out if that is able to be moved up. Because we're not going to have out-of-towners come in and build 300,000-square-foot data centers because the math doesn't work. But we may have people that are in our community that are building technology companies that do want to build a 300,000-square-foot data center. And we want to encourage that type of development and growth to occur in Lexington and not leave Lexington. So I really want to focus on minor. So minor data centers, making them available to homegrown technology companies that we want to grow here. And the third piece is when we figure out where that's going to be used. So minor, the uses of minor, in my opinion, I'd like that to be included in business and mixed use, warehouse and wholesale, and heavy industrial. So all three of those. So that's what I'm going to be looking at going forward. just wanted to lay that out there for you yeah and just to get back to that 50 000 number so the consultants on the the blue sky small area plan um as a part of their uh recommendations for the industrial zota which is uh yet another zota to come to you all at some point hopefully later this year um that threshold was one of the recommendations of them it does vary from municipality louisville um basically oscillates or legislates a hundred thousand uh up to five hundred thousand depending on on zone but just a reminder that in taking us back to the earlier example um this can sort of be the scale and scope now given it 138 is larger than kind of the louisville's lowest threshold but you start looking at hundreds of thousands of square feet you start looking at facilities that are kind of operating with the generator capacity and the other impacts that could be detrimental. So once again, there is flexibility from Lexington to kind of identify and set those own thresholds, but that was the starting point and staff thought that it was an appropriate kind of place to begin that conversation. Okay, great. That's the one piece I was looking at. I don't want to end up with some cross-pollinization from the Blue Sky Parkway when they made a comment, no data centers, and we're defining data centers as 50,000 square feet. We all around here were like, wait a second, we're not talking about data centers here. And they said, okay, I understand you're having your own Zota. So I want to scrap the 50,000, come up with our own recommendation, rather than the third-party consultant's recommendation that was submitted with the Blue Sky. And I'd like us to consider, with the focus, how we can grow businesses in Lexington that don't end up with 138,000 square feet, but if they need 75, 80, 85, whatever it may be, Let's figure out what that sweet spot is and use this definition of a minor data center as it relates to our land use laws to encourage technological development in our community. Okay. Do we have any other questions for Daniel on this, Zoda? Yes, sir, Mr. Forster. This may be basic. I hope so. So does this affect the banks that are in town that has data centers? No, I would say not. Would that fall in that computer server room category? Yeah, I would say most applications where you're talking about, you know, facilities that are serving that use would fall within that server room definition permitted as an accessory use without any additional review necessary. Okay. All right. But that would include the server room, which that's just about every bank that has a headquarter there. Central, traditional. Can you restate that? I didn't hear the first part about that. That would include the banks. That it would affect? Yes. If you're limited to 10%. Well, that's what I'm asking. I just want to get clear. We don't know what your square footage is. What do you think of average server square footage? It would be helpful to know. You can look on the address on Port Bank. I don't have it with me. It's holiday, isn't it? It's all server. I'm just asking. I'm not trying to stop anything. This is important to me because it's how I get paid. Yeah, and just to be crystal clear, the intent behind the language is to, and if we need to make adjustments to the parameters of that, but it's really to create designated, this is the sole purpose of this business is to be operating a data processing center. We're not trying to create a gotcha moment for banks or offices or, you know, instances where we have clearly have a principal use operating there. So we can take a deeper look at that and make sure that there's not any friction between those two numbers. We also don't want to create a, you know, kind of back door to getting a free data center by being too lax with that. So we'll be with that. It's a lot of new stuff. Mr. McGuire? Yeah, my questions were pretty much exclusively on the server room component. That seems to be the component that would sort of affect most of the local businesses that are here. and yeah my questions are I'll just ask them sort of together was just where did that 2000 or 10% come from and then the second portion of that and I believe you stated this, but I just wanted to clarify it. That 2,000 square feet or the 10% would be for, like, the entire development plan or the entire area of the company, not a building size. So if they had a smaller building that was their server building, but they had their offices adjacent, it's 10% of the entire thing, not just the building that the servers are in. Right, but structures, not your yard, your storage yard. Yeah, we're not comparing acres to this. But, yeah, once again, the intent behind that is to kind of create a parameter that makes sense. So I can get you the list off the top of my head of which specific ordinance is. The Kentucky Resource Council, I can't remember if they included that as well, but the consultants also flagged that language as well for setting up sort of the thresholds, the 50,000 and then that server room parameters. Okay. All right. A lot of education. I appreciate that. A lot of new stuff. Okay. Do we have anything else for Daniel today? Just real quick, do we have anybody that's maybe from, I mean, I've got some people that we can talk to, but we may want to maybe reach out to the University of Kentucky, their computer science program or their entrepreneurship program to determine, to get their input on what type of laws do we need? What should we be considering if we want to have UK graduates and Transylvania graduates start businesses here? So let's, I'd like to get some input from them. I'll seek some out, but we want, if we had the ability to eliminate the possibility of a million square foot data center coming into our community that the public would not want, I think that's a benefit. But then on the other side, we need to create opportunities for businesses here that can fit the niche of hometown, local talent, local people building businesses in our community. If we can craft a description of a minor data center and the server rooms to be a carrot to encourage businesses to come to Lexington or stay in Lexington to provide