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Lexington council asks staff to refine scenic-corridor rules for commercial sites
Summary
Council members debated whether the town's "undisturbed buffer" requirement for scenic corridors is workable for commercial development and asked staff to take the rules to the Planning Commission for possible clarifying language, hardship relief and sample parcel review.
Planning and Building Director Jessica Libran told the Lexington council at its June 15 work session that a recent pre-development meeting raised questions about how the town's scenic corridor regulations apply to commercial projects. The regulations, adopted in June 2025, aim to preserve canopy and understory trees along designated corridors, but staff said site constraints at several parcels prompted developers to ask how the standards would be applied to commercial development.
"The goal here for the scenic corridor is to preserve canopy trees and understory trees, not underbrush," Libran said, noting the ordinance requires replanting of desirable trees when undesirable understory is removed. She told council staff would review how the standards interact with the town's existing commercial landscaping requirements and suggested adding administrative flexibility for hardship situations.
Several council members said the ordinance's current phrase "undisturbed buffer" can be impractical for a commercial site that needs visibility and access from the road. One council member argued that forcing a 30-foot undisturbed buffer on a commercial parcel could "hide a $4 million building behind a 30-foot undisturbed buffer that's cudzu and some small pines," and recommended allowing a planted landscaped zone instead of an undisturbed strip.
Others urged preserving "trophy" trees where they exist. Council Member Jenny Michaels said she would not favor blanket exemptions for commercial properties and asked that language continue to protect significant trees while allowing removal of undesirable underbrush. Libran and other staff agreed to research alternatives such as clarified buffer definitions, a hardship mechanism, and examples from county rules that allow limited relief in constrained sites.
Council directed staff to send the ordinance text and the scenic corridor map to members, take the item to the Planning Commission for review, and return with recommended language and sample parcel analyses. Libran said the planning commission would need to make a recommendation because the regulations are part of the zoning and land development ordinances.
The discussion focused on balancing the ordinance's intent to preserve long-standing canopy with making commercially zoned parcels marketable and workable for businesses. Staff asked council to view candidate parcels on Corley Mill Road and Mineral Springs as real-life tests of any revised language before it is finalized.
