The city of Alexandria is replacing its zoning administrator position and instead utilizing the county’s planning and zoning services.
The city currently has an interlocal agreement with the county to provide building inspections and plan review services. That will be expanded to planning and zoning services and flood planning coordination under the new resolution.
According to Alexandria Mayor Andy Schabell, the city’s zoning administrator retired, and new applicants did not meet the requirements for the position, so they began looking into working with the county.
Alexandria will still have its planning and zoning board.
“We still have control over our comprehensive plan and our future zoning amendments, so we’re not turning any of that over to the county,” Schabell said. “They’re just doing the job of what Carol Hofstetter (previous zoning administrator) would do, and maybe a little bit more efficient just because they have more people in the office.”
Schabell said that he thought it would be a good fit because the county was already providing the city with building inspections. He said this service is something he would like to try for at least a year and then reevaluate if need be.
This new agreement will go into effect if the Campbell County Fiscal Court passes it at its next meeting on Feb. 27. Campbell County Administrator Matt Elberfeld said he is 100% confident it will pass.
Elberfeld said one of the benefits of this model is that there will always be someone available to answer any city zoning questions. Cindy Minter is the county’s Planning and Zoning director, and two additional planners are on staff.Â
Similarly, the county serves as a contract staff for Dayton, Bellevue, Cold Spring and Highland Heights city planning commissions.
“So those cities have enough of a caseload, want enough of a local identity, whereas the mayor described they have their own planning commission, their own board of adjustments,” Elberfeld said. “We just serve as the contract staff on behalf of those cities.”
Alexandria is also filling its code enforcement position, which Hofstetter previously helped with. Alexandria Police Chief Lucas Cooper said that while the city is interviewing for that role, the police department is handling code enforcement issues.
“I wanted to assure everybody that we’ll still be able to handle code enforcement issues until we get that position filled,” Cooper said. “Don’t ever hesitate to reach out and contact us.”