data services, I think that would be a major benefit. And one of the analogies is if we're looking at the, let's say, residential home building in Lexington, it would be let's encourage local builders and through regulation make it less attractive for international or other types of large format builders coming in. Okay. Thank you, Daniel. Is there anyone from the public who would like to comment to this proposed soda today? Dean Pulsifer, I want to say I came here for this topic, and I think this has been a great discussion. I think staff's done a good thing. And one thing I want to get the community to think about is please don't conflate AI with data centers. What we need to come up is, as Bruce has been pointing out, what's the appropriate limit for Lexington to keep businesses here, make money, but not get things out of control. But staff has already brought up the big things I was worried about, power, infrastructure, cooling, all those kinds of things. I had the same concern with server room. You want a business, a local business is to have a server room, and if they get partway through and then they need one more server and it's over the 10%, what do they do? So we need to think about what those kind of sizes are. Did the backup power? And we also need to remember we've been using computers in business since the 50s. These are not new things. they are critical to businesses succeeding. So we need to have rules that let them be successful and not have another hoop to jump through when they are trying to make business decisions. So I think we're on a good path forward. I just want us to really think about it and separate what's the real problem. Don't get caught up in the AI. AI is an impact, but it is not the fundamental issue. It's businesses needing compute power to run their business. Thank you. Anything else? Amy? Amy Clark, and this will be one minute because there are a lot of people right here in this room that know more than I'll ever know or want to know about this issue. The idea of a server room that's a by-right accessory use that doesn't seem to have any guardrails or parameters is troubling to me. I hate to make it a conditional use, but it needs conditions to have guardrails. The other question I have is, is square foot a recognized measure of the size or scope of these data centers? Building area, square feet, how tall are these towers? How high could that building be? You're not talking about, you know, this is a room that people walk around in. This is a room that stores data processors or whatever they are. So I'm wondering if height should come in as also a cap. I'm also wondering if you can get a dimensional variance or if it's a limit, it cannot get a variance. These are my questions. Thank you. Okay. Sure. I'll be real quick. One thing that I would like us to consider is we are in a geological area with a lot of great, solid limestone. We are going to eventually see subterranean data centers, and we are actually a good spot to do something like that. So I would like to create a carrot where if it is a subterranean, I would like to, just as Amy was, Ms. Clark was concerned about height, I would like to go in the opposite direction and say if we go depth, I would like that to be considered as an option. Just don't touch prime soil. Okay. I said don't touch prime soil. Well, I was just kidding. Okay. Do we have anything else on this particular ZODA? If not, the floor is open for discussion or a motion. Sure. Thank you. Sorry. Okay. I'd like to make a motion to postpone PLN. To recommend postponement. Oh, excuse me. I'd like to make a motion to recommend postponement of PLN ZODA 26-0008 data center regulations. Okay, Mr. Nichol has made a motion to recommend postponement to Planning Commission. Does that have a second, or is there any less? Does that have a second? Second. Mr. Forrester, seconded. Thank you. Is there any discussion to that motion? Well, you do know you don't have a true ability to postpone? Okay. We will have a work session, though, between today and the 30th, And so I anticipate that we will have further discussion with the full commission at that point. Okay. Okay. All right. So we have a motion and a second on the floor. Motion to recommend postponement to the planning commission. We can't do it. No, we can't. Recommend postponement. You can recommend postponement, but the public hearing has to occur on July 30th. Yeah, I mean, we've read. It's going to go to our meeting. Right. But we do that all the time. Yeah. Recommend. Just a reminder of where we're at. Yeah. That when we are limited to council-initiated text amendments, we have to get them in in the 60 days, whereas, you know, publicly initiated ones we don't. Okay. So, again, motion on the floor in a second. Is there any discussion to that? If not, if you're in favor of that, please raise your right hand. That almost passes unanimously. Thank you. Sure. As a matter of courtesy, I'd like to call your attention to the postponed items on this agenda, and they may well turn up as postponed items on the hearing agenda. One is number four filed in 26, number eight filed in 26, number nine filed in 26, and there are two or three more. This is really hard on the public. When something is on an agenda, maybe. we need to know when things are really going to happen and if there's something you can do to bring the applicants into more considerate behavior I'd appreciate it so that we know it won't be on the agenda when it won't thank you if no one has anything else we are adjourned thank you very much Thank you. The time to hesitate is through No time to wallow in the mire Try now we can only lose And our love become a funeral pyre Come on baby, light my fire Come on baby, light my fire China set the night on fire You know that it will be untrue You know that I would be a liar If I was to say to you Girl, we couldn't get much higher Come on, man, light my fire Come on, man, light my fire Shadows set the night on fire Shadows set the night on fire Shadows set the night on fire Shadows set the night on fire To all the girls I've loved before Who traveled in and out of my door I'm glad they came along I dedicate this song to all the girls I've loved before. To all the girls I once caressed. And may I say I can't be pleased. For helping me to go on by your love, Lord, I know. To all the girls I've loved before The winds of change are always growing And every time I try to stay The winds of change continue growing And they just carry me away To all the girls who shared my life Who now are someone else's wife I'm glad they came along I dedicate this song To all the girls I've loved before To all the girls who care for me Who fill my nights with ecstasy They live within my heart And always be a part Of all the girls I loved before The winds of change are always blowing Every time I try to stay The winds of change continue growing And they just carry me away All the girls we've loved before Who traveled in and out our door We are glad they came along We