Fort Thomas Planning Commission members joined the city council’s February meeting to discuss progress on the city’s zoning ordinance update project. The group heard from Alisa Duffey Rogers, an architect and planner with CT Consultants, who has been working on the project.
The city has been updating its zoning ordinances for more than a year, and that work will continue for several months. In 2022, the city hired CT Consultants to lead the process. Duffey Rogers and her colleagues divided the project into four phases, and are now working on phase three.
Phase one of the project involved assessing existing conditions and examining zoning and subdivision ordinances, she explained. From this, the consultant created a report and recommendations.
“During phase two, we created the revised report regulations, and the major changes from your current code were fleshed out. We concluded phase two in September of 2023,” Duffey Rogers said. “This phase two draft shows how the updated regulations differ from your current existing regulations. In that draft, anything that was deleted is struck out. Anything that was added is bold and underlined.”
Work in phase three started in January 2024 and will continue until April. The consultant explained this would be the phase where ordinance amendments would be formalized and the zoning map would be aligned. Phase four, which is scheduled for May, will involve adopting the changes and the zoning map.
No decisions were to be made at the meeting, said Duffey Rogers. Instead, she said her goal was to present two policy issues and give council and the commissioners an opportunity to discuss and ask questions.
The two policy issues included a discussion of mixed uses along Alexandria Pike and some questions on the future of Midway Court.
Current zoning on Alexandria Pike
Duffey Rogers said her proposal involves the zones along Alexandria Pike from the city’s southern corporation border to I-471. First, she discussed the current zoning.
“Today, Alexandria Pike has pockets of single-family detached dwellings fronting on Alexandria Pike as well as subdivisions that branch off US 27. No zoning district map changes are being proposed for those homes as part of the zoning ordinance update…So, nothing about those residential uses is changing,” she said.
Between these single-family detached homes are “on-residential nodes” populated with things like office space, retail, schools, churches, etc.
“There are essentially three separate non-residential nodes along Alexandria Pike. Starting at the southern end, the area that is around Hollywood Drive stretches all the way up to Pleasant Avenue, that’s one node. Further north, there’s a cluster of non-residential uses from Woodfill Avenue to Blossom Lane. The third area starts just beyond the Northern Kentucky Water District property and stretches to I-471.”
Her first question for city officials was whether or not residential units/spaces would be permitted over non-commercial spaces. She noted that some of the current zones do allow this, while others do not. By “residential over non-residential,” she meant the first floor of a building would be commercial only, but floors two and three above could permit residential use.
“In these three non-residential areas, there are four different zoning districts. In the general commercial district, office and retail uses are permitted. And the zoning ordinance was amended in 2019 to permit residential uses over non-residential uses, provided that the floor space for the residential uses does not exceed a ratio of two to one of the other permitted uses in the structure,” she explained.
In the “professional office” districts, medical offices and residential uses over non-residential uses are permitted, so Duffey Rogers said, “in these two zoning districts you already permit residential over non-residential.”
For the remaining two districts, “industrial park” (manufacturing, warehousing, laboratories, research facilities) and “highway commercial” (automotive service and repair, indoor recreation, hotels and motels), no residential is permitted.
Proposal: Alexandria Pike Mixed Use district
The consultants proposed a plan to simplify and clarify the non-residential portions of Alexandria Pike.
“We are proposing to create the Alexandria Pike Mixed Use district, which will replace the four zoning districts…We’re proposing two sub-zoning districts that have the same permitted uses…but different development standards that respond to the different topography and different development patterns that exist along the corridor today,” Duffey Rogers said.
The two sub-zoning districts would cut the main district north and south. The northern sub-district would run from Woodfill Avenue to I-471. The southern sub-district would go from Pleasant Avenue to the city’s southern boundary at Holly Woods Drive.
In the southern sub-district, placing the buildings on a parcel would be more tightly controlled by development and setback standards and restrictions on parking between buildings and Alexandria Pike, Duffey Rogers said. Standards could be different in the north end.
One place standards could be different is in permitting residential over non-residential. The type of uses and the topography in the northern portion might not be attractive to residential uses, while the southern portion near Holly Woods might create a nice walkable community for residents, Duffey Rogers said.
Officials will need to decide if they would want to allow for some residential over non-residential and then whether that would be for one or both sub-zones.
Density for residential uses was another concern. Right now, Duffey Rogers said, the only restriction for those permitting upper-floor residential is the ratio must be no more than two to one ratio. There are no specific density limits. Officials could decide to add density requirements as well as other restrictions.
Midway Court concerns
Another question was, what do officials want to do about Midway Court?
Midway Court is a small residential area with five single-family detached dwellings and one two-family dwelling. In 2008, it was included in the National Register of Historic Places for its local significance. The homes were built in 1924 to provide soldiers and working people with affordable rental housing. They were considered to be contributing to the historic district.
“Midway Court is also a part of the Central Business District Local Historic District that was created in 2002…This inclusion in the local historic district means that any external alterations that are visible from the street…must go to the Design Review Board for a Certificate of Appropriateness,” Duffey Rogers said.
She noted that all single-family and the one two-family dwellings are considered non-conforming uses within the Central Business District. This can cause complications in obtaining a mortgage and constrain the homeowner when making exterior improvements.
In the Central Business District, there are no setback standards for homes. What is permitted, therefore, is up to the Planning Commission. Homeowners would need to go before the commission if they wished to add onto their home, as well as go before the Design Review Board.
Proposal: Midway Residential One
“Let’s turn to the proposed zoning for Midway Court. As we discussed last June, due to the various existing conditions in the Central Business District, we are proposing to create sub-zoning districts,” Duffey Rogers said.
The change would allow single-family detached dwellings as well as small-scale retail of office use, Duffey Rogers said that would preserve some of the non-residential dwellings currently in the parcel, “And what that does is make that a conforming use, prevents any of those other homes from becoming a two-family…And it solves the mortgage problem.”
The new zone also includes development standards designed for single-family and two-family dwellings, such as setbacks standards. They will continue to be in the Central Business District Historic District, she explained.
In deciding what to do with Midway Court, Duffey Rogers said there are other options in addition to accepting the proposed zoning as it’s drafted with a few modifications. Another could be to permit other uses such as attached single-family or two-family, but since the homes are in the historic district, any changes visible from the right-of-way would still have to go before the Design Review Board and could risk the National Register designation.
A third option would be to create a planned development district. This district could exist as part of the ordinance, but nothing would happen until there was a rezoning request, and again, it would have implications for the National Register designation. The city could also create a new residential district designed for Midway Court without any non-residential uses.
Next steps
The next planning and zoning commission meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 6:30 p.m. At that meeting, the commissioners will review and discuss all the regulations that are applicable across the board to all the zoning districts (such as signs, parking, landscaping, buffering).
More meetings are planned for March 19 and 20, also at 6:30 p.m., involving further discussion on the zoning districts.
After the meetings, the public is invited to Fort Thomas Coffee (Eagle Room) for informational Q&A sessions. The next sessions will be Thursday, February 22, from 10 to 11:45 a.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. To see the zoning code update, check out Boards and Commissions under the Government tab on the website.
A phase three wrap-up meeting is planned for April 17.