By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Tuesday, June 2, 2026 — Nelson Fiscal Court completed its public hearing in started last month in regard to a reconsideration of the court’s 2025 vote to deny a rezoning request for property located adjacent to the Woodlawn Springs subdivision.
After receiving additional data the magistrates requested during the initial part of the public hearing, the court voted 3-2 in favor of granting the rezoning request.
The request means that the property can now be developed into new housing units as planned by the owners.
LEGAL ACTION REQUIRED RECONSIDERATION. In 2025, Nelson Fiscal Court was asked to review a zoning request regarding property that was adjacent to the Woodlawn Springs subdivision. Since the development’s golf course closed years ago, the property owners have been working to build additional homes on the former golf course property.
In that zoning request last year, the planning commission voted 9-1 to recommend the requested zoning change. When fiscal court was asked to review the planning commission recommendation, the court voted 3-2 to deny the rezoning request.
The property owners appealed the fiscal court decision in Nelson Circuit Court, and in his review of the fiscal court’s decision, Nelson Circuit Judge Charles Simms III ruled against fiscal court.
The judge’s actions left fiscal court with two options. The first was to appeal Simms’ ruling to the Kentucky Court of Appeals. The second option — the one the magistrates opted for — was for Fiscal Court to reconsider the matter and conduct its own public hearing.
THE VOTE. Magistrates Jon Snow and Adam Wheatley voted against the rezoning request.
Wheatley and Snow both said the request was not a move supported by the guidelines found in the Nelson County Comprehensive Plan. Snow also cited the potential impact of the rezoning on an existing residential subdivision street.
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