Commissioners vote 5-0 against family seeking to assist aged mother; change would be ‘spot zoning,’ weakening county’s land use plan
The Fayette County Board of Commissioners denied a rezoning request last week despite the numerous pleas on behalf of the family making the application, but board members said they would still be looking for ways to help solve the family’s problem.
A public hearing took place at the board’s Dec. 10 regular meeting regarding Ruth Sitton’s petition for rezoning of 4.238 acres on Antioch Road from A-R to R-70. County staff as well as the Planning Commission recommended denial because approval of the request could “provide legal leverage for the rezoning of other properties in the Agricultural-Residential land use area to zoning districts that require less than a five-acre lot size or density,” according to a county staff report.
Officials acknowledged that while the request would not result in a burdensome use of roads, utilities, or schools, “existing conditions and the area’s continuing development as an A-R single-family residential district do not support the petition for rezoning.”
Tom Lord spoke to the board in place of Sitton’s agent Al Gaskins, who was ill, and read a prepared statement.
The purpose of the request is for Ruth Sitton’s daughter to build a home next to her mother, who need some assistance in her advanced age and whose husband passed away in 2011. While they are aware of the five-acre minimum lot size requirement, the applicants feel certain things should be considered.
Sitton and her husband bought the original 10.4 acres in 1974 but lost some of it to right-of-way for Antioch Road and some more for the construction of Lake Horton. The property at 1079 Antioch Road next to them is only two acres, Lord said, and a subdivision that almost touches their land consists of two- and three-acre lots.
“This is family trying to care of a parent they love,” said Lord. “They want her to stay in her home as long as possible.”
A petition from all of Sitton’s neighbors on Antioch Road shows that they are happy for her to stay there, he added, and he pointed out that many of those neighbors came out to the meeting to support her.
Lord noted that the resistance seems to be the chance of setting a precedent, but if a precedent is set for this type of move, there should be nothing wrong with it. “Isn’t that what community is about?” he asked.
Bonnie Hicks, one of Sitton’s next-door neighbors, told the board that she and her husband are not at all opposed to this. She said the lake took some of her property and it is below five acres now but there is little noticeable difference. Houses less than a quarter-mile down the road sit on one-acre lots, she pointed out.
No one spoke in opposition to the request.
When the issue returned to the commissioners, Steve Brown moved to deny the request and Randy Ognio seconded.
Brown told the family members that he feels for them and knows what they are going through with having to make arrangements for an elderly relative, but he he had no choice on this issue.
“The one thing I’ve got to pay attention to, that I swore I would uphold, is the ordinances of this county,” he said. “You do have some R-40 a short distance away, and I will be the first to tell you that was a mistake. If you erode the Land Use Plan and start allowing these spot rezonings, you lose your legal ability to uphold the plan at that point.”
Brown said a rezoning decision like this would require “an extraordinary set of circumstances” and “if all of that land around that lake went to R-40 we would have an absolute revolt on our hands.
“It’s nothing against the homeowner, nothing against the family, but at the end of the day I’ve got to look at what the Land Use Plan says and see if there is a reasonable way to honor your request legally, and I cannot find one. You have my apologies; I can’t do it.”
Ognio agreed with Brown. “There is just no wiggle room on this,” he said, adding that spot zoning is something the commissioners try to stay away from.
Fellow commissioner Charles Rousseau asked if the R-40 zoning cited in the discussion had been granted under special circumstances. Zoning director Pete Frisina replied that he understood those rezonings to have taken place before the Land Use Plan was put into place.
David Barlow recalled an instance where a county employee and spouse found out they had bought a house on an illegal lot, which prevented them from getting homeowners insurance, and the board had to deny them a variance but they were later able to come up with a solution. He asked Frisina if a solution could be found in this case.
“We have to look at what is legal and not necessarily what we feel in our hearts is right,” said Barlow. “As people, there’s not one of us up here who wouldn’t vote to help these folks because that’s how we feel about our community. But we have to do what is legal.”
Chairman Charles Oddo reiterated the previous comments, saying the entire community has to be considered and the board has to look at what could happen down the road as a result of its ruling. “This is one of the worst decisions I will have to make,” he said of this vote, which was 5-0 to deny the request.
But that might not be the end of it. Brown suggested that a large addition could be built onto the existing house within the county’s guidelines, although Lord said that was not practical and would probably be out of compliance. Ognio also stated his desire to find another solution like that.
Ognio emailed The Citizen the day after the meeting, stating that he had “followed up on it this morning looking for options.” He said he asked how many residents can be on one piece of A-R zoned property and he was told that the applicants could have a guest house, although they declined that option when it was brought up by county officials previously.
There is a limit on the size of a quest house but it “looks like it is a valid option,” Ognio wrote. “While this might not be an ideal solution it is an option that was not discussed last night.”
A couple of citizens asked the board to reconsider the denial when they spoke during the meeting’s regular public comment time. One said specifically that exceptions should definitely be made when the lot size is reduced below the minimum because land was taken by the county such as in this case for the road and the lake.
Brown said he hopes the existing house can be enlarged but spot zoning would have serious consequences. He stressed that decisions like these are never easy for commissioners, pointing out that one developer has not spoken to him since a recent vote to deny his request, even though his and Brown’s children were friends for 18 years.
