Fayette County adopts ordinance adding variance criteria for unimproved nonconforming lots

Planning and Zoning Director Deborah Bell presented Ordinance 2025-04 on Sept. 25, asking the Board to amend Sec. 110-242 of the county zoning ordinance to define criteria the Zoning Board of Appeals may use to grant variances for unimproved nonconforming lots.

Bell told the Board that the amendment lays out factors for determining whether a single-family home can be reasonably sited on a lot that does not meet district minimum lot size, including placement needs for a house, driveway, well and buffer, septic tank and both primary and backup septic fields. She noted the State Department of Public Health’s one-acre minimum guideline for lots served by well and septic systems and said soil type, lot shape and topography would also influence approvals.

Commissioner Eric K. Maxwell moved to adopt Ordinance 2025-04; Commissioner Charles W. Oddo seconded. The motion carried 4-0 with Vice Chairman Edward Gibbons, Commissioner Maxwell, Commissioner Charles D. Rousseau and Commissioner Oddo voting in favor; Chairman Lee Hearn was absent.

The change gives clearer review standards to the Zoning Board of Appeals when evaluating requests to develop single-family homes on lots that are otherwise nonconforming. The amendment does not supplant any Health Department requirements, which staff said may impose additional site-specific conditions. The Board took no public testimony on the ordinance.

The ordinance was approved during the Board’s regular meeting; any landowner seeking a variance must still proceed through the county’s appeals process and satisfy any state and county health and safety requirements.