Corridor Notes · Regional Markets
Buying commercial property outside Fayette County changes one thing before it changes anything else: who you apply to. In Lexington there is a single planning body for the entire county. Cross into Scott, Jessamine or Franklin and the approving authority splits along city and county lines — and in Jessamine County, the county’s own planning department does not cover its largest city at all.
Who actually approves a commercial project outside Fayette County?
It depends on the county and, often, on which side of a city limit the parcel sits. There is no single regional authority — each planning unit is created locally.
This is the part that catches buyers who have only ever transacted in Lexington. Fayette County has a merged city-county government, so the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Division of Planning is the planning body for every address in the county. There is one comprehensive plan, one zoning ordinance, one commission. Habit tells you to look up “the county planning office” and start there.
That habit breaks the moment you leave. In the three counties Lexington buyers most often move into next — Scott, Jessamine and Franklin — the answer is different in each one, and in two of them it is different depending on where inside the county you are standing.
Why does the answer change from county to county?
Because Kentucky law lets each community choose its structure. KRS Chapter 100 permits three different kinds of planning unit, and neighbouring counties routinely pick differently.
Chapter 100 is the statute that governs planning and zoning across the Commonwealth, and it sets out the menu explicitly. KRS 100.113 is titled “Types of planning units permitted.” The three that follow it are KRS 100.117, “Independent planning units”; KRS 100.121, “Joint planning units”; and KRS 100.123, “Regional planning units.” Boards of adjustment — the bodies that hear conditional use permits and dimensional variances — are created separately again under KRS 100.217.
So the fragmentation is not an accident of local politics. It is the design. A city may run its own independent planning unit while the county around it runs another; a city and a county may combine into a joint unit; several counties may form a regional one. Nothing in the statute pushes a county toward one answer, which is exactly why the answer has to be looked up parcel by parcel rather than assumed.
What changes in Scott County?
Scott County is the simplest of the three. One joint commission covers both Georgetown and the unincorporated county — but it runs two separate boards of adjustment.
The Georgetown-Scott County Planning Commission serves the City of Georgetown and unincorporated Scott County together. It publishes the zoning map and ordinance, takes zone change applications, reviews development plans, processes subdivision plats, administers floodplain mapping and handles property addressing, and it maintains the comprehensive plan for the jurisdiction. Its meetings are held at the Scott County Courthouse.
The wrinkle worth knowing before you write an offer is that the commission operates separate boards of adjustment for Georgetown and for Scott County, on separate meeting schedules. If your deal depends on a conditional use permit or a variance rather than a straight zone change, the calendar you need is not the planning commission’s — it is whichever board matches your parcel’s jurisdiction. For a buyer working a Toyota-supplier industrial requirement, that distinction can be the difference between two review cycles and four. We covered the demand side of that market in what the Toyota supply chain does to Scott County industrial demand.
What changes in Jessamine County?
This is the one that surprises people. The county’s joint planning department covers Wilmore and the unincorporated county — and explicitly does not cover Nicholasville, the county seat.
The Jessamine County – City of Wilmore Joint Planning Department states its jurisdiction plainly: the City of Wilmore and the unincorporated areas of Jessamine County. It writes the zoning ordinances for that territory, reviews zoning permit applications and subdivision plans, issues building permits, and enforces building code and zoning violations there. It provides both planning and building inspection services to the areas it covers.
Nicholasville runs its own. The City of Nicholasville Planning and Zoning department operates out of 517 N. Main Street, and the city’s Planning Commission reviews plans and makes recommendations to the City Commission. The Planning Commission has nine members and the Board of Adjustment has seven, all appointed by the mayor and approved by the City Commission. Planning Commission meetings are scheduled for the 4th Tuesday of each month at 5:00 p.m. at Nicholasville City Hall.
Read those two paragraphs against each other and the practical consequence is clear. Nicholasville is where most of Jessamine County’s commercial building stock sits, and a buyer who starts at the county planning office for a Nicholasville storefront has started in the wrong building. Different staff, different ordinance, different commission, different meeting calendar. Nothing about the county-level department’s process tells you anything reliable about the city’s.
