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Board approves 235-foot road-frontage variance for 6350 South Highway 53 in Smithfield
Summary
Oldham County's Board of Adjustments on July 17 approved a 235-foot road-frontage variance to give a reconfigured 15-acre lot at 6350 South Highway 53 dedicated road access. The board conditioned approval on a staff-level minor plat and limited the variance to the plan considered at the hearing.
The Oldham County Board of Adjustments on July 17 approved a road-frontage variance that will allow a reconfigured 15-acre parcel at 6350 South Highway 53 in Smithfield to be recorded with 65 feet of road frontage rather than the 300 feet normally required for parcels that size.
Planning staff, represented by John Hein of Oldham County Planning and Development Services, said the applicants arranged a lot-line shift with adjoining owners so the reconfigured parcel would receive a dedicated access easement and additional frontage but still fall short of the 300-foot requirement. Hein told the board the lot previously shared a single access easement with neighbors and that the proposed plat would leave the new lot with 65 feet of frontage, requiring a 235-foot variance under Section 020-020 of the county zoning ordinance.
Applicants Steve and Karen Greenwell described the transaction as an exchange of acreage with adjacent owners who agreed to relinquish shared access because they obtained other ingress/egress. Steve Greenwell told the board the parties closed on the purchase in February and that the change gives the applicant dedicated access while preserving a pond on the site.
No members of the public testified in opposition. Board members asked whether sight-line or safety concerns had been raised; staff said none had been reported and noted that any new driveway or encroachment would require county engineer review and an encroachment permit. The board moved to approve the 235-foot road-frontage variance on the record, finding it would not adversely affect public health, safety or welfare, would not alter the essential character of the area and would not allow unreasonable circumvention of zoning requirements because the change increases road frontage on the parcel.
Conditions attached to approval require that the variance apply only to the plan considered at the July 17 hearing, and that a minor subdivision plat and survey be submitted to Oldham County Planning and Development Services for staff review and approval before permits are issued. The board recorded an affirmative voice vote and the motion passed unanimously.
