By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Trees and trailers will be on the agenda for the Fayette County Planning Commission in its monthly work session tomorrow.

The group meets at 7 p.m. in the Planning Department office, second floor at the County Administrative Complex.

A proposed new, more restrictive tree preservation ordinance has been on the group's agenda for several months now. Following a recent hearing on a rough draft, commissioners hope to refine the ordinance and get it ready for a vote in the near future.

Current regulations require that developers place a minimum number of caliper inches of trees on developments, but those requirements can often be met in a developments required buffer areas, leaving no trees in the interior of the project.

Proposed new rules would increase the number of trees required, and would require that some of the trees be outside the buffer areas. Also, the new law would give developers twice as much credit for saving existing trees as they would get for planting new ones, to discourage stripping land of all trees prior to construction.

Commissioners also will examine the county's ordinance governing temporary use of portable offices and classrooms for churches.

A spokesman for New Hope Baptist Church recently asked the County Commission to direct the Planning Commission to study the law, saying the church used a temporary classroom recently during one construction project, and is thus prohibited from using another one during yet another expansion project currently underway.

In a fast-growing area, churches need more leeway, the spokesman said.

Also on the agenda for Thursday's work session, commissioners will discuss a series of proposed “housekeeping” changes to the county's subdivision and development regulations.

All meetings of the commission are open to the public, but the group ordinarily doesn't accept public comment during work sessions.