Request By:
Mr. Jimmie Sparks
Community Development Advisor
Lincoln Trail
Area Development District
702 College Street Road
Elizabethtown, Kentucky 42701
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of August 1 in which you relate that in several instances a number of communities have revised and updated their zoning regulations which also necessitates the adoption of a new zoning map to reflect the zoning regulation changes. In some instances, however, mistakes or drafting errors have occurred in preparing the zoning maps to comply with the regulations which presumably have been duly adopted by the legislative body following the statutory procedure requiring an initial hearing and subsequent recommendations by the Commission under the terms of KRS 100.207, 100.211, 100.212, and 100.213.
The question is raised as to whether or not these mistakes or errors would necessitate the Planning Commission again going through the regular amendment process which as you know includes a public hearing, etc.
Our response to your question would be in the negative. If the zoning map draft does not reflect the duly adopted and updated zoning regulations by reason of a mechanical error or a mistake on the part of the drafters and such mistake is thus reflected in the enacted ordinance, we believe that the zoning map could be corrected by the legislative body simply amending the zoning ordinance pursuant to the 1980 Municipal Code, particularly KRS 83A.060.
In other words, to correct a simple mechanical error in drafting the zoning map to conform with the enacted regulations would not necessitate going through the zoning amendment procedure since the zoning regulations outside the map mistake would not be affected and again going through such a procedure would serve no valid purpose. We further doubt that the erroneously drawn map would be enforceable against any affected property owners. However, the city should proceed to immediately correct the mechanical errors in the zoning ordinance by amendment to avoid possible litigation.