Corbin Planning Commission approves modified zoning changes Tuesday

A plan to changing the zoning designation for a huge chunk of land that essentially bisects the city of Corbin has been reduced in scope, Corbin’s Building Inspector said Tuesday, and may have a few more small revisions to go before it is finalized and sent to the city’s Board of Commissioners for consideration.

Following a contentious public hearing last month before the Corbin Planning Commission where residents and property owners in the are gave differing opinions of the plan, Corbin Building Inspector Frank Burke said the proposal has been reduced “fairly drastically” to accommodate the opinions received at that meeting. He said the area affected has been cut down by about one third.

The Corbin Planning Commission approved the final plan at a meeting Tuesday night. It’s now up to the city’s five-member Board of Commissioners whether to approve the plan as presented.

“It’s been reduced quite a bit,” Burke said. “There are still a couple of things I’m concerned about … some little islands of R-2 zoning left out there that need to be dealt with. Right now it’s primarily going to center around the actual people who signed the first petition.”

If implemented in its entirety, the proposal would have converted to R-1 zone designation an area that starts in between 16th and 17th Streets at the junction of Tanglewood and Roosevelt Street, up to and inclusive of portions of McKinley Ave. and Johns Street, then all the way to Meadow Lane above 7th Street. Currently, the area is mostly zoned with an R-2 designation, which would allow for the development of duplexes. Some of the area is zoned R-3, which would accommodate even larger multi-family units like condominiums, townhomes or apartments.

Corbin Building Inspector Frank Burke said the plan was conceived after residents in the affected area got together a petition asking for the change.

Many were worried about multi-family buildings being built next to their family homes. Burke said some homeowners were “shocked” to learn that the property they owned wasn’t already tagged with a restrictive R-1 designation.

Burke said the new plan would change the zoning designation to a smaller area with a southernmost boundary of Adams Street, east to McKinley Ave. then north to Gentry Street. It would then encompass property along Johns Street to Hillside, and then behind properties along Vandorn Street, then all the way up 7th Street to Phillips Street, east to Tanglewood back down to Adams Street.

“It still inside the boundaries that we advertised and notified people about, but it’s a lot smaller than it was.”

There were about 48 signatures on the original petition for a zoning change.

The decision of the Planning Commission is a recommendation only. A final decision on a zoning change will be made by the Corbin City Commission.