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Spencer County Fiscal Court rescinds earlier action, approves Dollar General zoning with brick requirement
Summary
After concluding some commissioners had mistakenly believed a prior vote would send the application back to Planning and Zoning, the Fiscal Court rescinded that prior action and approved a zoning change for Travis Farms Inc. (Susan A. Cox) for a Dollar General, adding a binding element requiring brick on the sides of the store (excluding the rear).
Spencer County Judge/Executive John Riley and the Fiscal Court on May 17 revisited a contentious second-reading vote on a proposed Dollar General store and approved the zoning change with an added design condition requiring brick along the sides of the building.
Riley opened the discussion by saying the court needed to "revisit and clarify what we did at the previous meeting" because members had differing understandings of the prior vote. He said some members had intended to send the application back to Planning and Zoning for further review, but the formal motion the court had taken did not do that. The County Attorney also described the prior vote as an "error in what they thought they were voting on," and the court agreed to rescind the earlier action before acting again.
Planning Administrator Julie Sweazy clarified the applicant and parcel, asking that motions use the correct verbiage: "Travis Farms Inc. for Susan A. Cox," so the record matched the application. Magistrate Esq. J. Moody pushed for stronger exterior materials, arguing the county did not want metal buildings near established properties: "we didn't need that type of building … the Dollar Store is just moving in there… It was not going to cost them that much money, to put brick down the side." County counsel said Dollar General had agreed to place brick on the sides.
Following a motion from Esq. Brewer, seconded by Esq. Beaverson, the court approved the second reading of the zoning change from AG-1 (agricultural) to B-2 (commercial) for a 1.94-acre tract in the 4900 block of Mt. Washington Road, "based upon the findings of fact of Planning and Zoning, with the addition of the additional Binding Element that the exterior of the building will be bricked on the sides all the way to the rear (excluding the rear)." The roll-call vote was unanimous among members present.
The court directed the clerk to reflect the precise motion language in the minutes and published the ordinance notice following the meeting. The judge and several members noted the county has no separate design or landscaping committee to formalize building aesthetics, and they relied on the binding element and the applicant's concession to secure the brick treatment.
The immediate outcome is an approved zoning change with a binding element requiring brick on the building sides. The decision concludes the matter before Fiscal Court unless a further legal challenge or an appeal to Planning and Zoning is filed.