In Fayette County “the county planning office” is a complete answer. One county over, it can be the wrong office entirely.
What changes in Franklin County?
Franklin County splits the difference: the zoning ordinance is the county’s own, but the subdivision and development regulations are shared with Frankfort.
Franklin County Planning, Zoning & Building Code Enforcement administers two separately titled instruments — the Franklin County Zoning Ordinance, and the Frankfort and Franklin County Subdivision and Development Plan Regulations. The naming is not cosmetic. It tells you that use and dimensional questions are answered under a county document, while the rules for cutting a parcel or filing a development plan are answered under a jointly-titled one. The office also provides building and electrical inspections for construction projects in Franklin County and contributes to the county’s comprehensive plan.
The City of Frankfort maintains its own Frankfort Planning Commission. For a buyer, the useful takeaway is to identify which of the two documents governs the question you are actually asking, because “Franklin County” and “Frankfort/Franklin County” are not the same jurisdiction label even though they appear on the same office’s shelf.
Which office covers which territory?
This table summarises what each jurisdiction publishes about its own coverage. Confirm it against the parcel before you rely on it — boundaries and structures change by local ordinance.
| County | Planning body | Territory it publishes as its own |
|---|---|---|
| Fayette | LFUCG Division of Planning | The entire merged city-county |
| Scott | Georgetown-Scott County Planning Commission | City of Georgetown and unincorporated Scott County; separate boards of adjustment for each |
| Jessamine | Jessamine County – City of Wilmore Joint Planning Department | City of Wilmore and unincorporated Jessamine County only |
| Jessamine | City of Nicholasville Planning and Zoning | City of Nicholasville |
| Franklin | Franklin County Planning, Zoning & Building Code Enforcement | Franklin County Zoning Ordinance; Frankfort and Franklin County Subdivision and Development Plan Regulations |
What should a buyer verify before writing an offer?
Three things, in this order: which planning unit the parcel falls under, which body hears the specific relief you need, and when that body meets.
The order matters because each answer narrows the next. Jurisdiction determines the ordinance. The ordinance determines whether your intended use is permitted outright, permitted conditionally, or not permitted at all. And only once you know you need a conditional use permit or a variance do you need the board of adjustment’s calendar — which, as Scott County shows, may not be the calendar you first found. If conditional use is new territory, our explainer on how a conditional use permit works in Lexington covers the mechanics; the process concepts travel, even though the ordinance does not.
One professional observation, offered as general practice rather than as a promise about any specific deal: when I am working a property in a jurisdiction I do not transact in weekly, I treat the identity of the approving body as a diligence item with the same weight as a title question, and I confirm it from the jurisdiction’s own published page rather than from a listing sheet or a prior deal’s memory. A listing broker’s description of “county zoning” is a starting point, not a finding. Getting this wrong does not usually kill a transaction outright — it costs review cycles, and review cycles inside a due diligence period are the scarce resource. Lexington buyers are also used to a single urban service boundary shaping where infrastructure is available, a structure covered in our note on what the urban service boundary means for commercial land; the surrounding counties do not organise growth the same way.
Does Lexington’s zoning ordinance apply anywhere outside Fayette County?
No. LFUCG’s ordinance is adopted for the merged Lexington-Fayette urban county. Each neighbouring jurisdiction adopts its own regulations under KRS Chapter 100, so zoning district letters and definitions do not carry across a county line even when they look similar.
If a property has a Nicholasville mailing address, is it inside the city?
Not necessarily. A mailing address reflects postal routing, not municipal boundaries, and Jessamine County’s planning department covers unincorporated territory while the City of Nicholasville covers its own. Confirm the jurisdiction against the parcel record and the city limits rather than the mailing address.
Who hears a variance request — the planning commission or the board of adjustment?
Boards of adjustment are established separately under KRS 100.217 and are generally the bodies that hear conditional use permits and dimensional variances, while planning commissions handle zone changes, subdivision plats and development plans. In Scott County there are two boards of adjustment on separate schedules, so identify the correct one before you count review time.
Last updated: September 6, 2026.
By Marcos Gil, REALTOR® — Keller Williams Commonwealth · KY Real Estate License No. 296259 · Call or text (859) 310-1209.
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