dedicate this song To all the girls we've loved before To all the girls we've loved before But they're rather than in other doors We're glad they came along We dedicate this song To all the girls we've loved Before Oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh It must have been cold there in my shadow To never have sunlight on your face You were content to let me shine That's your way You always walked a step behind So I was the one with all the glory While you were the one with all this terrain A beautiful face without a name For so long A beautiful smile to hide the pain Did you ever know that you're my hero And everything I would like to be I can fly higher than an eagle You are the wind beneath my wings It might have appeared to go unnoticed But I've got it all here in my heart I want you to know I know the truth. Of course I know you. I would be nothing without you. Did you ever know that you're my hero? You're everything I wish I could be. I would fly higher than an eagle For you are the wind beneath my wings Did I ever tell you you're my hero? You're everything, everything I wish I could be Oh, and I can fly higher than I may go You are the wind beneath my wings Cause you are the wind beneath my wings Oh, the wind beneath my wings You, you, you are the wind beneath my wings Fly, fly, fly away You let me fly so high Oh, you, you, you The wind beneath my wings Oh, you, you The wind beneath my wings Fly, fly So high in the sky So high I almost touched the sky Thank you, thank you Thank God for you The wind beneath my face Give me a job, give me security Give me a chance to survive I'm just a whole soul in the unemployment line My God, I'm hardly alive My mother and father, my wife and my friends You see them lump in my face I've got the power and I've got the will I'm not in charity care I'll take a long night's impossible life Keeping my eye in the keyhole If they take all that, teach us what I am Well I'm gonna kneel to follow me Make me an offer that I can't refuse Make me respectable, man This is my last time in the unemployable grind So like it or not, I'll take the Long night's impossible life Keeping my mind to the wall If it's all night It's just what I am Well, I'm gonna feel the power of me Keeping my mind on a bed alive Where happiness Is only a heartbeat of words Paradise Can it be all I heard it was? I close my eyes and maybe I'm already there I'll take all the wrong nights, impossible not Keepin' my back to the world All that be just what I am I'm gonna be a good holiday You don't understand I'll take a long night, impossible life Keeping my eyes on the key Holding me in charge All those nights Be just who I am All about the real All about the real All about the real All about the real All about the real All about the real All about the real All about the real All about the real All of me Why not take all of me Can't you see I'm no good without you Take my lips, I want to lose them Take my arms, I'll never use them Your goodbye left me with eyes that cry How can I go on, dear, without you? You took the part that once was my heart So why not take all of me? All of me Why not take all of me, can't you see? I'm no good without you, take my lips. I want to lose them, take my arms. I'll never use them. Your goodbye Left me with eyes that cry How can I Go on, dear, without you You took the part That once was my heart So why not Take all of me Hearts burning like they were on fire Place changing our love to desire Hey, everyone. I'm Randy with LexTV. Welcome to this week's edition of Lexington Now for June the 29th, 2026. I'm here at Old Morrison here at Transylvania, the site for this week's patriotic concert. But more about that coming up next. This building was dedicated on November the 4th, 1833 and became an established venue for academic and civic gatherings. It's used today on the City of Lexington official government seal. Now on to this week's show topics. You can share on Team USA at the Kentucky Theater this week at the FIFA World Cup Watch Party. Find out more about a home modification program providing support for older adults. And we'll watch a press conference about all this week's July 4th events this weekend. And Antonio Balden from the Lexington Recycling Center will tell us about this week's live government meetings and parks events this weekend. Stay tuned, folks. We'll be right back. Hey everybody, welcome back to this week's Lexington Now. We attended the press conference for the FIFA World Cup Team USA watch party at the Kentucky Theater this Wednesday. More details right here. Today I am joined by Fox 56 Sports Director Colby Wilson, as well as Hayward Wilkerson and Fred Mills from the Kentucky Theater for a special announcement. Next Wednesday, July the 1st, Team USA will take the field in the FIFA World Cup round of 32. I'm excited to announce that the government, in partnership with Fox 56 and the Kentucky Theater, will host a free watch party right here at the Kentucky. Over the last few weeks, we've seen watch parties pop up all across our community. We wanted to build on that excitement by creating a free, family-friendly event where fans of all ages can come together to cheer on Team USA. As everyone knows, there are a lot of soccer fans in Lexington. Thousands of our kids have played soccer. I even coached my kids and their youth soccer team. It's no surprise that the World Cup has generated so much excitement in our town. Come on and join us. We will gather at the Historic Theater to cheer on Team USA. Doors will open at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 1st. The match is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, so get here early. To add to the fun, members of the Lexington Sporting Club soccer teams will be in attendance to meet fans and celebrate Team USA's World Cup run. The Lexington Sporting Club will also be selling USA-themed merchandise and giving fans a photo opportunity with the Women's Championship Trophy, awarded just last month. We're super excited to be here and just super excited to represent Fox 56 within this partnership, and I know our station, our GM, our news director, We're super excited to be a part of something a lot bigger than ourselves. We, of course, are sports through and through at our station. And being the official partners of Lexington Sporting Club, we are big soccer people at our station. So to add this to something that we can do here in the community has been just super awesome. And we've just been able to see all the fans here come together to cheer on Team USA. Some fans that haven't even watched soccer before are now embracing what's going on in the World Cup here. So super excited. I know at the station we're excited. All of our staff were ready to go. So we're hoping everybody can make it next Wednesday. Thank you. So Fred and I were talking about this. We could not be more excited to be part of this event. Thank you, Mayor Gordon. Thank you, Fox. We often think of the Kentucky Theater as Lexington's living room, and