The recently created Planning Subcommittee met for the first time at City Hall on October 9^th.

The committee – which is comprised of three Planning Commissioners: Bill Harp, Elizabeth Morton and Kelley Nisbet – has been charged with reviewing the Winchester-Clark County Zoning Ordinance and reporting back to the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission will then make recommendations to the Fiscal Court and City Commission.

Though much of the hour and forty-five minute-long meeting was devoted to discussing procedural matters and timelines, there were several notable points of discussion.

Early in the meeting, committee member Kelley Nisbet posed a question to the group: “Do we have any sample ordinances from other communities that we can reference? It’s always good to see a fresh set of somebody doing it right.”

To that, Elizabeth Morton responded “I was thinking about Mt. Sterling and Paris, and Midway and Versailles…”

Nisbet responded, “I think Nicholasville too. Jessamine County, I think is a good example.”

Clark Coalition would note that Nicholasville/Jessamine County is widely recognized as an example of poor land-use planning due to the extensive suburban sprawl that has been permitted there.

In addition, public comment throughout our community’s recent Comprehensive Plan process –and over the course of past Comprehensive Plans– has shown Clark County citizens’ strong opposition to following Nicholasville/Jessamine County as a model for growth.

Ms. Nisbet is a former president of Bluegrass Realtors and has been an outspoken advocate for ill-advised changes to the Comprehensive Plan and industrial solar on Clark County’s prime farmland.

Background

The Planning Subcommittee was created by the Winchester-Clark County Planning Commission at its September 2024 meeting.

After the announcement of the Planning Subcommittee, Clark Coalition made an inquiry to the Planning Department to find out when the meetings would take place. We were told that it was the intention of the Planning Director that the subcommittee meetings would not be open to the public.

We challenged this and asserted that the subcommittee meetings are subject to the Kentucky Open Meetings Act and the public must be permitted to attend. We cited guidelines issued by the KY Attorney General which state that: 

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“The Open Meetings Act applies to all meetings held by state and local government agencies.

Under KRS 61.805(2), the agencies covered by the Act include:

Any boards, commissions, committees, subcommittees, advisory committees, or ad hoc committees, which are established, created, and controlled by a public agency; and…

“A committee of a public agency, even if its function is purely advisory, is a public agency for open meetings purposes and a quorum of its members is calculated on the basis of the committee’s membership and not the membership of the public agency that created it. The committee must comply with all requirements of the Act.”

After consultation with the Planning Commission’s attorney, Mr. Robert Gullette, Mr. Jeffries reversed course and made the meeting open to the public, and advertised the meeting with a public notice in the Winchester Sun.

Clark Coalition believes strongly that public policy must be conducted in an open and transparent manner. It is why government transparency has been an integral part of our mission since day one. We will continue to advocate for transparency and the rights of citizens to observe and participate in civic processes.