City moves to administer, enforce its sign ordinance, historic preservation

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Monday, Jan. 12, 2015, 9 p.m. — Administration and enforcement of the city’s sign ordinance will return to Bardstown City Hall once the Bardstown City Council gives final approval Tuesday night of a revised classification and compensation plan.

Larry Green, assistant city administrator, tells the council Monday night about the proposed changes to the city classification and compensation plan.

Larry Green told the council that a letter dated Dec. 3, 2014, put the city on notice that the planning and zoning commission and its administrator would no longer handle the city’s sign regulations — including enforcement — effective Jan. 1, 2015.

The revised classification and compensation plan introduced Monday night adds the historic preservation coordinator position to the authorized job positions within city government. Hope Hawkins currently serves as preservation director, a position funded by the city but paid through county government. The planning and zoning director has previously been in charge of administering the city’s sign ordinance.

Green told the council that the city also plans to re-establish the office of Historic Preservation within City Hall which would remove historic preservation from planning and zoning. Without offering specifics, Green said the city will also reconstitute the Historic Review Board as an entity separate of the planning commission.

Green said the city’s action were necessary because historic preservation is important to the city and the city has no direct control over the planning administrator.

Councilmen Bobby Simpson, left, and Bill Buckman, right, talk with Mayor John Royalty prior to Monday night’s special meeting of the Bardstown City Council.

“The relationship between the City and the planning commission has deteriorated to the point that this seems to be the best option,” he told the council.

An ordinance to recreate the Historic Review Board will be forthcoming soon, and Green said the hope is to have someone hired for the job by the time the ordinance is enacted.

City Clerk Barbie Bryant reminded the council that questions related to the changes outside the classification and compensation plan could not be discussed at Monday’s meeting because special meetings are limited to consideration of the items on the agenda.

There was no vote need on the compensation plan’s first reading. The plan will be up for a final approval by the council at the council’s meeting Tuesday night.

BACKGROUND. The Dec. 3, 2014, letter marks the second time in six months the planning commission has withdrawn from administering the city sign ordinance.

On July 22, 2014, the planning commission put the city on notice it would no longer administer the city’s sign ordinance after the council voted 4-2 to uphold a challenge to the city’s sign ordinance brought before the council by businesswoman Rosemary Humkey.

At a July 29, 2014, meeting between city officials and the planning commission, the city agreed to make immediate clarifications to the sign ordinance if the commission would continue its administration of the ordinance.

The city further agreed it would form a committee to review and possibly update the sign ordinance. After several meetings, that committee — led by Larry Green, assistant city administrator, and former Councilman Tommy Reed — was disbanded by Green on Oct. 15, 2014, after members of the planning commission failed to show up for a scheduled meeting.

At that final meeting, Green said he planned to take the committee’s work to that point and assemble it in the form of an ordinance he would later present to the council and the public for input.

NEXT UP. The Bardstown City Council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015, in the council meeting room next to the Rec Center on Xavier Drive.

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