this is a chance to prove it. So we cannot think of a better place, a more historic place, to see this historic game. So please come on down and join us. We can't wait to see you, and we can't wait to show off the Kentucky Theater. Thank you. The match comes just as we get ready to kick off our 4th of July celebrations. What's more patriotic than cheering on Team USA? So come on down and join us July the 1st. Thank you very much. The Government and Bluegrass Care Navigators have partnered together to offer aging residents safety updates that help them continue living independently in their homes. We are here at the home of Dick and Barbara Wilkins. They're right here with me. And they have lived on Clearwater Way for nearly 30 years. And they are committed to aging independently in the place that they love best. Like many older adults, they reached a point where they needed a little assistance. to ensure their home was safe and accessible. The Home Modification Program is a very good service. It improves the lives of our aging population by making their homes safer and more accessible. It's no secret that a lot of folks are facing an affordability crisis in our country. It's something that my neighbors and I are feeling every day. And too often we leave older Lexingtonians, our aging neighbors, out of that discussion. And all too often it puts them at risk of losing the ability to age independently, safely, and with dignity in their own homes. I believe firmly that they deserve to do so. Many seniors live in homes that aren't equipped to keep them safe and able to age in place. When homes are safer, families worry less. They know their loved ones can navigate their space with reduced risk of injury. Preventing a single fall can save thousands in medical costs and reduce the need for assisted living. This program will provide essential home repairs and modifications for income-eligible residents age 62 and older for both renters and homeowners, expanding access to safer living environments across our community. Each participant will receive an evaluation from a certified occupational therapist from Bluegrass Care Navigators to ensure that modifications truly meet their needs. This work is made possible through HUD's Older Adult Home Modification Grant Program, and we are grateful for the opportunity to improve the quality of life for our senior residents. By combining the city's vision and resources with our clinical expertise, we can meet people where they are and respond to real needs in their homes. Through this grant, we're proud to add a qualified occupational therapist, Tony Smith, to this program's team. Tony's helped many Lexington neighbors receive basic home modifications, small changes that have big impact. We went through the process of listening to him tell me what the problems were, where he felt uncomfortable and Barbara was also able to tell me where she felt uncomfortable and where she was most worried about Dick and Dick where he was most worried about Barbara. We went room by room through their home and identified different places where we could do small adjustments and place grab bars, place railing, place motion activated lighting. That process generated a report and turned into an actual workable contract agreement where people could come in with clear instructions on how to perform and how to install what we saw as necessary to keep Dick and Barbara in their home. Thank you very much. I'm really impressed about this program, there. It's been very, it's been just overwhelming that what it has meant to us. I started out falling against, went to sit down in the bathroom on the toilet and fell and I hit my arm and cut a thing open on my arm really bad. That's how it all started. And thank you for sending Tony. Tony, he's been a treasure. You be nice to him, okay? I am nice to him. He's as good as gold. And you've got a real treasure there, so hold on to him and treat him nice, okay? Okay. One of my favorite things are our rails going to our front door. I used to always have to lean over and put my hand on the side of the house to get up into the front door. So that's just one of the things. And then the fact that he doesn't fall anymore. Yeah, I've fallen so far. He's got grab bars in his closet which really keep him. So we're just overwhelmed by what they have done for us, and we really do appreciate it. Wonderful. When we come back, more information about all the July 4th events this weekend. Welcome back, everyone, to this week's edition of Lexington Now. Coming up next, it's all the July 4th events coming up this weekend at America's 250. I am very happy to be here once again with our friends at RJ Corman. The 4th of July festival is one of our city's very favorite traditions. This year, we are planning a star-spangled week of events to celebrate our nation's 250th birthday. I cannot think of a better way to honor America's big birthday than by bringing our entire community together to celebrate what unites us, our freedoms, our traditions, and our spirit. I want to begin today by thanking R.J. Corman President and CEO, Justin Broyles. Justin, this is your first Fourth of July as a member of the Corman team. It's awesome. RJ Corman has been a tremendous community partner for Lexington. In addition to providing good jobs for our residents, you make it possible for us to have Lexington's 4th of July fireworks downtown. This year, that is especially exciting. Our fireworks display will feature an extra special grand finale in honor of America's 250th birthday. Now, let's hear from Justin. Justin, I first and again want to thank you for hosting us. It's an honor to stand alongside Mayor Gordon today to celebrate a great Lexington tradition. R.J. Korman is proud to continue our strong partnership with the City of Lexington. R.J. Korman, I want to thank Mayor Gordon and her team for your leadership and collaboration and making downtown celebrations like this possible. For several years now, our Central Kentucky Lines Rail Yard has served as the launch site for Lexington's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular. Today, we're excited to announce the continuation of Lexington's 4th of July Fireworks display from R.J. Corman's Rail Yard. This iconic location provides a safe, spacious, and highly visible downtown site that delivers an unforgettable experience for residents and visitors alike. Fireworks are more than a show. They bring our community together to celebrate freedom, unity, and the spirit of Independence Day. R.J. Korman is deeply rooted in Lexington and Central Kentucky, giving back through events like this as part of who we are as a company. We're committed to being a strong community partner, supporting economic growth, jobs, and memorable experiences that make Lexington a wonderful place to live, work, and visit. We look forward to another outstanding fireworks spectacular. I want to thank you again, Mayor Gordon, for having me and your staff and everyone who helps make this event possible. We look