Entries for October 2011

On November 14, from 7-9 PM, the City of Independence is holding an open house to gather public input regarding changes to the Independence Zoning Ordinance.

In 2007, the Independence Community Small Area Study was approved by the city and adopted by the Kenton County Planning Commission as part of the Area-Wide Comprehensive Plan. Updating the zoning ordinance and map will support the city's effort to achieve the study's overall vision.

This meeting will be held in the Simon Kenton High School cafeteria, located at 11132 Madison Pike. Parking and school entrance is located near the gymnasium. Click here to review the draft regulations.

For more information about this event, contact Mr. Andy Videkovich at 859.331.8980 or IndependenceZoning@nkapc.org. View the printable flier.

Full Story >

Kenton County’s draft subdivision regulations that staff completed late last year is nearing its first test as the document is scheduled to appear on this month’s agenda of the Kenton County Mayors’ Group. A committee of that group has worked with staff and members of the Homebuilders Association since February.

Action by the Mayors’ Group will take the form of a recommendation to the Kenton County Planning Commission. The planning commission has spent the last several months reviewing the document and the changes it includes from regulations that have been in place since the late 1970s.

The new draft regulations, which are a complete rewrite of the current document, were prepared by staff to accomplish four specific goals.

•    Greater User Friendliness: (1) create regulations in a digital format, one that is easy to use via hotlinks that allow for better continuity and cross-referencing; (2) illustrate the regulations liberally.

•    Greater Design Flexibility for Developers: provide for greater design flexibility so developers can create subdivisions with character, not just cookie cutter images of their most recent design efforts.

“In addition to more design flexibility, we also provided for different green infrastructure techniques,” said Scott Hiles, NKAPC’s deputy director for infrastructure engineering, who oversaw the staff effort. “Our 1978 regulations didn’t anticipate the need for green solutions and didn’t authorize them.”

•    Greater Intergovernmental Coordination: assure that the new regulations mesh and compliment those of other agencies that play a role with new development.

•    Greater Taxpayer Protection: guarantee that all requirements provide for developments that stand the test of time so that city and county taxpayers aren’t required to pay to fix infrastructure problems prematurely.

To meet the taxpayer protection goal, staff’s draft regulations call for an increase in pavement thickness and the addition of under-drains for all new subdivision streets. Prematurely-failing streets was one of the main issues that prompted the Mayors’ Group to get involved in this rewriting process.

Based on discussions to date, staff expects the Mayors’ Group’s recommendation to the Kenton County Planning Commission to take the form of an endorsement with a number of proposals for added taxpayer protection. Hiles says planning commission members “are at a point now to hear the Mayor’s Group’s recommendation.”

It will be the Kenton County Planning Commission’s responsibility to sort through the myriad recommendations from different groups and to adopt a set of replacement regulations to serve the community in the future. That action is expected to take place in early 2012.

Full Story >

The online road construction coordination tool provided by the LINK-GIS partnerships is nearing the end of its second season in operation. The extent of its use by Kenton and Campbell County local governments has grown exponentially, as has the opportunities for rate- and tax-payer savings.

Over 30 public and private agencies are using the tool currently, including Kenton and Campbell County Fiscal Courts, a number of cities in each county, the water and sanitation districts, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Duke Energy, and Cincinnati Bell. Each uploads its street construction/maintenance projects to the GIS-based database called Envista.

“There are over 2,300 individual projects in Envista right now,” said Trisha Brush, GISP, deputy director for GIS administration. “It’s taken awhile for everyone to incorporate this step into their workflow, but it’s working very well now and we’re getting a lot of good feedback.”

A recently-formed user’s group of entities benefitting from the program is providing feedback to staff and each other. Members discuss their success stories, hurdles to using the software, and one-on-one training opportunities. “We’re reminding agencies if they don’t have their projects in there, they can’t coordinate and therefore, they won’t see any cost savings,” Brush said.

To date, cities have documented savings of at least $26,000 by coordinating in Envista. The City of Covington recently saved $18,000 by collaborating with the water district on several streets the city planned to repave and the water district planned to replace water mains.

“Envista had an immediate impact on our productivity and efficiency,” said Mike Yeager, PE, MPA, assistant Covington city engineer. “The city and the various utility companies are now able to coordinate and prioritize projects into the future based upon each other’s needs and budgets.”

The City of Covington will share its success story at the October 26 user’s group meeting. Brush, who recently attended an Envista conference to learn the software’s newest features and give feedback on behalf of the area’s users, will also share the software’s feature enhancements.

“This is just one more example of how GIS and NKAPC’s staff collaboration help to save local rate- and tax-payer dollars,” Brush concluded.

Full Story >