By ALLYSON DIX
For Glasgow News 1
Barren County officials will host four town hall meetings starting this month to hear from citizens about county-wide zoning.
Barren County Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd along with other officials, including County Attorney Mike Richardson, Planning and Zoning Director Kevin Myatt, and magistrates, is expected to attend all four meetings.
These town hall meetings come on the heels of a controversial data center being considered in Cave City and the subsequent public outcry against it. A portion of the land being considered sits within the jurisdiction of Barren County, which, at this time, has no regulations or zoning to regulate or halt data center development, according to the county attorney.
While data centers are not the sole focus of the town hall meetings, they have been a major factor in spurring the meetings across the county. While they are expected to remain a main topic, the overall purpose for the meetings is to hear from citizens and to help inform county residents on what zoning is and how it can be used for future growth and development.
“[The] bottom line is a lot of people are feeling like they’re not getting enough information,” Richardson said in Tuesday’s fiscal court meeting. “Counties have very limited power and are unable to force these businesses to give information.”
However, he said zoning in the county could require developers to share information about planned projects.
“[The] county is growing,” Richardson said. “With that, you’re going to have to have this discussion about zoning because you’re going to have to have some type of controlled growth.”
Richardson said zoning isn’t used to curtail property rights, but rather to help enhance those rights and allow people a voice and a legal process to address concerns.
Zoning, or ‘land use’
Roughly 46 of the 120 counties in Kentucky have county zoning. County-wide zoning, if approved, will encompass every parcel of land in Barren County. However, if the county adopts zoning, current land uses would be grandfathered in without requiring property owners to do anything different, unless they later decide to make a change.
For example, if a property owner decides to shut down a business and build a duplex after zoning is passed by officials, then a rezoning classification would be required for that change.
Four different zoning classifications exist: residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural.
Myatt, the planning and zoning director, said zoning regulates all uses, but it can be as loose or restrictive as citizens or legislators want it to be. Despite any restrictions, most agricultural practices are protected under the Right to Farm Act.
One of the misconceptions Myatt sees is confusion surrounding classification of property for property assessment tax rates set by the property valuation administrator (PVA) versus the classifications of zoning.
“The PVA office does not assess property based on the zoning classification because they use fair market values and base their property taxes on that,” Myatt said. “They have their own classifications for what the property is being used for, but zoning classifications are independent from PVA classifications.”
Last year, Barren County faced controversial public opinion on solar energy, similar to the current public opposition of data centers. While state legislators approved allowing all 120 counties in Kentucky the ability to regulate solar and alternative energy industries in jurisdictions without land use zoning, they have yet to do that with data centers.
Barren County modeled its solar ordinance after Breckinridge County’s ordinance, Myatt explained.
However, an appellate court has overturned Breckinridge’s ordinance, ruling that it was unlawful. It is expected that the matter will be heard in the Kentucky Supreme Court this year.
Myatt said the justification is that Breckinridge County did not have land-use zoning in place to support the ordinance, despite the state giving counties without zoning the ability to regulate it.
The planning and zoning director hopes that, with four meetings across the county, more information can be shared to help citizens understand what zoning is and what it isn’t.
“The town hall meetings are intended to help get information about what zoning actually does, what its potential is, and to dispel some of the misunderstandings,” Myatt said.
History on local zoning
Myatt said county zoning has been discussed a few times during his tenure, dating back to as early as 2002 or 2003. It resurfaced again in the mid- to late-2010s, and in May 2025 during discussions surrounding solar energy industries.
Myatt said the overriding opinion of citizens was that they simply did not want it at the time, so zoning never made it far enough for a fiscal court vote in the past.
Upcoming Town Hall information:
The first two meetings will start at 5 p.m. through 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 14 at Temple Hill Elementary School and July 21 at Austin Tracy Elementary School. Two more meetings are expected to begin in August and potentially continue into September, depending on facility availability and coordination with county schools.
A sign-in sheet will be available at the door for individuals wishing to speak during each meeting and speakers will be limited to two minutes of time. Barren County officials said that even individuals who arrive after the meeting begins may can still sign in to share their thoughts.
For those unable to attend, a box has been stationed at the county judge-executive’s office, located on the third floor at 117 North Public Square in Glasgow to drop off letters of support or concerns
regarding zoning in the county.
“If you cannot attend these town halls and still want to drop off information or a letter stating your concerns or your support for zoning in Barren County, please make sure you drop that off,” Byrd said. “We will be reviewing those as well.”
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