Kentucky Builders and State Officials Streamline Development Plan Reviews - 8/23/2004 - Attorney Lawyer Legal Building Codes Zoning

Kentucky Builders Work With State Officials to Streamline Development Plan Reviews

Governor Ernie Fletcher announced the reforms at a recent Home Builders Association of Louisville that was attended by more than 300 of its members.

While the governor made the reforms official, Rocky Pusateri, chairman of the Louisville association's Land Development Committee, gives credit to Scott Smith, the Cabinet's director of regulatory affairs, for getting the reforms through.

“As an engineer, Scott understood the plight of developers who — in urban areas of the state — were having their plans engineered three times,” said Pusateri.

Pusateri and his committee last February began pushing for reforms to a development process that required plans to be reviewed and approved at both the state and local levels and that was redundant and time-consuming. Reviews at the state level alone were taking as much as three months, he said.

Under the revised process, developers in the metropolitan areas of Jefferson County and Northern Kentucky, where local sanitary engineers already review their plans, will not have to submit those plans to the State Division of Water for further review. 

Pusateri noted that rural developers will also see faster approvals because developers in the major growth areas of the state won’t be clogging up the system with their plans. “This initiative helps everyone in the state,” he said.

Pusateri also hopes that other metropolitan areas of the state where professional engineers review plans will be able to take advantage of the same initiative offered to Louisville and Northern Kentucky.

For more information, e-mail state executive officer Bob Weiss, or call him at 502-875-5478.