Request By:
Mr. John L. Arnett
City Attorney
128 West Dixie Avenue
Elizabethtown, Kentucky 42701
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of June 7, in which you raise the following questions:
"Does the word 'adjoining' as set out in KRS 100.212 include property located across a railroad, or is the railroad the only 'adjoining' property owner that need be notified, assuming of course, that the property in question abutted the railroad?
"Would your answer to the above question be the same if the property owned abuts the railroad, but the property sought to be rezoned did not extend to the property line abutting the railroad? "
In response to your questions we are enclosing a copy of OAG 72-408 in which we point out that the term "adjoining property owner" is, of course, not defined in KRS Chapter 100. However, we took the position that though the term "adjoining" in many cases means touching or contiguous, it would under circumstances involving zoning changes include property that is located across a public street since buildings have been declared to adjoin even though they are divided by a private way. Words and Phrases, Vol. 2.
Under the same theory, property divided by a railroad track would, we believe, be considered as adjoining property, the owner of which should be notified as required by KRS 100.212. As pointed out in
Chicago and N.W.R. Co. v. Chicago Mechanics' Inst., 87 N.E. 933, 239 Ill. 197, the term "adjoining" has no arbitrary meaning or definition but its meaning must be determined by the object sought to be accomplished by the provision in which it is used. Thus, in view of the purpose to be accomplished, that of notification of proposed zoning changes, it seems reasonable to require that an owner of property located across a railroad track be considered an adjoining property owner under KRS 100.212.
On the other hand, in answer to your second question, if there is intervening property not subject to the zoning change between the railroad and the property involved, notification would not be required.