Planning commission approves waivers for Harmony Hills pool parking and landscape buffer

The Oldham County Planning Commission voted 9-0 on March 25 to grant two waivers requested by the owners of the former Harmony Hills swim club at 1222 Cliffwood Drive in Goshen, allowing a reduced perimeter landscape screen and a smaller parking lot than required by county zoning rules.

The applicant sought a waiver of the vehicular use area perimeter landscape buffer (the VULBA requirement under the Oldham County Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, section 300-050) and a waiver of the minimum off-street parking required for a clubhouse with pool (section 280-060). The owner proposes to renovate the vacant swim-club facility on a 4.27-acre R-2 zoned parcel into a private club with a 4,500-square-foot clubhouse, pool and recreational courts, and to install a 50-space parking lot instead of the 68 spaces required by ordinance.

Why it matters: County staff and the applicant said the waivers balance neighborhood safety and stormwater concerns against strict compliance. County staff documented past nuisance and code-enforcement activity at the site — four enforcement cases since 2018 and mosquito complaints tied to stagnant water — and the Oldham County Board of Adjustments on March 20 granted a conditional use permit for private-club use with a condition barring…