01/26/2026
It Only Takes One Official to Speak Up
Is the local planning process hopelessly corrupt and indifferent to the wants and needs of the public they serve? If you’re prone to doom-scrolling on the internet these days, the answer may be a resounding yes.
I tend to be more optimistic, having observed the evolution of the Berea Planning Commission since the 1990s.
The lesson I gleaned from covering all those azz-numbing meetings was that despite conventional wisdom, just one person on a committee can substantially influence the long-term course of local policy.
When I started covering P&Z, there was an intelligent and steely spined lady named Nancy Lee-Riffe. Harvard and UK educated, Nancy was a retired professor from EKU who was very invested in her community. If I’m not mistaken, Nancy was appointed to the commission by then-Mayor Cliff Kerby.
Nancy was something of a fish-out-of-water. Developers, most of them good ‘ol boys, would make their presentations in council chambers, and when it seemed that a development was ready to sail through, Nancy would start asking questions. Where are the sidewalks? Is there going to be green space for this neighborhood?
I had a sense that developers really weren’t thrilled that Nancy was there asking these questions. Afterall, developers in Kentucky weren’t required to put in sidewalks or to make their developments livable with green space. What was her problem?
But after she was there for a while, watching events unfold on P&Z was kind of like observing an aircraft carrier make a 180-degree turn – slowly, but surely.
Another solid citizen on the commission, George Oberst, an avid outdoorsman and nature lover, began to speak up, too. Then, even after Nancy-Lee was effectively retired by the city council, it was George that would ask those questions. Where are the sidewalks? What kind of natural buffers, like trees, are going to be between this development and the next? Can we provide for bike lanes?
Lee-Riffe and Oberst were always outnumbered, but they got the discussion started, and when other commissioners joined in, something really interesting started to happen. Going forward, developers would submit their plans with certain amenities already included to ensure they could get their projects approved.
Lee-Riffe and Oberst may have been seen by some developers as pain-in-the-neck, liberal, tree-hugger types, but their willingness to go against the flow, and sometimes stand alone, led to changes that helped improve the quality of life in Berea which endure to the present day.
Planning is a hot topic right now, especially in county government. While it’s much easier to not attend P&Z meetings, justified in the belief that officials are all crooks who won’t listen to the public, I like to think of Nancy Lee-Riffe and George Oberst as being examples that the opposite is true.
They had faith in the process – faith that when presented with alternative points of view, their colleagues just might come around and do the right thing.
They were right then, and I think they still are, may they both rest in peace.
