Farmer and Frenchman will pause its appeal of the county codes administrator’s ruling about a proposed project while the process of amending the county zoning ordinance is occurring.
That also will in effect cancel a vote that was to take place at a special called meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday.
According to F&F attorney Steve Arnett, the county Board of Zoning Adjustment meeting will still convene at 6 p.m.—because it had already been advertised—but then BOZA attorney Shad Brown will announce that the vote to uphold or overturn a judgment denying F&F a building permit is suspended.
The vote that BOZA had been scheduled to take involved County Code Administrator Randy Tasa’s judgment to deny F&F a building permit to construct a six-unit bed and breakfast on its campus. Tasa said at a Nov. 10 BOZA meeting when F&F’s appeal was heard that allowing F&F to build without going through the planning and zoning process would set a precedent that could allow others on agricultural land to add on to their businesses in unseemly ways.
Meanwhile, F&F and its representatives say that the small farm winery is exempt from planning and zoning because its land is zoned agricultural.
County Attorney Steve Gold agreed with Tasa, saying that allowing F&F to build without going through the planning and zoning process could have negative unintended effects, but he also said there were ways that F&F could proceed with the project, one of them being to seek a text amendment to the county’s current zoning ordinances.
At the end of that early November meeting, a vote that night was tabled to Dec. 1.
But in the interim, F&F and local economic officials discussed the issue with County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider. On Tuesday, those economic and business officials made a brief presentation to the Henderson County Fiscal Court, asking for a change to the ordinance.
Abby Dixon, the executive director of the Henderson Tourist Commission, told the fiscal court that updating the ordinance will provide “clarity, fairness and a predictable path forward” both for the Farmer and Frenchman and other agricultural businesses that may want to build a bed and breakfast in the future.
In a previous interview with the Hendersonian, Henderson Economic Development Executive Director Missy Vanderpool said adding the definition of a “farmstay” to the local zoning ordinance might be a way forward.
All farmstays are bed and breakfasts, and according to KRS, two different types of bed and breakfasts are defined. A bed and breakfast home has five or fewer rooms or suites for occupancy, while a bed and breakfast inn has six of more rooms or suites for occupancy, according to KRS 219.011.
Getting the definition of farmstay amended into the county zoning ordinance could potentially allow Farmer and Frenchman—and perhaps other future agriculture businesses—the ability to build a bed and breakfast on land zoned agriculture and not need a rezoning to do so.
Currently, a conditional use permit on land zoned agricultural in the county’s zoning ordinance allows for construction with up to four guest rooms.
The fiscal court approved a motion on Tuesday to originate a text amendment to the county’s zoning ordinance and send it to the Henderson City-County Planning Commission.
After that, the planning commission will schedule a public hearing on the text amendment and then vote on a recommendation that will then be sent back to the fiscal court. Most often, the fiscal court accepts the planning commission’s recommendation and has a first and second reading and votes on the language the planning commission sends back.
Schneider told the Hendersonian Tuesday it was unclear what the text amendment would contain but it would be focused on agritourism in the county.
Schneider, though, said a conditional use permit, which would allow construction of a bed and breakfast with a specified number of guest rooms on land zoned agricultural, could be what the text amendment entails.
After Tuesday’s meeting, F&F decided to put the appeal to BOZA on hold.
Arnett said if fiscal court does not ultimately pass an amendment that would allow for the F&F expansion to proceed, the business would reinstate the appeal of Tasa’s ruling and reschedule a hearing with the county BOZA. If the text amendment is approved, he said F&F would drop the appeal.