forward to celebrating America's 250th with each of you. Thank you. So our 4th of July events are made possible by our world-class Parks and Recreation team. They truly are the best in this business. This year, they're turning up the fun on the 4th of July. So we are celebrating America's 250th birthday at the same time as 4th of July events. It's a milestone year for the Bluegrass 10,000. We're celebrating the 50th running of this race this year that brings together runners, wheelchair participants, kids, families, neighbors. For the first time ever this year, a 5K option has been added to the race in addition to our one-mile fun run. Also new this year, the city will host a special sing-along to a filmed version of the stage musical Hamilton. And this year's Ice Cream Social will feature a Happy 250 America birthday party celebration with free cake and ice cream for all. To top it all off, we're asking everyone to make Main Street and Lexington a sea of red, white, and blue By decorating your homes, your businesses, enter floats in the parade in celebration of America's 250th birthday. We begin the festivities on Friday, June 26, with Friday Flicks, the Hamilton Broadway movie at Jacobson Park. Celebration and sing-along movie. Activities start at 7 with the movie starting at dark. New this year, on Saturday, June 27th, we celebrate the Bluegrass 10,000 Wellness Expo in Phoenix Park from 11 to 4. On Tuesday, June 30th, we'll be out at Moondance Amphitheater with Big Band and Jazz, Patriotic Night featuring Lexington Summer's Concert Band. Timeless American Music starts at 7 o'clock. From there, each day we'll bring something unique. On Wednesday, July 1st, as the mayor mentioned, America's 250th birthday party with ice cream, cake, all of that happening at Tandy Park. We've got music and expanded activities from 5 to 8. On Thursday, July 2nd, we're back at Moondance with the Six String Soldiers U.S. Army Band and the Southland Jamboree. on friday july 3rd we gather again in grads park for the patriotic concert starring young at heart followed by the lexington philharmonic performing under the stars at trans university friday july 4th is the heart of it all we start bright and early with the bluegrass 10 000 our 50th running of this race our traditional 10k and one mile fun run and new this year of 5k. Now is the time to get signed up if you haven't already to join our race. Throughout the day we'll host the 4th of July Festival and Market, a public reading of the Declaration of Independence, and our 4th of July Parade through downtown. We'll cap it off that night with the fireworks spectacular launched right here from R.J. Corman's Rail Yard. We'll close out the week on Sunday, July 5th, back at Moon Dance for Red, White, and Blues featuring TD Young. Just as we began the week with American music, we'll end it with American rhythm and soul. These days are filled with something for everyone. Family fun, community pride, opportunities to support local artists and businesses. We ask the community to participate, Join our parade, sign up for the race, decorate your front porch or your business, and help us celebrate America's 250 along with the fourth here in Lexington. Thank you. When we come back, Antonio Baldwin from Lexington Recycling Center is going to tell us all about this week's live meeting coverage and the events this weekend. Hello, Antonio from the Lexington Recycling Center. Just remember, you're watching LexTV. Welcome back. Here's Antonio with this week's live meeting coverage. Hi there, I'm Antonio from the City of Lexington Recycling Center. Here are current live meetings scheduled this week, June 29th for LexTV. Remember, you can watch all our live meeting coverage on LexTV, channel 185, and always online at lexingtonky.gov. On Wednesday, July 1st, in the afternoon, watch the General Government and Planning Committee meeting at 1, followed by the Council Work Session at 3, and then Council meeting at 5. And on Thursday morning, July 2nd, watch the Planning Commission Subdivision Committee meeting at 8.30, followed by the Planning Commission Zoning Subcommittee meeting in the afternoon at 1 30 p.m. And then you can watch the council meeting at five that evening. That's our current live meeting schedule for Lex TV for the week of June 29th. Watch all live meeting coverage on Lex TV channel 185 or always online at lexityky.gov and click Lex TV tab at the top. I'm Antonio and we'll see you next time. Hey everybody, you're watching Lexington Now on LexTV. And Antonio's back to tell us about all the events going on parks and recreation wise this weekend in Lexington and Fayette County. Hey there, Antonio from the City of Lexington Recycling Center. Here are some upcoming events this weekend in Lexington and Fayette County for the weekend starting June 29th. Please note, events that require registration may sell out or fill up in advance. Be sure to confirm by visiting lexaninkky.gov slash calendar. Friday, July 3rd, grab your blanket, cheer, picnic setup, and join us at Graff Park and the Transylvania University line for our annual patriotic concert. Enjoy pre-show performance from a Young at Heart band beginning at 5 p.m., followed by the Lexington Philharmonic Concert at 7 p.m. Food and drink trucks will be available on site. On Saturday, July 4th, downtown is where you want to be all day. Starting at 7.25 a.m., cheer on Bluegrass 5K, 10K, and Fun Run participants or join a race yourself. Then at 10 a.m., head to the historical Lexington Courthouse to celebrate American birthdays with the public reading of the Declaration of Independence. This will kick off the festival at art at the festival and art market for you to mix and mingle and shop until 3 p.m. The parade will move down Main Street beginning at noon, and the fireworks spectacular will light up the sky around 10 p.m. Lastly, on Sunday, July 5th, keep the patriotic party going with the summer night at the Suburban Red, White, and Blue Concert Moon Dance Amphitheater at 7 p.m. There will be food trucks, cold drinks, live music, and local blues legend T.D. Young. I'm Antonio, and that's just some of the things going on this weekend in Lexington, Fayette County. You may need to pre-register for some of these events. For more events and information, be sure to visit lexingtonky.gov and click calendar tab at the top. