Fayette County Planning Commission members scratched their heads in mock perplexity last week as they read the county Board of Education's response to two rezoning requests.

“I'm trying to figure out how rezoning this property from a subdivision category to agricultural is going to impact these schools,” said commission member Fred Bowen.

School board comment is sought for each rezoning request that comes before the commission, and for years the board's standard response has been a form letter that lists recent school construction activity, calculates the number of students that would be generated by a change in zoning and cautions that “growth in the tax digest must parallel growth in the student population if an undue burden is not to be imposed on the county's taxpayers.”

The letter addressing last week's requests points out, using averages, that under the new zoning the property could “generate an estimated one elementary student, one middle school student and one high school student.” It fails to mention that under the current zoning the property could generate several more students, and in any case the rezoning applicant has grown children and is not likely to place any new ones in the school system.

The letter is signed by superintendent of schools Dr. John DeCotis.

Discussing the form letter, Planning Commission members laughed at one local newspaper's recent story reporting that the commission had ignored the school board's “impassioned plea” in approving a rezoning.

“I'd prefer not to even see the letters on these things because it's the same letter every time,” said commission member Jim Graw.

“We need the input,” commissioner Al Gilbert responded, “but a letter addressing the merits of each rezoning individually would be better” than the form letter, he added.

DeCotis told The Citizen he would be happy to make changes in how the school system addresses rezoning requests if the Planning Commission would address its complaints to him. “They should at least contact us to tell us what they would like,” he said. “We need to know what they're looking for.”

He added that school officials “would be happy to work with them any way we can.”

The commission deliberated all of 15 minutes before granting the two requests for rezoning from subdivision categories to agricultural.

“To me it's a no-brainer,” said Gilbert before making the motion to approve Darrell Kozisek's request to change the zoning of his 10.12 acres on Neely Road from R-20, which would allow homes on 1.5-acre lots, to A-R, a category that requires a minimum of five acres per dwelling.

Kozisek said he wants to replace an old pole barn on the property with a storage building for equipment used in his commercial fishing lake, adding he also might want to put a cow or horse on the land at some point.

“In my opinion, the land's not suitable for farming,” said Thomas Petrasek, a Neely Road resident. But Petrasek didn't voice any strong objection to the rezoning, and commissioners voted unanimously to recommend that the County Board of Commissioners approve the request.

The group also unanimously approved Lloyd Touchton's request to rezoning his 22-acre tract on Spence Road from R-70, which allows two-acre home lots, to A-R. Touchton said he wants to build a house and workshop on the land.

The requests will go before the County Commission Thursday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. for final consideration.

Back to News Home Page | Back to the top of the page