Request By:
Mr. G. Herbert Pritchett
Chairman, Hopkins County Joint City-County Planning Commission
42 South Main Street
Madisonville, Kentucky 42431
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of July 9 in which you relate the following facts and questions:
"As I related to you, we expect the City of Madisonville to withdraw from the Hopkins County Joint Planning Commission, a joint planning unit established in accordance with KRS Chapter 100, in the near future. We further expect the City to interrogate the other governments here in Hopkins County under the terms of KRS 100.117.
"My questions are as follows:
"1) Should the various local governments reply in the affirmative to the City of Madisonville's interrogation and ask the city to join the existing planning unit, would the existing charter and agreements between the various governments establishing the Hopkins County Joint Planning Commission still be valid?
"2) Could the City of Madisonville after receiving affirmative responses and invitations to join and remain in the existing planning unit from the other various governments, establish an independent planning unit of its own?"
The withdrawal of the city of Madisonville from the joint planning commission would of course disassociate the city from the current planning agreement entered into by all parties pursuant to KRS 100.121, et al, which agreement would remain unaffected as to the remaining commission members. At the same time such withdrawal would necessitate a change in the representation of the commission.
Should the members of the remaining planning commission respond favorably to Madisonville's letter of interrogation pursuant to KRS 100.117, Madisonville could not, in our opinion, refuse to join and proceed to plan independently since this statute permits independent planning only in the event the interrogating city receives a negative response. Under such circumstances, we believe that Madisonville will have to negotiate a reasonable agreement with the present members to rejoin the planning unit if it desires to reinstate its planning and zoning program pursuant to Ch. 100 KRS.
Concerning your request for assistance in formulating a model affirmative response to Madisonville's interrogation letter, we suggest that you contact the state Department for Local Government at the Capital Plaza Tower, Frankfort, Kentucky 40601, phone no. 502-564-2382, as this agency's basic function is to assist local governments. You also might obtain assistance from the Kentucky Municipal League, Suite 203, Bradley Hall, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506, phone no. 606-252-2785. The Executive Director is Edwin L. Griffin, Jr.