The Lexington Planning Commission voted to adopt Resolution 2025-02 to initiate a zoning text amendment on mini-warehouses and later approved a motion recommending that the City Council prohibit mini-warehouses in the city limits, while providing a backup set of multistory design standards should council decide to allow them.

The resolution to initiate was described by staff as an administrative step to “start this process so that we know how it was started when we look back,” and does not bind the commission or council to adopt specific language, Arnie, planning staff, said during the meeting.

Commissioners reviewed proposed amendments that would limit mini-warehouses to multistory buildings; prohibit single-story facilities and outdoor accessory storage; require that all storage be inside enclosed buildings with interior corridors; require design features so facades do not appear as blank walls; position loading docks to the rear or side (not facing residential properties, parks/open space, or public streets); and apply landscaping and entrance-corridor standards from the zoning ordinance packet. The packet also included a parking calculation (three spaces plus one per 100 storage units), a lot requirements table, and photographs the commission had reviewed at an earlier meeting.

A public commenter, Natalie Ager of Illinois, told commissioners she did not favor locating storage in the center of town because ‘‘when people are...putting their storage somewhere, I assume that…to carry that much, they're already gonna be driving.’’ Several commissioners echoed the convenience and land-use concerns and said Lexington’s small size and limited vacant land weigh against allowing mini-warehouses in many parts of town.

Following discussion, a commissioner moved that the Planning Commission prohibit mini-warehouses; the motion explicitly included a fallback recommendation that, if City Council chooses to allow the use, the multistory definition and the proposed design standards (as amended by the commission) be adopted. Another commissioner seconded, and the motion carried.

Staff said it will prepare a clean draft reflecting the commission’s edits, advertise the item as a public hearing, and place it on the April meeting agenda for public hearing and a council recommendation record. The commission also adopted Resolution 2025-02 earlier in the same agenda item to formally begin the zoning text amendment process.

Votes at a glance
- Resolution 2025-02 (initiate zoning text amendment on mini-warehouses): Motion made and seconded; adopted (vote recorded as unanimous by the commission in the meeting). Note: staff characterized the resolution as a procedural step to begin the amendment process and not as final adoption of ordinance language.
- Motion recommending prohibition of mini-warehouses in Lexington, with a backup recommendation of multistory-only design standards if Council allows them: Motion made and seconded; carried (vote recorded as unanimous by the commission in the meeting). Staff will prepare a clean draft and advertise for public hearing in April.

The commission also clarified several specific edits it wanted in the draft: remove redundant language about interior corridors (move the sentence into a single subsection), explicitly include “multistory” in the mini-warehouse definition, allow (but not require) accommodations for a live-in manager, and cite fiber-cement panel siding as an acceptable material. Staff confirmed that if an applicant seeks a use more mixed with residential uses (for example, live/work unit configurations), that would proceed through the PDMU (planned development–mixed use) rezoning and public-hearing process.

Next steps: staff will produce a clean draft with the commission’s edits, advertise the amendment for public hearing, and place the item on the commission's April meeting packet for public hearing and formal recommendation to City Council.