Request By:
Honorable H. Dewitt Ricketts
Mayor, City of Eminence
338 South Main Street
Eminence, Kentucky 40019
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 5 in which you present the following question:
"Prior to 1962, a zoning commission was legally established. Shortly after the passage of the zoning ordinance in 1962, the entire commission dissolved. Thereafter, the Mayor and City Council assumed the responsibilities and duties of the commission. The original ordinance has not been revised since its adoption in 1962.
"Please give me your opinion as to what I as Mayor of the City of Eminence should do to re-establish a city zoning commission. "
The 1966 legislature enacted the present state comprehensive planning and zoning act [Ch. 100 KRS] which required all cities to operate under the act if they desired to plan and zone within their respective jurisdiction. The act gave all cities a five (5) year grace period during which they were permitted to operate under their old planning and zoning ordinances, if they had any. In any event, unless they proceeded to comply with the terms of the 1966 planning and zoning act within the five (5) year period following its enactment, all planning and zoning under their ordinances was ipso facto abolished [KRS 100.367].
From the facts presented, it would appear that the city of Eminence, which initially enacted planning and zoning in 1962 but later dissolved its planning commission and failed to revise its planning ordinances since the initial adoption in 1962, has no planning and zoning legally in effect, having failed to proceed to elect to operate under Ch. 100 KRS within the five-year grace period.
Under the present planning and zoning act, Ch. 100 KRS, each city must interrogate all the other cities of the county as well as the county pursuant to KRS 100.117, and if any one or more respond in the affirmative to the effect that they wish to create a joint planning and zoning commission, then such must be done. If they respond in the negative, then the city can plan independently. In any event, however, following the interrogation and before the city can plan, there must be established either an independent planning commission or a joint commission, depending upon the initial response to the city's interrogation. In addition, a board of adjustment must be established before zoning regulations can be adopted. See KRS 100.133, 100.201 and 100.217.