City’s zoning ordinance took twists and turns on way to enactment

Land use regulation was not an easy sell in Henderson. It’s not an easy sell anywhere, truth be told, because few Americans like government telling them what to do with their property.

Our first zoning ordinance passed final reading by the Henderson City Commission Dec. 15, 1947. It prompted a petition drive to set it aside. More about that in a moment.

First, let’s look at what came before. In the spring of 1924 a successful Black businessman named Wallace A. Gaines had bought the property at 18 S. Elm St. and was in the process of erecting an undertaking establishment.

That had Henderson’s business and political establishment in an uproar – and at a time when the Ku Klux Klan was at the peak of its powers. Things got so heated that the Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution asking the city commission to enact a zoning ordinance.

That didn’t happen, of course; Gaines’ funeral home operated there about 40 years. The building is now an annex of First Missionary Baptist Church.

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The next big discussion about land use planning came at the beginning of World War II, when housing was in critical supply here. The Gleaner of Aug. 15, 1941, reported 500 new homes were needed within the next fiscal year.

By early 1942 the situation had grown worse – prompting calls for the clearance of substandard housing and erecting new ones. The city hoped a federal grant of $150,000 would pay for slum clearance – but it had to enact a zoning ordinance to get the money.

The city commission was serious enough about the idea to hire a Lexington firm to identify the areas to be cleared, which was completed by June 9, 1942. But in the end the commissioners’ wariness about zoning stopped them from taking the next step.

In April 1947 a series of meetings were held under the auspices of the Committee for Henderson, which was trying to lay out the path to the future through what was called a Community Conference. The idea of replacing substandard houses with newer structures received strong support; that, of course, would require a zoning ordinance. The League of Woman Voters, the Woman’s Club and the Business and Professional Women’s Club had led the way toward slum clearance.

The following month, on May 26, 1947, the city commission passed an ordinance creating a planning and zoning commission. Final reading came June 2. That allowed Mayor Robert Posey to appoint the first members: himself, Otis Benton, Newton Neel, John G. Conway, William McClain, Theodore Sanford, and P.A. Melton.

A public meeting to discuss the proposed zoning map was held at the Soaper Hotel Dec. 3. The same firm that had been hired in 1942 to delineate slum areas was paid $2,500 to draft the first zoning map, which had six zoning classifications.

The business district was roughly bounded by Water, Fifth, Ingram, and Center streets. The industrial area was on the eastern edge of the city, with plans to expand it in that direction.

The public approved the map, although there was a minor change made by adding a residential district at the request of residents on Hancock Street.

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The Gleaner of Dec. 9 reported the city commission had approved the ordinance on first reading. The only comment made was by Lucy Riley, president of the Garden Club, who asked that a woman be appointed to the planning commission. That didn’t happen for years.

Final approval came on Dec. 15. It was to go into effect 10 days later -- on Christmas Day. But that was only if there were no objections raised.

On the ninth day, attorney George S. Clay presented the mayor with a petition signed by more than 250 people, which asked the city commission to either reconsider or put the matter to a public vote, according to The Gleaner of Dec. 28. That same story listed the names and addresses of everyone who had signed the petition.

The Gleaner’s reporter also asked for the reaction of the mayor, who expressed surprise: “The only objection I’ve heard to the zoning ordinance is that we are 50 years too late with it, but that it is better late than never,” Posey said.

The Gleaner’s editorial of Dec. 28 expressed bafflement: “The need for zoning was presented and considered at public conferences. The need for zoning was one project that received unanimous endorsement, representatives from practically every civic organization giving it their blessing and not a negative vote recorded in open meetings or newspaper forums.”

The Gleaner’s last edition of 1947 noted staff had contacted a sampling of those who had signed the petition; the signers expressed a mixture of legitimate reasons, misinterpretations and misunderstandings.

“I fought for the right of freedom, which gives me the right to build as I desire and I do not favor this being taken away from me by an ordinance,” said M.F. Blandford. That stance has long been taken by those who oppose land use regulation.

Others said they signed the petition thinking it was in favor of zoning, or that it pertained to the city’s new civil service system.  (I’ll be writing later about the battle for civil service.)

The city commission had already decided to pay no heed to the anti-zoning petition, voting on Dec. 29 to reject it.

The Gleaner of March 2, 1948, reported the city commission had passed an ordinance creating the position of city building inspector, which was the final move in implementing the zoning ordinance. John Stewart was later hired for $200 a month.

The first rezonings were reported in the April 8 edition. Property at the corner of Meadow and Clay streets was rezoned commercial at the request of residents, and the old nicotine extraction plant off of South Main Street near the intersection of Towles Street was rezoned industrial.

Henderson residents had embarked on enacting a zoning ordinance thinking it would allow them to get federal money to clear slums. And it did. But not until 1951.

Francele Armstrong’s column of Feb. 18, 1951, provided some figures gathered during the 1950 census. Henderson had 2,268 substandard dwelling units that year, of which 1,354 had neither bathtub nor shower, 1,108 were dilapidated, 632 had no flush toilet, and 513 had no running water.

At the end of January 1951 the city set up a slum clearance agency, which finally allowed the city to get that $150,000 it had been eyeing for a decade. (The forerunner to what is now the Henderson Housing Authority had been formed Sept. 6, 1949.)

It wasn’t until mid-1951 that the city was able to come to terms with all the landowners, and the first public housing project was built. So, it’s not a stretch to say the Henderson Housing Authority and the Henderson City-County Planning Commission were the result of the same birth pangs.

100 YEARS AGO

The Gleaner of Dec. 14, 1922, reported that Corydon native A.B. “Happy” Chandler had been picked to coach the girls’ basketball team at the University of Kentucky.

“On his arrival in Lexington (five years earlier to attend Transylvania University) he was immediately christened ‘Happy’ and the majority of his friends would not call him by his Christian name.”

Actually, his first nickname at Transylvania was Irish, according to The Gleaner of Sept. 17, 1918.

That brief story reported Chandler was returning to Transylvania for his sophomore year. “Irish is expected to create a stir there in athletics this year, as he made a splendid showing in his first year.”

50 YEARS AGO

More stringent regulations at the state level were causing costs to skyrocket at the city’s new landfill that had opened only a few months earlier, according to The Gleaner of Dec. 10, 1972.

City officials were considering buying addition equipment and hiring more employees to meet the state’s requirements.

County government was getting ready to buy trucks and green boxes to collect rural garbage. An agreement allowed the county trucks to use the city landfill.

The state regulations required six inches of dirt to cover each day’s garbage, and when the landfill had reached its capacity the area had to have two feet of dirt cover.

The city’s main costs, however, was on the collection end of the solid waste operation. Between collection and disposal, the city’s costs were projected to eat up more than 10 percent of the city’s General Fund of $2.2 million.

25 YEARS AGO

Gov. Paul Patton announced approval of Kentucky’s first regional industrial park, according to The Gleaner of Dec. 17, 1997.

Patton planned to develop nine such parks. The state would provide about $6 million to develop what would become 4 Star Industrial Park on 777 acres between Robards and Sebree.

“The first thing you need to provide is a place for industry to locate,” Patton said. “Having an industrial park doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get an industry, but not having one virtually guarantees that you won’t.”

Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.

This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: City’s zoning ordinance took twists and turns on way to enactment