Oldham County planners approve reduced landscape buffer for LaGrange indoor baseball facility

The Oldham County Planning and Zoning Commission on April 28 approved an application to reduce a required vehicular use area perimeter landscape buffer at 428 East Main Street in LaGrange to allow an indoor baseball training facility to proceed.

Commissioners voted 9-0 to grant an eight-foot encroachment into the county's 10-foot buffer requirement, leaving a 2-foot buffer at the property, while explicitly retaining the visual perimeter screening requirement. Commissioner Marsh moved the approval, which Mr. Miller seconded; the roll-call vote was recorded as unanimous.

County planner Sandy Bigroden summarized the request and the site's history, saying the buffer rules (Oldham County Zoning Ordinance division 300-050) "are established to reduce the visual impact of vehicular use areas," and that the applicant was seeking relief because the size, shape and steep slopes on the lot leave "little developable area." The 0.55-acre, I-1-zoned parcel includes an existing building and a proposed addition; staff listed conditions of approval including limiting the waiver to the plans reviewed April 28 and requiring a site plan submittal under division 390 and all appropriate permits.

Zoe Surmersheim, representing the applicant, described the proposal as a multi-use indoor physical activity space focused on youth baseball lessons and small-group training. She said the applicant proposes 11 parking spaces, four of them for employees, and that the closest pavement would start about 15 feet from the road edge (including drainage easement and slope). Surmersheim told commissioners the applicant requested an 8-foot encroachment into the 10-foot VULBA, leaving about 2 feet from the property line to the buffer edge.

Dean Kiefer, the prospective owner and an Oldham County native who said he previously played professionally and now coaches, told the commission he and his family recently acquired and have begun cleaning up the site. "I was born and raised in Oldham County," Kiefer said, explaining his intent to provide a community athletic resource.

Commissioners questioned whether a fence or other continuous screen could satisfy the screening requirement; Surmersheim and the applicant said a fence or three-foot continuous screen would meet the visual screening standard. Commissioner Marsh's motion approved the reduced buffer but did not waive the screening requirement and included the staff-recommended conditions.

The commission's staff packet and the motion cite the waiver conditions: the approval applies only to the plans reviewed on April 28, the applicant must submit a site plan under division 390 for staff review and approval, and the applicant must obtain all required building permits and inspections.

The meeting closed with no further business and an announcement that the next Planning Commission meeting is scheduled for May 26.