The following design guidelines shall be added to the Oldham County Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, Section 350-200; as applicable to the Scenic Corridor described therein as KY 146 and KY 22, within the city limits.
(A) Applicability. The following design guidelines shall apply to all property adjacent to KY 146 and KY 22, which lies within 150 feet from either side of the centerline of each roadway, within the city.
(B) Architecture guidelines.
(1) Respect and enhance the existing mix of historic design styles and encourage both restoration and adaptive re-use to maintain the character of the Pewee Valley Area;
(2) Consider the incorporation of elements of nearby historic buildings in new construction, if appropriate;
(3) Large featureless buildings should be discouraged;
(4) Promote careful building materials selection that complement and enhance the rural character of the Pewee Valley Area;
(5) Building color scheme of balanced, complementary colors should be emphasized where appropriate;
(6) New residential developments are encouraged to have buildings facing the street;
(7) Emphasize fences to be compatible with the Pewee Valley rural character such as “diamond” style fencing along the scenic corridors;
(8) Use native stone and brick walls and columns rather than manufactured stone walls and columns for signature entrances and walls;
(9) Use weathering steel guardrails with wooden posts as the design standard where guardrails are required or replaced in the Pewee Valley Area;
(10) Low-profile signature entrances along the scenic corridors should complement the rural character of the corridor; lighting should be directed toward the sign;
2010 S-2 Repl.
(11) For new developments, consider the use of incentives, to include density bonuses, to provide landscape buffers and/or screening exceeding existing county requirements, along scenic corridors;
(12) Parking lots should be screened by a landscape buffer or other natural features from view along the scenic corridors;
(13) All new buildings should have pre-dominant facades facing the corridor;
(14) Provide a sense of enclosure along the building front to form street walls where appropriate through design elements including, but not limited to, street trees, site features such as lampposts and benches. Parking areas should be located in the rear;
(15) Buildings and sites should be designed to emphasize pedestrian scale architecture and landscaping, while avoiding large expanses of paved areas, large featureless buildings and monotonous or franchise-style architecture;
(16) Circulation systems should be designed to efficiently facilitate traffic flow yet discourage speeds and volumes that impede pedestrian activity and safety such as a grid pattern with short block lengths;
(17) Common or shared access points are encouraged. To the maximum extent feasible, common or shared delivery and service access should be provided between adjacent parcels or buildings and to the rear of buildings. Future access easements may be required;
(18) A coordinated pedestrian system should be provided throughout the Mix-Use Village Centers, including connections between uses on the site and between the site and adjacent properties and rights-of-way;
(19) Continuous sidewalks or other pedestrian facilities should be provided between the primary entrances to buildings, all parking areas that serve the buildings, pedestrian facilities on adjacent properties that extend to the boundaries shared with the development, any public sidewalks along perimeter streets or other community amenities or gathering spaces;
(20) Adequate parking should be provided, but excessive parking is discouraged;
(21) The visual impact of parking should be minimized through the use of interior landscaped islands and through dividing parking spaces into groupings. The edge of parking lots should be screened through landscaping or other methods, such as decorative fences;
(22) The design of streets, pedestrian ways, landscaping, lighting, signage, lighting and street furniture should be coordinated and integrated throughout the site;
(23) Vehicular streets and driveways should be designed to be compatible with pedestrian ways to encourage a pedestrian-friendly environment. The width of streets should be sensitive to pedestrian scale and building height;
(24) Service areas and mechanical equipment should be screened from public view;
(25) Buildings should be designed to respect and enhance the existing mix of historic design styles;
(26) All sides of a building open to view by the public should display a similar level of architecture quality and should be subdivided and proportioned using features such as arcades, awnings, entrances, windows or other such features;
(27) Building facades should have highly visible customer-service entrances that feature arcades, arches, canopies, display window, distinctive roof forms, landscaped features or overhangs. Primary entrances should face streets on which they are located;
(28) Buildings should have well-defined rooflines with attention to architectural detail;
(29) Building materials that complement and enhance the rural character of Pewee Valley should be promoted. For the Pewee Valley Area, exterior building materials should consist primarily of wood, brick and stone and should incorporate design features of traditional village character such as paned windows;
(30) Building height should reflect small village scale; and
(31) All lighting must conform to the city lighting ordinance (as may be amended from time to time).
(C) Sign guidelines.
(1) Design unique Pewee Valley signs that identify the entries to Pewee Valley.
(2) Design signs to identify the stream or creek and its watershed at every bridge within the Pewee Valley Area.
(3) All signage should be integrated with building facade or supporting structures.
(4) Signs attached to buildings are encouraged rather than free-standing signs.
(5) Monument signs are preferred over post-mounted signs to avoid a temporary and fragile appearance.
(6) Landscaping should be planted around the base of free-standing signs.
(7) For multi-tenant buildings, all signage on the facade should be consistent in color, size and elevation.
(8) Back lighting only. No electronic reader signs.
(9) All signage must conform to the Pewee Valley sign ordinance (as may be amended from time to time).
(D) Landscaping guidelines.
(1) Perimeter landscaping that incorporate buffer-like improvements, such as berms and dense plantings are encouraged.
(2) Parking lots that contain sufficient landscaping to visually soften views of buildings and parked automobiles are encouraged.
(3) Open-space areas that incorporate dense or mature vegetation are encouraged.
(4) Preserve existing trees and under story rather than new plantings and mounding as the preferred means of buffering.
(5) Encourage the planting of three new trees at three inches in caliper for each existing tree at eight inches in caliper which is removed within the landscape buffer area.
(6) Plant random clusters of trees and other planting materials.
(7) Generally avoid a manicured or controlled appearance. Limit formal landscaping to small/tight areas.
(8) Incorporate ground cover and/or bushes into landscaping.
(9) Emphasize naturalized berms (with plantings throughout the entire contour of the berm).
(10) Provide a complementary mix of deciduous and evergreen material, clustering varieties of species and sizes (canopies interspersed with under stories, bushes and ground cover) and emphasize hardy native species.
(11) Where additional screening is desired or required to buffer different land uses or to protect the scenic nature of an area, a predominance of evergreens may be required.
(E) Environmental guidelines.
(1) Encourage use of green-space and limit impervious surface through innovative materials such as pervious asphalt and concrete and other “green” type of parking lot materials.
(2) Promote water quality through innovative use of “green” technology, such as diverting rainwater through rain gardens (where possible), filtering drainage through plant material prior to entering the drainage systems.
(3) Where practical, use of innovative design for drainage retention through the use of “bio-swale” and “bio-retention basins” rather than traditional drainage structures.
(4) Evaluating the effectiveness (in terms of water quality) of any septic systems in place on the site and where applicable, upgrading those systems to better protect water quality.
(Ord. 2009-4, passed 4-6-2009)