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next week. And of course, we end everything with the Adoptable Pets of the Week from the Lexington Humane Society. Hey everyone, welcome to this week's Lexington Fayette County Adoptable Pets Pets from LexTV and the Lexington Humane Society. We've got Orbit, female black and white in color, approximate age, four months old, looks like a Labrador mix, does well in apartments and also does well with children. We've got adorable Perry, a male, black and white in color, approximate age three years old looks like an american pit bull mix mature size is large does well with children does well in apartments and lastly we've got roly poly blue and white in color a male approximate age three years old looks like a pit bull mix does well in apartments and also does well with children. Thanks for watching these adorable and handsome pets available at LexingtonHumaneSociety.org from LexTV and the Lexington Humane Society. That's Lexington Now for this week, folks, June 29th, 2026. And don't forget about attending this Thursday Night Live at Tandy Park starting at 5. This week's band is the Rewind Band. Also, all government offices will be closed this Friday the 3rd for the July 4th holiday. You can always catch up with us on social media and check out all the latest traffic information on X at LexRex and be sure to watch live traffic cams at LexingtonKY.gov. I'm Randy for Lexington Now and thanks for watching from all of us here at LexTV. See you next week and have a great and safe July 4th weekend. I'm here, but I knew that it would come An old true friend of ours was talking on the phone She said you'd find someone And I thought of all the bad luck And the struggles we went through And how I lost you And you lost you What are these voices outside love's open door? Make us grow up our contentment and beg for something more. I'm learning to live without you now. But I miss you sometimes. The more I know, the less I understand all the things I thought I knew. I'm learning again. I've been trying to get down to the heart of the matter. But my will get sweet. And my thoughts are just getting better than I think it's a lie. Forgiveness. Forgiveness. Even if, even if you don't love me anymore. Thank you. That lead to happiness They're the only things We kill, I guess Oh, pride and competition Cannot fill these empty arms And the world that put between us You know it doesn't keep me warm I'm learning to live without you now But I miss you, baby And the more I know, the less I understand All the things I thought I'd figured out I have to learn again I've been trying to get down To the heart of the matter But everything changes And my friends seem to scatter But I think it's about forgiveness Forgiveness Even if, even if you don't love me anymore There are people in your life who come and go They let you down, you know they hurt your pride You better put it all behind you baby, cause life goes on You keep carrying that anger It'll eat you up inside, baby I've been trying to get down You're the heart of the matter But my will gets weak And my thoughts seem to scatter But I think it's about Forgiveness Forgiveness Even if, even if You don't love me I've been trying to get down to the heart of the matter Because the flesh will get weak And the ashes will scatter so I'm thinking about Forgiveness, forgiveness Even if, even if you don't love me Forgiveness, forgiveness Even if you don't love me anymore Carry on. Hey, it's Bajan Niko with another episode of Your Lex PD. And we are here in the lobby of headquarters because we are going to be talking about the civilian support staff for the department. Civilian support staff. The actual first people you see when you walk into Lexington Police Department. and what an important role that they play here. And, you know, a lot of them have been here for a long time. We've got a lot of employees that have worked here for many, many years, up to 30 years, and they are so important. Oh, yeah. On patrol, we can't function without them. So how many civilian staff do we have? So we've got, I think right now we've got somewhere around 126, and part of those are safety officers. We're not going to be talking a lot about them today because we're going to do another episode on safety officers later. But I think even without them, we've got 109 or so. So a very important role here at the police department. And a lot of times when you think about the police department, you think about uniforms and the police cars and detectives and all that. But these folks help the operations. They help you, those folks out there in Lexington, and they help us every single day. So let's go around the police department and let's talk to some of our civilian support staff. So we are here in the Open Records Unit, and we are here with our supervisor, Ms. Shannon Pintagore. Did I say that right? Yes, yes, yes. Welcome to the show. Thank you, thank you for having me. As we've said, there are so many different areas in civilian support staff here at the Lexington Police Department, but something that, you know, people ask us a lot and we get a lot of phone calls about is the topic of Open Records. So we felt like there would be a good chance to talk to Shannon and just find out a little bit more about what their unit does and how people file open records requests. So, Shannon, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you for having us. How long? How long? We'll start a little bit with your background. And I know a little bit of this because Shannon and I go way back. How long have you been with Lexington Police Department? Well, in an official capacity since February of 2015. but as you know, I did serve as an intern here prior to that and completed my service as an intern under Sergeant Tallery. She was great. I used to coordinate the intern program, so you started with that and I'm absolutely happy to see you join the team here at the Lexington Police Department. One other question I got, because we were talking about this. If you might have noticed, there is a big flag in the room. Yes. So you've got to tell us, explain a little bit about the flag. This is Shannon's office, by the way. It does have 48 stars, and I am aware that Hawaii and Alaska are actual states, and I have nothing against them, but this happens to be a flag from my grandparents, and a flag they flew, and it was already hung in a frame, and I decided to just hang it in. All right. That's cool. Okay. So tell us a little bit about the Open Records Unit and what you all do on a daily basis. Well, we receive requests from the public in order to provide documentation from our agency. Government agencies are required to provide transparency and records documentation that we maintain. And we receive requests through various means and from various citizens, attorneys, insurance agencies, just collecting records for their needs. So here in the open records unit, how many do you have on staff? We have five full-time positions, two part-time positions, and myself. Okay, so you've got several people in the unit. When we talk about what are those open records, so what kind of documentation and what kind of records do you supply? Because I know you mentioned everything from actual citizen requests to attorneys, to, and I know the media, because I work with you a lot on those, but what kind of material is it that they're looking for? Well, it can be collision-related materials. That's a lot of what we do, from body cam to traffic cam to paper documentation for those records, crime reports. Victims of crimes sometimes need documentation to provide to their insurance carriers and for recovery of their goods or whatever. We provide records just to the public. There are public options of available records. I would say you stay busy. We stay very busy. So do you have any idea, on average, that's an unfair question, I ask how many, because I know you stay busy. But on average, in a year's time, what do you think you would, how many requests would you receive? Well, for our 2025 records received, it eclipsed 7,000. 