Campbell County is holding visioning sessions across the county to get residents’ input on the future comprehensive plan.
A comprehensive plan serves as a guide for the preservation and future development of land. The current Campbell County plan was created in 2008, and the goals and objectives were updated in 2015. Now, the county is working on a complete update.
The comprehensive plan covers unincorporated Campbell County and Crestview, Silver Grove, Melbourne, Southgate and Woodlawn, which are cities composing the Campbell County and Municipal Planning and Zoning Commission. Visioning sessions are currently being held in Silver Grove, Southgate and Melbourne, with more sessions coming.
The Southgate visioning session was held on July 31, though almost all of the residents in attendance were from unincorporated Campbell County. Campbell County Planning and Zoning Director Cindy Minter facilitated the conversations with residents on what they envision for the future of the southern part of the county.
Most of the conversation centered on preserving the quality of life in southern Campbell. Citizens noted cluster housing, traffic and roads and warehouses as concerns. Transportation and the extension of KY 536, which connects the AA Highway and U.S. 27, were also topics of discussion.
Attorney Steve Megerle, who represents people in the south end of the county and some of the attendees, said one issue in the unincorporated area is dense cluster subdivisions. Megerle represents a group of residents who banded together to fight a proposed cluster subdivision at 10743 S. Licking Pike by Maronda Homes, which began in 2022.
“Their consensus is that they do not want the comp plan to promote, recommend a residential cluster subdivision—dense subdivisions south of the urban service boundary,” Megerle said.
The urban service boundary is essentially the line where infrastructure like water and sewer can support higher-density residential development. In Campbell County, the line generally runs to Tyson Foods’ Claryville Plant and Campbell County High School. Minter asked the group if they thought the southern part of the county had adequate water and sewer access.
Unincorporated Campbell County resident Angie Siry, who has previously spoken with LINK nky against the Maronda Homes subdivision proposal, spoke during the session. Siry’s thoughts summarized how many folks in the room were feeling.
“I would love sewage, I would love water, but at what cost?” Siry said. “I have to accept clusters. I have to settle. So, I have to choose. Do I get sewage? Do my neighbors get water? Or do we say no to everything? Because if you say yes, then we’re going to say yes to clusters.”
Minter said something to think about is that the current comprehensive plan states that the minimum lot size in the agriculture zone is one acre. If residents wanted to change that in the new comprehensive plan update to, say, two acres to prevent small development lots, it would then make it more difficult for someone to section off an acre parcel of their land for a child or grandchild.
“If you all say, ‘Hey, we want to limit development outside of the urban service boundaries,” Minter said. “I don’t know that. Those are kinds of things that we want to hear from you about so that we can then ultimately try to weave them back into this plan, which ultimately feeds into regulations.”
Minter said a survey will be released at some point during the process, and one of the questions will be, “Do you think the minimum one acre is appropriate or should be changed?” She also said it is very hard to get a septic system on a one-acre lot—it typically requires at least an acre and a half.
Residents in attendance also pointed to Boone County and said they did not want more warehouses being developed in Campbell County.
“I think most of us here would agree; we’re not against progress,” one Campbell County resident at the session said. “We don’t want southern Campbell County to just sit stagnant; we are for progress—just not the mass chaos that is Boone County for profit or money.”
Minter said that much of Campbell County’s typography doesn’t necessarily prevent development like warehouses; however, it creates a lot more work and higher costs for them to prepare the land.
The area near Tyson Foods that is being turned into an industrial park came into question. The area in question is approximately 33.5 acres. The Campbell County Economic Progress Authority owns the vacant land. A conceptual site plan indicates approximately 20.75 acres of the site is buildable.
Minter said industrial parks are located where there is little pedestrian activity and are intended to bring more jobs to an area.
There are different levels of industrial zones. Minter said a manufacturer similar to Tyson could go there. She said you would not see something like a paper or diaper factory because Tyson gives off a smell that would cling to those products.
The topic of expanding 536 was also briefly discussed. The road would give people in the southern end of Campbell County an alternative route to Kenton County and eventually to Mount Zion Road in Boone County. Minter said Kenton County has already begun working on its portion.
This type of change in the county is one reason for an updated comprehensive plan.
One resident said they thought the expansion was “wonderful” because it would allow residents in the southern end to avoid U.S. 27, which she said was a “cluster at all times.”
Minter asked the group what they envisioned the land uses along 536 to be in the comprehensive plan. While some people said they would like it to remain how it is, some also suggested a grocery store.
The county is currently in the early data-gathering stages of the comprehensive plan, and it is not expected to be completed until 2025. The county is working with Michael Baker International on the update, which provides engineering and consulting services, including design, planning, architectural, environmental, construction and program management.
