Earlier this month, Fort Thomas began the process of updating its comprehensive plan and residents are asking for more citizen involvement.
The first step in the process started with members of the Planning and Zoning Commission. The commissioners were tasked with reviewing the comprehensive plan and making suggestions about goals and objectives to city council.
At the July 21 council meeting, community members who had attended recent planning and zoning meetings expressed concerns about the progress of those meetings. They requested further clarity and more citizen input moving forward.
In Kentucky, a comprehensive plan is a long-range planning document that provides a vision for future land use and development. Cities are required to review their comprehensive plans at least every five years. The Fort Thomas comprehensive plan was last updated in 2018.
While technically behind in their five-year goal, city officials launched an extensive review and update of the city’s zoning and subdivision ordinances in 2021. The city worked with CT Consultants to examine and make recommendations. The revised zoning ordinance, known as the Unified Development Ordinance or UDO, was adopted at the end of 2024.
The project was not without controversy. Both residents and council members expressed concerns about some of the proposed changes, and community members asked for more input into the process. Disagreements about density in commercial areas, in particular, were a concern.
City Administrator Matt Kremer met with community members to discuss ways to improve the process to make the upcoming comprehensive plan review process smoother and more accessible. In June, council and community members discussed ways to gather more input from residents. Among the suggestions was to develop a survey and encourage broad participation.
Resident Sharon MacKnight addressed the council with concerns about how the process is being handled at planning and zoning meetings.
“I want to highlight how this process is being managed, which unfortunately closely resembles the approach taken with the recent proposed zoning changes, with little transparency or genuine community involvement,” said MacKnight. “I want to bring it to council’s attention now, before it gets too far off course.”
A list of goals and objectives were sent to the commissioners, she said, but the audience could not follow because they had not seen the materials, and they were not presented at the meeting.
“Audience members were left confused about what’s being presented, what changes were being discussed, and what was ultimately approved,” she added.
She said commissioners seemed confused as well. She said she felt there appeared to be too much reference and involvement by CT Consultants, who had led the recent zoning review and changes.
To remedy the situation, she asked council to:
- launch an independent community survey and avoid using CT Consultants for the survey,
- have at least one council member attend the planning and zoning meetings,
- engage community members before anything is officially drafted and
- open up the process to allow more opportunities for community participation.
Resident Tiffany Huber said, “I feel similar to Sharon that we’re going down the same road of not really opening it up to the people to see what they want for the city. Please, council members, go to the planning meeting and see what it is we’re seeing, because there’s a lot of knowledge that’s missing in those meetings.”
City Administrator Matt Kremer said that by having the Planning and Zoning Commission review the goals and objectives before meeting with the council, it gives the commissioners an opportunity to familiarize themselves and ask questions beforehand.
The real work begins after that, he said, when the commissioners meet with council to share their ideas and suggestions. The meeting will likely happen in September, he said.
Council is discussing a community survey to gather more public input. The real “meat” of the process will happen once council meets to discuss the plan, he said.
He said he is hoping to have a grasp on the issues and questions important to the community. He invited MacKnight and Huber to meet with him to discuss the types of things the survey should address, not necessarily specifics, but general areas of importance and concern.
“I don’t want to just go off of our last survey, which I don’t think is bad, but I want to know from you guys,” Kremer said. “When you’re sitting in a meeting and you’re thinking to yourself, ‘they’re not listening to us.’ I want to know those parts so we can expand upon that and ask the questions.”
Community members who attended the planning meetings expressed concern when commissioners decided to review the document line by line, occasionally crossing out phrases that had been included through community input.
For example, the 2028 plan goals and objectives include a phrase describing Fort Thomas as a “city within a park.” A member of the commission said the phrase was unclear and should be removed.
Resident Peggy Maggio noted the phrasing was deliberate and meant to reflect the city’s abundance of green space and the community’s desire to protect them. She noted that the document included other items that did not align with the answers from the community survey conducted at that time.
Maggio pointed out that the language does need to be tightened up, and she suggested starting over with the help of a new survey. She also suggested working with a professional, perhaps someone from Northern Kentucky University or the Kentucky League of Cities who has experience collecting and analyzing community data.
The Fort Thomas document runs 255 pages, she said. By contrast, Newport’s comprehensive plan is 37 pages, Dayton’s is 44 and Bellevue’s is seven pages long. Even Louisville, with a population of more than 600,000, has a plan with only 118 pages, Maggio noted.
Kremer said bringing in an expert to help with gathering community input is part of the overall plan. He invited the residents to meet with him before council meets with planning and zoning to discuss the ideas presented at the council meeting.
Mayor Eric Haas thanked the community members for bringing the issues to the attention of council.
“I appreciate all the comments tonight, and those of you concerned about the comp plan,” said Haas. “I appreciate you bringing us up to speed on what’s going on with that. I’ve been through several of these, both here and also in the city of Newport. We spent a lot of time and effort on the planning and zoning ordinance.”
He noted the previous comprehensive plan project involved extensive community research with six different committees made up of five to 20 citizens each. He said that with that much involvement, it may have led to a large and embellished report. He agreed that things need to be tightened up and more precise this time around.
Kremer will meet with community members, and council will explore potential surveys and possible professional guidance. Planning and zoning will meet with council in September to work on the plan objectives and goals. Council meets again on Aug. 18, and the planning commission will meet on Aug. 20, at 6:30 p.m.