By Tabitha Evans Moore | EDITOR & PUBLISHER

LOCAL NEWS | Growth is coming for Moore County, and there’s little anyone can do to stop it completely. As more and more developers enter the county looking to build subdivisions on agriculturally-zoned lands in the most rural parts of the county, the seven-member Metro Planning Commission finds themselves needing to dot every “i” and cross every “t” in their monthly meetings in a effort to ensure the Metro Codes Book is followed to the letter of the law and that each would-be builder is treated the same. Otherwise, they could accidentally get Metro into some legal hot waters.

Subdivisions have been the main topic of the last two Metro Planning Commission meetings. On December 5, area developer Joe Denby and local citizens clashed over a proposed Tanyard Hill subdivision near Campbell Lane. In the nearly standing-room-only meeting, multiple speakers used the public comments section of the meeting to bring up concerns ranging from traffic issues to water pressure. {To read our full coverage of that meeting, click here.}

In January’s meeting last Tuesday, the Commission found itself in the position to approve or disapprove another minor division and plat review of property off Mount Herman Road for area developer Lisa Ford. After a careful reading of the subdivision rules and a conversation with zoning experts at UT’s County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS), the Commission turned Ford away based on the number and size of the lots on her initial drawings.

However, the next day, the Commission reversed course, and invited Miss Ford to resubmit her drawings at a special called meeting on Thursday, January 11 at the County Building. So what changed?

“Something about the meeting kept gnawing at me,” Planning Commission Chair Dexter Golden told The Times the following day. “I just kept getting the feeling we didn’t get it right. So, I kept researching.”

Golden says he also visited each building site the following day to gain a little “ground truth” about each. He also contacted both Denby and Ford to explain the process and the purpose of the special called meeting.

Subdivision lots sizes at issue

One of the main topics of Tuesday’s meeting were the different required lot sizes for single-family dwellings as compared to higher density subdivisions. Miss Ford sought to divide the 27-acres parcel of land into five lots – placing it under the subdivision rules for the county. Chair Golden explained to Miss Ford at the time that his reading of existing law as well as the reading of CTAS officials was that subdivisions were required to build on two acre lots instead of the one acre lots, according to the Metro Codes Book. The following day, he discovered additional info limiting the two-acre requirement to only those subdivisions built on lands with a grade in excess of 15 percent.

The rolling hills of Moore County are beautiful and a sought after address for many migrating into Tennessee, but placing too many homes on a parcel with a steep grade could result in some unintended consequences like erosion and septic runoff. So, two-acre lots make sense in some but not all situations.

“I think one acre is sufficient for one house,” argued Commission member and local builder Jeff Ross during the meeting.

It was a point most members agreed with but again, in order to avoid lawsuits, the Metro Planning Commission must avoid applying local laws unequally. It’s a point fellow member Jim Crawford emphasized on Tuesday.

“The county is opening itself up to a lawsuit if we’re treating the same situation differently,” he said.

Commission goes by the book

If you attend Metro Planning Commission meetings often, you’ll hear a familiar refrain: whatever it says in the book goes. The book in question is the Metro Codes book, which includes all zoning and building codes for Metro Moore County. There is also a separate document filled with rules specifically for subdivisions in the county.

In Moore County, the Metro Council makes local zoning laws and the Metro Planning Commission merely enforces them. Potential variances to those rules go before the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA).

Members of the Commission are quick to remind those that appear before them that they merely enforce those codes.

“We’re gonna keep Moore County the way the book says,” Golden stated on Tuesday. “Before you buy a parcel of land in Moore County, it’s up to you to know what you can and can’t do with it. If a developer gets themselves in a bind, we’re not responsible for that.”

Developers see opportunity

Mr. Denby and Miss Ford are hardly the first developers to see the value in building in Moore County. Migration into Tennessee from other states and record-setting local growth has also resulted in a lack of affordable housing in the county.

Many local farmers are aging out of agriculture, and their loved ones don’t always see the value in continuing the rural way of life. When local families opt to sell large tracts of land in rural parts of the county, developers quickly do the math and see an opportunity. When you add to that equation the fact that Jack Daniel’s Distillery plans to double production in the next couple of years, it becomes abundantly clear that affordable housing is likely to be a topic in the county for the foreseeable future.

But more houses mean more pressure on Metro Moore County’s aging and already stressed infrastructure. Rural subdivisions mean more traffic, more water and sewer lines, and increased class sizes at local schools.

“There could be a strain on our infrastructure with all this development,” Commission member and local builder Scott Fruehauf stated. Fruehauf also suggested that the Commission plan a workshop on developing subdivision rules moving forward.

At question is the idea of smart growth that emphasizes not only the needs of those wishing to move into Moore County but also the needs of existing residents whose families have lived here for generations. The Metro Planning Commission must also balance those needs against the rights of area builders and developers in order to avoid unnecessary lawsuits. Members can not vote against a request –even an unpopular one – if those projects follow the letter of the law.

Citizens who want to get involved should attend public meetings and address their concerns directly with elected and appointed official through the now state-mandated public comment section of each meeting.

A Metro Planning Commission special-called meeting to discuss and clarify Metro Codes surrounding subdivisions in Moore County will take place on Thursday, January 11 at 4:30 p.m. at the County Building.

The Metro Planning Commission meets every first Tuesday of the month at 4:30 p.m. at the County Building and the Metro Council meets every third Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the former American Legion Building.•

{The Lynchburg Times is the only locally-owned and locally-operated community newspaper in Lynchburg, Tennessee and one of the few women-owned newspaper in the state. They cover local news and events as well as the tourism and whiskey industries in southern, middle Tennessee. Click here to subscribe.}