Bourbon warehouse plans on hold while zoning reg change is considered
This development plan illustrates the distilled warehouse complex Heaven Hill Brands has proposed to build in Cox’s Creek off Louisville Road. The company agreed to table its zoning change request to allow time for a regulation change to find approval that will make the zoning change unnecessary. A public hearing on a package of proposed zoning regulation changes is up for public hearing on Aug. 11. Click image to enlarge.
By ELIJAH BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Friday, July 31, 2015, 11:45 a.m. — Heaven Hill Brands has withdrawn its zoning change request to allow construction of a 174-acre distilled spirits warehouse complex in Cox’s Creek due to a pending regulation change that may make the rezoning request unnecessary.
The regulation change will allow distilled spirits warehouses to locate on land zoned A-1 Agriculture without a zoning change. Currently, a bourbon distillery and warehouse complex requires I-2 Heavy Industry zoning — the county’s heaviest zoning classification.
A warehouse complex built in an A-1 Agriculture zoning under the new regulation would be required to meet specific requirements. The proposal limits warehouse structures to the traditional rack-type warehouses, and the warehouses must be built on a tract larger than 100 acres. Sprinkler systems would be required, and there are limits on warehouse size and height. All structures would be required to be built 200 feet from property lines, and at least 25 percent of the land must be remain dedicated to agricultural uses.
The regulation change was one of a several the planning commission reviewed at their monthly meeting Tuesday with plans of including them in an Aug. 11 public hearing. Last minute concerns about the distilled spirits warehouse regulation threatened to derail that amendment’s path to the public hearing.
Mike Zoeller, a planning commission member who also sits on the ad hoc committee which drafted the zoning amendments, told the commission Tuesday he had serious concerns about allowing distilled spirits warehouses in the A-1 Ag zoning classification.
At the heart of the issue was the amendment’s wording — the amendment states the warehouses are a “permitted” use in A-1 zoning. Zoeller said he would rather the warehouses be a conditional use.
The difference in language may seem insignificant, but to adjoining landowners it will mean having a voice in the process, he explained.
Making the warehouse use a conditional use means plans for the warehouses must have a public hearing, Zoeller explained. The public hearing gives neighboring landowners the chance to express their views of the project. He also said he had reservations about the long-term impact of allowing the warehouses in the A-1 zoning classification.
If the amendment the commission approves uses the term “permitted,” it means warehouses can be built without giving the public an opportunity to speak.
“The public should have some say if they’re going to live next to a whiskey warehouse complex,” he said.
Zoeller’s concerns led several members of the commission to discuss sending the proposed regulation amendment back to the ad hoc committee — a suggestion that prompted strong objections from a Heaven Hill Brands representative.
Bardstown attorney Jim Willett told the commission Heaven Hill objected to returning the amendment to the committee for additional review.
Willett was at the meeting to request the commission table the distillery’s pending request for the zoning change and conditional use permit for its planned Cox’s Creek distilled spirits warehouse complex.
Willett said the decision to table those requests was made in good faith and with the understand the A-1 zoning amendment would move forward to the Aug. 11 public hearing.
“Those requests involve a project that is critical to the well-being and corporate vitality of Heaven Hill, one of our oldest and most valued corporate citizens,” he said.
The changes in the bourbon industry have increased demand for warehouse space, which is necessary to age bourbon. “These distillers are dependent on their ability to increase their storage capacity.”
The A-1 zoning amendment keeps the county competitive as competition increases among counties seeking to recruit distillers. “These changes were seen as very accommodating to this valued industry,” Willett said.
“To pull back from the idea that we’re going to in this county try to help a valued corporate client is extremely disturbing and disheartening.” Willett said.
“I ask that you do not kill this investment by Heaven Hill in this community,” he said. “Time is critical, the competition is not slowing down and we need to get this issue resolved one way or the other,”
After discussion about the A-1 zoning amendment, the commission decided two versions of the amendment will be presented at the Aug. 11 public hearing.
One version of the amendment will use the “permitted use” wording; the second will use wording that makes it a conditional use that requires a public hearing.
The amendment — along with more than a dozen other zoning regulation amendments — will be discussed at the Aug. 11 public hearing.
In other business, the commission approved the following zoning requests:
— B-3 Regional Retail Business to R-1C Single Family Residential requests for two Maple Hill neighborhood properties in the 800 block of West Stephen Foster;
— R-1A Single Family Residential to A-1 Agriculture for 16.36 acres on the west side of Lenore Road;
— A-1 Agriculture to R-1A Single Family Residential for a 2.8 acre tract in the 900 block of Stonehouse Road.
NEXT UP. The planning commission’s next regular meeting is Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015, in the Fiscal Court Room on the second floor of the Old Courthouse on Court Square.
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