With the passage of House Bill 443 last year, the General Assembly made two big changes to how communities must spell out and approve development plans. It called for development criteria to be objective and applied without discretion from local planners — meaning if a plan reaches the final stage, with no need for waivers or zone changes, it would move forward without a chance for public comment.
The intent is to streamline the development process.
But the new objective standards and loss of public input have raised concerns from residents and developers alike. Tuesday, the council introduced a number of amendments with the goal of answering those concerns.
In addition to a number of tweaks to the standards themselves, Councilman James Brown introduced a requirement that developers post signs at development sites announcing plans and including contact information for city planners. Brown also moved that the planning commission provide a chance for public comment on all new certified development plans.
While that comment opportunity wouldn't be identical to the current process, Brown said he thinks it would help planners identify issues with the standards.
"This amendment will allow for us to get useful feedback and information from folks in our neighborhood to better inform future policies while these approvals are moving forward," he explained.
The council gave its initial thumbs up to Brown's changes.
Lexington must have its h b four forty three compliant policy in place by July 1 or risk legal challenges.