February 2016 Newsletter

1. Inside views and news
The SKINNY
G E O R G E T O W N - S C O T T C O U N T Y
P L A N N I N G C O M M I S S I O N
February 2016
January
Construction Progress
The detention basin in front
of the new Dollar General
Store on South Broadway is a
good example of transform-
ing an unsightly basin into an
underground stormwater stor-
age system that allows the
parking lot to be constructed
on top of it. A row of large,
fabric-wrapped, filtering
chambers are connected to a
nearby manhole for easy ac-
cess and maintenance. Not
only is this a more efficient
use of land, but it hides that
unsightly, but necessary
drainage basin.
New building permits
City 25
County 12
Subdivision plats
reviewed and recorded 8
LOC sureties $ 4.5M
Cash sureties $ 583K
In the Pipeline
Clarks Pump ‘n Shop - 4,200 sq. ft. gas station
on the southeast corner of Paris Pike and
McClelland Circle.
Amerson Knife Barn - 3,750 sq. ft. retail build-
ing on the northeast corner of U.S. 25 N. and
Rogers Gap Rd.
Whitehouse Electric - 4,837 sq. ft. office/
warehouse facility on 2.2 acres on Carley Dr.
Redus Kentucky - commercial subdivision of
37 acres into five tracts located on the west
side of Connector Rd., north of U.S. 460 E.
Core Controls - 9,750 sq. ft. facility to design
and fabricate commercial controls on 2+
acres on Demand Ct.
The Transect: A smarter approach to zoning?
Scott County is somewhat unique in that we have a joint independent planning unit that
includes the County as a whole and all its municipalities under one planning umbrella.
This helps with coordination of process and administration, but it also tempts us into tak-
ing a one-way-fits-all approach. For instance, we have a joint City-County Zoning Ordi-
nance that makes available all potential zone districts and their uniform requirements to all
areas in the county. It may make sense to investigate a different approach.
The transect is a concept drawn from ecology. It is a progression through a sequence
of habitats, such as from wetland to upland to foothill. Ecologists use the transect to de-
scribe how each habitat supports symbiotic sets of mineral conditions, microclimate, flora,
and fauna. The rural-to-urban transect extends this classification system to include a se-
quence of human habitats of increasing density and complexity, from the rural hinterland
to the urban core. Design (and local land use regulations) at every scale should corre-
spond to the logic of transition from the natural edge to the man-made center.
Transportation, planting, buildings, setbacks, and all the myriad details of human habi-
tat naturally vary across the transect. Context should matter and play into design and the
form development is
required to take. This
approach could lead to a
code that allows place-
making to occur more
easily, where context
and location would mat-
ter and be considered in
the zoning code.
Over 100 people attended the Com-
prehensive Plan kick-off meeting on
January 26. Contact the Planning Of-
fice if you’d like to participate!
Stay up to date through our
Facebook page!
Mapping Your World
Meet Polina Karpova, our new GIS Intern! Polina
came to the US from Russia and quickly fell in love
with the Kentucky culture, people, basketball, and much
more. Polina is currently a student at Eastern Kentucky
University. She is thrilled to use some of the skills she
has acquired, as well as to learn the ways in which GIS is used in mu-
nicipal government.