City of Blue Ash - Council Meeting - March 12, 2026

March 13, 2026·1 hr 28 min·8 clips

Judge Jennifer Kinsley reveals most people don't know what the Court of Appeals is or where it's located.

The meeting opens in full council mode. Mayor Jill Cole calls the City of Blue Ash council to order, the pledge is recited, seven members answer roll call, and the agenda is accepted. The February 12 minutes pass without correction. With no communications to council, the room moves through outside agency reports before the excerpt lands on the real business of the night. The hearing is about code, but the tension is plain enough. The proposed setup appears to comply with zoning except for a request described as more than four. One council member cuts to the practical question: the property owner gets another house, but what does the community get if a driveway is extended past two more residences? The answers stay in the weeds. Speakers talk through lot six, whether the driveway could shift toward the middle if a house were not rebuilt, and why a straight driveway has some practical appeal. Frontage, panhandles, and the eastern side of the lots all get pulled into the same puzzle. The neighbor issues come through in small details, which is how local government often works. Two lots near Donjoy sit beside the proposed path, so the discussion circles around adjacency, privacy, and trash pickup. A front yard privacy fence is described as neither required nor allowed, which leaves neighbors with fewer obvious fixes. After Mr. Barnhorse's comments, trash comes back up too. The assumption is that garbage and recycling would go out to Donjoy along the main driveway, and the answer treats that as the logical result. The public portion ends with procedure again. Council moves into executive session for property acquisition and pending or potential litigation. The legal basis is read out, Jamie calls the roll, and seven yes votes close the public meeting. It is a very local kind of dispute: exact motions, careful votes, polite pressure, and a land use question squeezed down to driveway geometry and code compliance.

As heard by us

A measured council meeting where driveway access and closed-session business do most of the work.

Blue Ash council spends most of the meeting on ordinary civic work, and that is where the pressure shows. Agenda items, minutes, and outside-agency remarks lead into a zoning dispute that stays focused on driveway placement, lot access, neighbor privacy, and whether the request…

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Why you'd press play

You want to watch a routine zoning request turn into a practical access debate.

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