By Cindy Schroeder
The Cincinnati Enquirer

COVINGTON - Northern Kentucky's largest city is seeking the public's help as it revamps its zoning code for the first time in decades.

People can offer suggestions at one of four public hearings, starting tonightat Taylor Mill Elementary School.

IF YOU GO

What: Hearings on rewrite of Covington's zoning ordinance When: All hearings are at 7 p.m. Where: The first hearing is tonight at Taylor Mill Elementary School, 5907 Taylor Mill Road. Other hearings are Monday at John G. Carlisle Elementary, 910 Holman Ave.; Tuesday at Prince of Peace Hall, 625 Pike St.; and Feb. 13 at Latonia Elementary, 39th Street and Huntington Avenue.

"Most people don't learn about zoning unless it affects them directly,'' said Covington City Planner Annalee Duganier. "But it's important to the city as a whole.''

Covington staff and a 45-member advisory committee is working with the nationally known firm of James Duncan & Associates of Austin, Texas, to develop a draft for a zoning ordinance by early 2004.

Supporters say they want to rewrite the zoning code to address inconsistencies in the zoning regulations in the city of 43,370. .

Above all, they want to make Covington's zoning code easier to understand.

"When you look at our zoning code, it's really hard to read,'' Duganier said.

Rather than list fewer general uses, the code includes a number of specific uses that may not fit a potential developer's needs, she said.

Instead of listing so many specific uses, the zoning code could include more generalized categories, such as general retail.

Doing so would shorten the time to get a project under way, and make Covington "more developer-friendly,'' Duganier said.

Some also say Covington's zoning code discourages commercial development in residential areas.

"A lot of people enjoy being able to walk half a block to the corner grocery to pick up a gallon of milk and get their Sunday newspaper,'' said Rachel Hastings, director of neighborhood and housing initiatives for the Covington Community Center. "That's part of the attraction of living in an urban area.''

As mom-and-pop groceries go out of business in Covington's residential neighborhoods, the non-conforming uses that were grandfathered into Covington's zoning can't be replaced by other stores, even if that's what the neighborhood wants, Duganier said.

"When the store goes out of business, the only thing you can put back in there is housing,'' she said. "Now you have an apartment in a space that was designed to be a store, and it looks really tacky.''

A new zoning code also could speed the development process for projects such as the Thomas Street development, or housing that Covington Community Center is building in the Austinburg neighborhood in partnership with residents.

Covington's current zoning code calls for 5,000-square-foot lots in the Austinburg neighborhood, even though the typical lot size is 2,500 square feet, Hastings said. Existing zoning also calls for sprawling, suburban-type houses in a neighborhood marked by one- and two-story cottages and narrow shotgun-style houses.

"People in a lot of neighborhoods tell us, `We want to see houses fixed up. We want to see infill housing,' '' Hastings said.

"But a lot of developers are not going to go to the trouble to do that'' because of the time and expense.

E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com