NKyTribune staff report
Fort Wright City Council agreed Wednesday night to move forward with a zoning change on Howard Litzler Drive, despite opposition from Latonia residents whose homes are adjacent to the proposed warehouse development.
By a 4-1 vote, the council agreed to move the request forward for a second reading, which is expected to take place next month. Council member Mike Hoerlein voted against the proposal and Council member Bernie Wessels recused himself.
More than 25 residents attended the meeting many holding signs in opposition of the project.
The change would allow for a large warehouse at 2809 Howard Litzler Drive from residential to Industrial Park.
The property is adjacent to a Latonia neighborhood located between West 33rd and West 35th streets. The residents of that neighborhood are opposed to the project. They do not, of course, vote in Fort Wright council elections.
The request for the rezoning comes from Kent Wessels of KWI Properties LLC and involves 6.21 acres located on the northeast corner of the intersection of KY 17 with Howard Litzler Drive.
The property is owned by the Bonnie Ellison Trust.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the developer agreed to widen a landscape strip from 15 feet to 30 feet in an effort to appease those opposed to the project. Nearby residents say that is not enough and that the Fort Wright’s zoning code calls for a 75-foot landscape buffer and a 6-foot-by-36-foot earthen berm and double row of evergreens as the minimum required to put any industrial use beside any residential.
The Kenton County Planning Commission staff recommended against the proposal at a public hearing on March 2 and voted to deny the application. The Covington City Commission also voted to urge Fort Wright City Council to deny the zoning map amendment at its March 14 meeting.
The Fort Wright City Council has the final say in the matter and appears ready to move forward with the change.
A second meeting and a formal vote in favor of the amendment is expected to take place at the May 3 meeting, unless a special meeting to consider the proposal is scheduled sooner.