7,000? Yes. We're a very busy unit. We work diligently. We work throughout the day. We work very hard to get people their records on times, and it's not always easy. It's time-consuming and combing through a lot of records management systems in order to collect the data and the records. A lot of technology, probably. That's something that comes up in every episode is technology. But even when we talk about something like this, it's all technology. You mentioned you had several people in the unit, but what kind of people are you looking for as far as what do you look for when you look for an employee in the open records unit? Yes, well, each request is different. So we process them as they come in and process them according to each request. but oftentimes they can be very complicated, seeking data that we have to reach out to other units for. And it takes dedication. It takes attention to detail. Patience. It can be time-consuming. I can see patience and definitely attention to detail because there's a lot that they have to go through to make sure that everything is thorough, everything is accurate. I'm sure things have to be redacted. There's probably a lot involved in the process. Yes, and when we redact body-worn camera, it is real-time minutes, so we're watching the body cameras in real minutes, and that can take hours for each request or for a certain request anyway. So you had mentioned time. So depending on the type of open records request, is there a certain time frame that you have to have it completed by? We are afforded five business days by law. Is that when you get the request? It is. Day one doesn't count into that, but day two technically is actually day one. So we have five business days after the first day it was received. Wow, 7,000. Wow, that's a lot. So, again, we've got so many folks behind the scenes and so many people that just do such good work here at the Lexington Police Department, but we know how busy you all are in the open records unit, and we appreciate everything you do. And, Shannon, thanks for sitting down and talking with us. And I'm so happy to see you here as an employee, as a supervisor, after starting as an intern. Fantastic. And we love your flag. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having us. And thank you for just drawing attention to civilian employees with our agency. We're honored to just be a part and serve alongside. Thank you. Absolutely. Thanks, Shannon. Thank you. Hey, we are here at Planning and Analysis Unit here at the department. And this is everything data. We're talking about statistics. We're talking about being able to figure out everything from resources and personnel numbers and how many collisions are at certain intersections. This is where all the data is. We are here at the office of the chief. And we are, first of all, Ms. Renita here. She is the one that keeps Chief Weathers in line, right? And she keeps us all in line, holds the whole place together. So, and then we've got Dana, which also helps Ms. Renita. And we've got the grants manager, the fiscal officer for the police department. And we also have the civilian public information officer all here in the office of the chief. We are here at the public integrity unit. And, you know, a lot of people probably remember when we used to call this internal affairs. So we are here on the fourth floor of headquarters where the Bureau of Investigation mostly is. Bureau of Investigation, so detectives, right? Everything from robbery homicide to property crimes to all kinds of different investigative sections within the Bureau of Investigations. So we are here at the Special Victims section. And they do all kinds of things, everything from crimes against children to other types of special victims. And we've got a variety of civilian support personnel up here, including everything from BOI clerks. And many of those are retired officers. And then we also have the sexual assault nurse examiner. We are here in the victim advocate's office. And you remember we did a whole episode on what fantastic work they do up here and how important their role is in helping the police department and helping victims. All right, so we many times have been here in the real-time intelligence center, play such an important role here at the police department, and we talk about support. They really support us, right? Yes, and this is where our police intelligence specialists and their supervisors operate. So we are in the basement of headquarters where our property and evidence room is. So this is where the officers, when they seize evidence and book it in, this is where it all goes. We are downstairs at headquarters in the forensic services unit. everybody wants to talk about forensics. We get so many questions. As a matter of fact, we're going to do a whole episode later this season on our forensics unit because it is interesting. Everybody watches these TV shows. CSI, crime scene processing. And what's crazy is they do that kind of work here. And the reason we're here is because the staff is split. Some of them are sworn, but we also have civilian support staff that work in forensics. So they do a lot of different things here, though, right? So it's everything from fingerprints, APHIS system, photos, ballistic testing, all kinds of work, and getting things ready for court testimony and scenes, and they just do a lot of work. So everything from getting fingerprints from a burglary scene to photographs to a major crime scene were working, all different kinds of scanning and things that they do. But another way that civilian support staff helps us here at the Lexington Police Department. So we are here at Central Records at headquarters and they do a lot. They really do a lot. And we talked about that actually in the opening that we said these are the folks that you first see when you walk in the front door here at the Lexington Police Department. And they do everything from citation entry to if you need a police report to NCIC management to basically what's the big thing? How would you say it? And officers book and evidence. Officers book and report and just officer support in general, right? Very important function here at the Lexington Police Department. So we are here at the Personnel's Records Unit. So they maintain all of our officers and civilian staff, all their personnel records, and they're also responsible for making sure that we get paid, which is pretty important, right? We are here at the West Sector of Roll Call off of Oak River Pike. You know, this was my home just a few months ago when I was on patrol as a sergeant