FORT SCOTT - A $116,500 comprehensive planning and zoning agreement that Bourbon County commissioners tabled in July over a lack of funding is moving forward after the commission unanimously approved the agreement Monday.
The agreement calls for $36,000 to come from the county's 2026 general fund and the remaining $80,500 from the 2027 general fund, subject to appropriation and availability of funds. Commissioners also authorized Chairman Gregg Motley to sign the contract so work can begin.
Commissioner Samuel Tran, who brought the agreement forward, said the county now has funding available for the project and pointed to discussions about housing and new businesses as reasons to move ahead.
"There's lots of talks here about housing and new businesses coming in," Tran said. "So I think a comprehensive plan not only is good for the zoning portion of it, but definitely good for the county as a whole."
Tran said the $116,500 proposal includes both the comprehensive plan and work needed to prepare zoning regulations for commissioners to consider later.
"So it's not that we are doing a comprehensive plan, then we got to go back and redo a zoning thing," Tran said. "It's all going to be done for us all at once."
Under the agreement, Confluence will conduct research and analysis, gather public and stakeholder input, hold public meetings and workshops, develop the comprehensive plan and zoning regulations, work with the planning commission and assist with the adoption process.
The proposed zoning regulations are expected to address utility-scale wind and solar energy systems, battery energy storage systems and data centers, along with other issues identified during the planning process. The $116,500 proposal includes reimbursable expenses of no more than $5,000.
The resolution also ties the planning effort to the county's previously adopted temporary moratorium on large-scale power generation, cryptocurrency mining, data centers and waste disposal operations. The moratorium was intended to give the county time to develop and consider land-use regulations addressing those types of projects.
Motley questioned the change in how the county planned to pay for the project, saying he had understood money from solar developments would be used.
"I understood this was to be funded by solar payments," Motley said. "We're no closer to that."
Commissioner Mika Milburn-Kee said Matt Lawn of Baker Tilly had identified funding in the general fund. Commissioner David Beerbower said commissioners had asked Lawn to look there because seeking money from solar companies before their payments began would have been difficult.
Motley also asked how the county would handle enforcement once zoning regulations were established. Beerbower said that issue would be addressed as Confluence presents its findings on the zoning portion of the project.
"We can't enforce until we have zoning," Tran said.
Tran said commissioners should have a better idea of the county's enforcement needs when the planning process is about halfway complete because Confluence will provide updates along the way.
"They will be giving us updates so the future commissioners can figure out and have a better understanding how and who's going to be enforcing this," Tran said.
Earlier in the meeting, Bourbon County resident Kyle Parks urged commissioners to find enough money to move the project forward, saying full funding would be preferable.
"I think this county commission is going to be remembered for a lot of things, and I think one of them ought to be that you guys are the ones that passed the comprehensive plan and zoning," Parks said.
Commissioners approved the resolution by unanimous voice vote. They then unanimously approved Tran's motion authorizing Motley to sign the Confluence contract.
A copy of the resolution is linked below authorizing the agreement is linked below.
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