FISCAL COURT—In a majority vote Tuesday, county magistrates added 102 more acres to the growing tally of mostly farmland now slated for development.

During this week's second regularly scheduled Fiscal Court meeting of the month, Magistrate Billy Ray Hughes (Dist. 3) sat out the vote on Ordinance 2026-010 which changed 33.38 acres at 113 Carr Lane from single family residential to multi family residential.

Hughes also abstained from voting on Ordinance 2026-011, which changed 67.89 acres at 2485 Colonel Road from agricultural to single-family residential.

Both zone changes passed 4 to 0 with Hughes abstaining.

“There’s been an alarming number of zone changes in the past couple of months,” Hughes told The Edge in an interview after the vote. “I had made it known that I had lost confidence in the planning and zoning process because it just seems that everything gets approved. It’s just so much, so I just abstained. If I would have voted no, it wouldn’t have made any difference because it was going to pass anyway.”

Hughes has been the voice of dissent across about a dozen land use-related votes in recent months as developer after developer has pushed through zone changes in the run up to the end of Judge Executive Reagan Taylor's time in office. Since August, the Fiscal Court has approved zone changes to more than 1,300 acres, almost all of it agricultural land.

Incoming Judge Executive Donna Agee (R), a former healthcare executive, signaled during her campaign that she will be less cozy with builders than Taylor, himself a builder and developer, when she takes office in January. During Taylor's tenure, every zone change request ever made of the Fiscal Court has ultimately been granted.

A zone change for the Firebrook subdivision near the county fairgrounds was initially denied by magistrates in 2015, but developer Jack VanWinkle sued the Fiscal Court and eventually won. Taylor supported VanWinkle throughout.

Taylor has been in office since 2015.

Meanwhile, the County Board of Adjustments recently tabled a decision to issue a conditional use permit to a solar farm developer seeking to convert more than 800 acres of farm land off Crooksville Road into a quasi livestock-solar panel farm. A vote is expected later this year. The BOA does not need the Fiscal Court's approval to issue conditional use permits.

Proclamation

Taylor presented a joint proclamation between the City of Richmond, City of Berea and the Fiscal Court recognizing October 2026 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Assistant Director of Hope’s Wings, Kaylynn Carpenter, accepted the proclamation.

“This year in Kentucky we lost 50 lives to domestic violence,” she said. “That’s not just a number, that’s empty chairs at tables."

Carpenter said that in the past year, her organization sheltered 55 survivors and their children, and helped 22 families move into safe and stable housing.

Board appointments

The Fiscal Court unanimously appointed Stephanie Moore, CEO of White House Clinics, to the Madison County Board of Health. Lora King, who directs behavioral health at Baptist Health Richmond, was appointed to the Madison County Emergency Management Services board in another unanimous vote. Both seats were vacant prior to the appointments.

The Court also unanimously appointed Angie Daniels, family resource coordinator for Madison County Schools, to the Madison County Public Library Board for a four-year term of service starting in Jan. 2027.

Magistrate Tom Botkin (Dist. 4) said he and his colleagues appreciate board members' service to the community.

The magistrates also unanimously approved a $63,918.91 computing hardware and software maintenance bid award to 13 Layers LLC, and adopted the Madison County Detention Center’s 2026-27 policy and procedures manual.

The Madison County Fiscal Court meets each second and fourth Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. The next scheduled meeting will take place on the first floor of the County Annex on Oct. 13. For more information, including links to the live-streamed meetings, visit the County’s website.