Council agrees to draft ordinance to repeal PUD sections after county recommendation

City planning staff and council members discussed whether Shepherdsville had adopted planned unit development (PUD) regulations and what to do after the county’s recent action.

A city staff member explained that Charlie Spalding at the planning department believed PUD regulations had been included in an earlier adoption and that the county planning commission had recommended repeal. "...he believes that it was part of the overall tax regulations and therefore it was adopted by the city," the staff member said in summary of the planning office finding. The staff member recommended drafting an ordinance to repeal sections related to the PUD (section 5.900 through 5.904) unless the council wanted to pursue a narrower local overlay.

Council members said the PUD language had been used by developers to compress lot layouts and skirt customary subdivision standards. One council member cited Mount Washington subdivisions where the PUD was used to place houses closer together. Another said an overlay approach could be considered, but that the city currently lacks the staffing resources to research and write a narrowly tailored PUD overlay that would include traffic, water and road impacts; the county has more resources to do that work.

Council consensus was to direct staff to draft an ordinance adopting the planning commission’s recommendation and repealing the identified PUD sections; council members said they would listen to any future developer request for a bespoke PUD or overlay but did not want the current broad language to remain available for use that could circumvent standard subdivision rules.

No final vote adopting the repeal was recorded at the meeting; staff said they would prepare the repeal ordinance for council consideration.