Owensboro city commissioners voted in approval Tuesday on an ordinance approving and adopting text amendments of the Owensboro Metropolitan zoning ordinance, which will affect development near downtown Owensboro and zoning guidelines for the building of warehouses that store bourbon barrels. These text amendments will provide flexibility for a handful of different operations, including the building of warehouses for storage of distilled spirits in agricultural areas and will open up the doors for affordable housing in nearby downtown Owensboro.
Daviess County Fiscal Court voted in approval of the ordinance last week — a meeting in which Mayor Tom Watson and city commissioners also attended.
Owensboro Metropolitan Planning Commission (OMPC) Director Brian Howard described how a zoning text amendment would allow densification in areas of Owensboro that aren’t in the current overlay district, but right next to it.
Currently, single-family homes that could be converted into multi-family homes in this area must meet zoning requirements that include off-site parking, such as a parking lot, before they can be converted into apartments or other multi-family residences. However, this zoning amendment will allow on-street parking to meet those parking requirements.
“This came about based on some discussion we’ve had over the years about the need to allow densification in the near downtown area,” Howard said. “This goes beyond the downtown overlay district currently in place. It may allow for more affordable housing in the near downtown area.”
Howard said previous hindrances halting near downtown overlay districts from developing further was based on parking issues. These text amendments would give developers some room to develop areas near downtown Owensboro, but not right in the middle of it.
“Through a conditional use process, on-street parking can be counted toward required parking,” Howard said. “A parking analysis would have to be done to ensure there’s enough parking for residents living in a two-to-three unit apartment.”
Daviess County Judge-Executive Al Mattingly said this text amendment would benefit residents and the community because downtown Owensboro would be within walking distance from these areas.
Another zoning text amendment will allow bourbon barrels to be stored in warehouses in agriculturally-zoned areas rather than in I-2 industrial zones. The warehouses would have to be on 100 acres of land at least 200 feet away from property lines and another 750 feet away from any adjoining properties. A screening requirement consisting of a line of pine trees bordering the warehouses would be enforced to prevent the spread of potential fire.
O.Z. Tyler Distillery recently made the decision to build nine warehouses in Ohio County after being unable to secure enough land to build their warehouses that didn’t fall into an I-2 industrial zone. After the incident, which cost Daviess County almost half a million dollars in tax revenue–OMPC outlined an agreement to prevent the same incident from reoccurring.
While this vote doesn’t necessarily affect the city as these agricultural zones are likely to be in rural areas outside city limits, the vote of approval must come from both branches of local government.
While changes can be made to these amendments at a later date–namely the 100 acres of land required to build these warehouses — City commissioners must vote in approval of the aforementioned stipulations in order to move forward at this point in time.
“These text amendments are either adopted as is, or we reject them,” Mattingly said. “We may very well look at it in the future.”
Other heavy topics up for discussion at Thursday night’s meeting included two ordinances that are part of Owensboro Municipal Utility’s (OMU) rate stabilization plan, which is expected to bring costs down for customers over the next five years.
The stabilization plan is expected to drop customers’ bills by around 5.8 percent as OMU will save money on fuel after the closing of Elmer Smith Station and a switch to more economical electric methods, one of them being solar.
Since OMU still needs to meet its debt service payment, Tuesday’s vote to increase OMU’s base rate and assess its bond defeasance were voted in approval, which officials said will lower customers’ bills.
OMU General Manager Kevin Frizzell admitted that while it’s difficult and confusing that city commissioners were being asked to approve a base rate increase, customer bills are still expected to decrease. A base rate increase will be offset by decreasing rates for energy cost adjustment (ECA) and environmental cost control adjustment (ECCA) which stems from the closing of Elmer Smith.
OMU asked city commissioners to approve $3.5 million of debt service ratio out of its $19 million in bonds for the 2019 fiscal year. The final $15.5 million should be paid off by 2020.
According to Frizzell, this will save OMU customers $22.2 million because of the lack of interest incorporated into the debt, and will also reduce the utility’s debt service over the next nine years.
City Commissioner Larry Conder said the vote is a very positive thing for the residents of Owensboro.
“Finally, OMU rates will be going down,” Conder said.
