While final changes will depend on funding, a proposed revamping of zoning ordinances is getting good reviews so far from members of the City-County Planning Commission of Warren County.

The commissioners heard details about the new plan Thursday during a public hearing at the Bowling Green City Commission chambers, and they generally expressed support for what they see as improvements to the process of getting commercial and residential developments approved.

“The staff has worked really hard to address the development needs that are positive for the community,” said Dean Warren, one of four city of Bowling Green representatives on the 12-person commission. “I see it as streamlining the process and getting rid of some cumbersome regulations. I think it will be received well by the community and bring more clarity to the process.”

The latest public hearing followed hearings March 22 and March 28 during which planning commission Executive Director Ben Peterson presented draft changes.

Those changes involve renaming the current detailed development plan to what’s being called a site development plan that is part of a comprehensive development review process that will bring various city and county agencies together to streamline the process.

Currently, Peterson said, builders and developers come to the planning commission for approval of rezoning applications and development plans and then must also submit plans to the county public works department or the city neighborhood community services department. Building projects must also go through stormwater, engineering and building permit reviews.

As building projects have increased in Warren County, those processes have become increasingly unwieldy. Peterson said the number of single-family lots approved has exploded from 47 in 2012 to 1,121 in 2017 while multi-family unit approvals have swollen from 457 to 2,212 in that same period.

The proposed changes put together by Peterson and his staff try to address that growth through the creation of a new staff position called a development specialist that Peterson describes as “the quarterback” of the planning process.

Tim Graham, one of four Warren County representatives on the planning commission, sees the proposed comprehensive development review process and the new staff position as beneficial.

“Essentially all the pieces of the puzzle stay the same, but they will move more quickly,” said Graham, president and CEO of Bowling Green’s Design Builders Inc. “It’s frustrating now for landowners and developers because of the amount of time it takes to move a piece of property through the process.

“It can almost seem like herding cats because you never have all the parties in the same room. This changes that. Essentially, you get buy-in from all the entities involved in the process of developing a piece of property and put them all in the same room. I view that as a positive thing.”

Implementing the positive changes could be derailed, though, by negative impacts of state-level actions on health insurance and pension reform. Peterson is requesting more funding from the city of Bowling Green and Warren County Fiscal Court, but both local governments could be facing significant cost increases, depending on the final outcome of legislation dealing with pensions and health insurance.

“Certain aspects of it depend on funding,” planning commission member Chuck Coppinger said. “But if the comprehensive development review process can be put in place it will expedite the entire process.

“I look forward to seeing that the elements that need to be funded are funded. It’s a difficult time right now, but I really hope these elements will be funded.”

The planning commission will meet again April 19 to take action on approving the proposed changes to zoning ordinances. To take effect, final approval of the changes must be made by fiscal court and the cities of Bowling Green, Smiths Grove, Oakland, Plum Springs and Woodburn.