on second shift, so I enjoy coming back here. And this is where I went to the academy was here. That's where, yeah, the academy was upstairs here. A lot of things have changed, right? So as we're going around the agency, different buildings and so forth, we want to come by here because who is here that we depend on so much, particularly patrol? Patrol admin support. Yes. And so these are the folks that are responsible for making sure the rosters are correct to payroll and all those things. So do a very, very important function here. So we'll take a look at them. One of the other things that is in this building is our traffic section. And when we talked about the numbers and the fact that we have 126 civilian folks and civilian support staff here at the police department, that includes the number of safety officers. So without those, we've got 109. We're not going to necessarily talk to the safety officers on this episode because we're going to actually focus on them on a whole episode later. But they all actually fall into that number, too. So let's go around the building and see who we can find. And here we are in the office where we have our patrol admin support. And again, they are so important to make sure that everything patrol works. Everything from the rosters and the payroll, all of those types of things. Plus, another thing to remember is they're housed here at West Sector Roll Call, but they are responsible for all three sectors. So East Sector, West Sector, and Central Sector all works out of here as far as the admin support. Now, you know, Bosh, some people don't know we have our own print shop. That is true. And I remember even when I came on the police department, they called it the print shop. It's a whole lot more than that now because everything's electronic. So it's our graphic designer, and she does work with both print material, electronic material, takes our official police identification photos, photographer. Anything that has to do with brochures with the department. Absolutely. A lot of work done here in the print shop. So we are out here at Technical Services Unit, and the Computer Information Systems Unit is also out here. It's a very, very busy place. Oh, yes. Right. So we're going to walk around and kind of show people a little bit of what we do. But one thing everybody always asks about and that we talked about on this particular episode when we talk about body-worn cameras and open records and things like that. Well, it all has to start somewhere with the body-worn cameras. So our body-worn camera administrator is actually housed out here. and she is responsible for issuing the body-worn cameras, the maintenance on it, the updates, everything body-worn camera comes out of this office. And then as we walk around the building, when you greet it at the front door here with the TSU administration and always telling people where they need to go and who they need to see. Let's walk back to computer services. So we are here in the office with the computer information systems where they do all the maintenance on our computers and desktops for the agency. It is a lifeline. Yes, it is. Because, you know, and we've talked about this before, when I came to the police department we didn't have mobile data computers, mobile data terminals in the cars. We actually had to write reports, but now everything is computer based. So whether it be the printers in our car, whether it be the computers, the mobile data computers all of that is worked on maintenance here updates so when we say life support it is life support for us definitely so we are out here at the technical services unit where they do all of our electronic sirens lights for all of our police cruisers all the police equipment so when we get new vehicles in obviously they just come as a vehicle so they like you said they have to do the blue lights, red lights, the sirens, radar. I'm about to get my calibrated. Yeah I mean all of the all that work is done here so you can imagine with as many with us having a sworn authorized strength of 641 officers that's a lot to keep up with and and it's not just putting it in the new vehicles if we have a problem and we need something fixed. They fix it. Right because it's not optional whether our blue lights work right if we've got to get somewhere we've got to get somewhere. So they play a very important role, a very important function here at the Lexington Police Department. So we are here at my home for patrol, Central Roll Call, where the Bureau of Special Operations and the Background Unit, Polygraph Unit, and ABC, they're all housed downstairs. Right. So Roll Call and Central Sector, where you work, your home, is upstairs, and all these other units are downstairs. So we're going to go in, we're going to take a look at some of those. The only ones I think aren't here today are the alcohol, beverage control, the ABC that aren't here, but that's an important function here too. They work with the state and then also the local as well. So many of these units have civilian support staff that help us out with that. And we are here in the backgrounds unit. A lot of people don't realize how many people they work with and how many backgrounds they do throughout Lexington Fayette Urban county government, not just the police department. So they do backgrounds for all the police officers, all the safety officers, all the civilian folks that we're focusing on in this episode, actually. That can write citations. Right. And code enforcement, all those people, crossing guards, just a variety of people they do the backgrounds on. So very important function. And this office contains both sworn and non-sworn civilian support staff here. So very important role here at the police department. And we are here in the polygraph unit because I'm about to get a polygraph. I have been waiting for this opportunity for a long time to hook Nicole up. We got a few things we want to ask her. So a lot of people don't realize that so many people that work, people that work at Lexington Police Department, Lexington Fire Department, our civilian support staff, people from agencies even around Lexington. Part of the background process and part of the hiring process is taking a polygraph. You remember yours? I do, 14 years ago. It was a different building. Mine was a little bit longer ago than that, but it's important, right? Because we want to know people's background thoroughly. We want to know their integrity, make sure they're not trying to hide anything. So this unit is comprised of, again, a couple of sworn folks that do it part-time. And then we also have two retirees that are civilian support staff that do it full-time. We are at another facility, the Lexington Police Department Training Academy. And with the Bureau of Training and Wellness, all the recruits walk through these doors as civilians, and they walk out as sworn officers if they graduate. But we're here today because we have some civilian support personnel here that do a whole lot of work to help.