LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — The Metro Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) will decide Tuesday whether developer Claude “Chip” Hayes III can build a campground and RV park on roughly 17 acres of Main Street land — the latest zoning request tied to the Retreat-branded.

The board meets on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the County Building basement located at 241 Main Street for a single item of new business: a special exception request for a campground/RV travel trailer park, filed under Article VII, Section 7.060 of the county’s zoning ordinance, covering Map 031, Parcels 021.01 and 021.02.

The Board of Zoning Appeals will take public comment before voting on the special exception.

The two parcels — 6.34 and 10.67 acres, according to county property records pulled August 5. Retreat Construction LLC, Hayes’ construction arm, filed the application with Michael Nauta listed as project engineer. Hayes signed the project’s compliance paperwork himself on August 4.

Campgrounds and travel trailer parks are allowed in the county’s A-1 Agriculture-Forestry District only as a special exception, meaning they require BZA approval rather than being permitted outright. Before granting one, the board must issue written findings on ingress and egress, traffic safety, and emergency access, along with parking and the noise, glare and odor effects on neighboring property.

Separately, Section 4.160.4(E) of the zoning ordinance sets specific standards for private campgrounds and travel trailer parks: a 10-acre minimum site, a density cap of 10 sites per acre, sanitary facilities within 300 feet of every site, a minimum of 3,200 square feet per campsite, and at least 25% of the site preserved as open space, among other requirements.

In the August 4 filing, Hayes walks through the project’s compliance with each standard in Section 4.160.4 — setbacks, road widths, curve radii, parking ratios, water and trash service — and states the site plan will be revised to show items like 300-foot bath house coverage circles and setback lines. But the document itself leaves several bracketed figures blank, including the total site acreage, the number of proposed campsites, the resulting density per acre, and the square footage of any on-site commercial space, even as it asserts the project meets or exceeds the ordinance’s numeric thresholds.

A vegetative buffer required along the property’s perimeter and adjoining lines is also not yet detailed; the filing says it will come in a “follow-up landscape plan” still to be submitted.

The zoning ordinance appears to set two different limits on how long someone can stay. The A-1 district’s special-exception provision for travel trailer parks caps occupancy at three months. But Section 4.160.4(E)(3)(h), which governs campgrounds and RV parks specifically, states that “no camping vehicle, camping equipment or recreational vehicle shall be used for human habitation for a period exceeding thirty (30) consecutive days.” Neither the ordinance nor the applicant’s filing addresses which limit would apply to the Whiskey Creek project.

For Tuesday’s application, Hayes signed as Founder and CEO of Retreat Construction LLC, listing Tennessee Contractor’s License No. 77587, classification BC-A/BC-B — a general building-construction classification distinct from the plumbing-license questions raised in the Times’ earlier reporting on his other projects.

If approved, the project would still need a revised site plan reflecting the setback lines, coverage circles, dump station location and landscape buffer the applicant’s own filing says are still pending. According to Planning officials, if the BZA grants the special exception, the project would still require Planning Commission approval before moving forward. •

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