Shelbyville council adopts ordinance limiting large retail filling stations after landowners' attorney warns of legal challenge

The Shelbyville City Council voted unanimously on Feb. 5 to adopt an ordinance adding a new article to Chapter 66 that regulates retail filling stations and electric vehicle charging stations in the city.

City Attorney Steven Gregory read a summary of the ordinance on second reading before the council took up public comments. Several citizens raised concerns about how the rule would affect a property at the corner of Hwy 53 and Hooper Station Road, and Steven Henderson, an attorney representing the landowners, urged the council to reject the ordinance. "My client's believe that if this proposed Ordinance is passed, it is an unlawful attempt to interfere with a real estate transaction and they would incur damages because the ordinance prohibits gas stations with more than 24 dispensers in the City of Shelbyville," Henderson said.

Henderson told the council the property was annexed at the city's request in 2019 and is zoned X1, an unlimited interchange designation meant to promote uses serving interstate travelers, and said a gasoline station is a permitted use in that zone without current pump-number limits. He cited Kentucky Revised Statutes 100.326 and argued the ordinance "could set a precedence that the City can and will arbitrarily prohibit a business from operating in compliance with permitted uses in the City of Shelbyville's zoning regulations." Henderson asked the council to vote no to avoid legal action and potential damages.

Councilmember Shane Suttor moved to approve the ordinance and Councilmember Sally Zaring seconded. A roll-call vote recorded ayes from Councilmembers Tom Hardesty, Georgina Ivers, Pam Carter, Frank Page, Shane Suttor and Sally Zaring; the motion carried.

The ordinance is listed in the meeting record as Ordinance No. 2026-02-05(A). The transcript does not record a formal response by city staff or city counsel to the legal concerns Henderson raised, nor does it record any immediate action by the council to address the attorney's statutory claim. The council's adoption means the ordinance is now on the books pending any judicial or administrative challenges the landowners may pursue.

Background: The transcript locates the property of concern east of Hwy 53 and north of Hooper Station Road; the record shows the property was annexed in 2019. The proposed ordinance text, as read by the city attorney, was presented as a citywide restriction; the meeting record does not include the full ordinance text or implementation details such as enforcement timelines or grandfathering provisions.

What happens next: The transcript documents the attorney for the landowners warning of potential legal action under KRS 100.326. If the landowners pursue a legal challenge, the case would determine how the statute and the city's zoning and land-use rules apply to the property and to the new ordinance.