A STUDY OF FAYETTE COUNTY’S SMALL RURAL COMMUNITIES PHASE III SUMMARY POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS These policy recommendations build upon a three-year study of Fayette County’s small rural communities and conversations with their residents. Begun in 2002, the study involved the University of Kentucky’s Center for Historic Architecture and Preservation (CHAP) as a consultant to the Urban/County Council, Division of Planning and the Rural Settlement Alliance Committee. These groups intended the study to implement the recommendations of LFUCG’s 1998 Rural Land Management Plan and 2001 Comprehensive Plan Update, each of which recognized the special characters of the rural settlements and expressed concerns about their futures. The goals of the three-phase study included: 1) developing good communication with community residents; 2) gaining better understanding the communities, both as historic places and in terms of their current issues and needs; and 3) making recommendations grounded within such understanding for their continued survival and enhancement. Working closely with the Division of Planning and the Rural Settlement Alliance, during phase I of the study CHAP mapped important features within each of 14 rural communities within the Rural Service Area, and three – Cadentown, Bracktown and Jonestown -- within the Urban Service Area. This data-gathering phase involved beginning research on the communities’ histories and documenting the character and condition of the buildings within them. Phase II continued this research, assessed the eligibility of the communities’ buildings and landscapes for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, and considering general directions for planning and protection policy. In Phase III, the project partners developed planning recommendations for each community. This document is a summary of the major recommendations or “action items” of Phase III. The full reports for each phase of the project are on file with LFUCG’s Division of Planning. Abstract The residents of Fayette County’s small rural communities are more interested in community character, setting, and enhancement than in preserving architectural or other design details. While they recognize and appreciate the historic significance of their communities, they are less interested in living in historic districts than in sustainable and vital communities that maintain the characteristics that drew them there. High among these characteristics are affordable housing and rural setting. Though an H-1 zoning overlay protects Cadentown, this traditional preservation mechanism is not discouraging adjacent development that residents find undesirable. While the ND-1 zoning overlay is more flexible with regard to its regulation of architectural detail and thus in some ways better meets communities’ needs, it applies only to residentially zoned parcels whereas many of the communities also contain business and/or agricultural zones. Like any zoning strategy, both H-1 and ND-1 apply only to the parcels they overlay, and cannot protect community setting. The best strategy for protecting the characters and settings of Fayette County’s small rural communities will need to involve a combination of strategies to meet both goals. Thus, the study specifically recommends that current planning and protection mechanisms such as the Purchase of Development Rights Program and perhaps
G:\LRP\2006PLAN\rural settlements alliance\Final_POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR Rural Settlements.doc
Page 1 of 16