By Tabitha Evans Moore, EDITOR & PUBLISHER

It’s 6:30 p.m. on Monday and Anthony Barnett stands before the Metro Council during the public comment section of the meeting. It’s the second, maybe third public meeting he’s attended in the past several months regarding a new proposed subdivision along Tanyard Hill Road.

“I feel like the community isn’t being heard,” Barnett told the Council. “We get to voice our opinion, but it doesn’t seem like it does any good. The Tanyard Hill community filled the planning and zoning meeting up and we have concerns about the proposed subdivision there, and it doesn’t feel like that carries any weight.”

Between a rock and a hard place

Officials develop local zoning laws to create a well-balanced community that considers the needs of agricultural, residential, industrial, and commercial landowners equally. Ultimately, good zoning should result in stable property values, and protect local resources while balancing growth against existing infrastructure. But the seven-member Commission doesn’t make zoning laws; they merely enforce them, which sometimes leaves them in a position that feels like a rock and a hard place.

As more and more farmers age out or pass down large swaths of A-1 (agricultural) land in Moore County, it often makes its way into the local real estate market and is scooped up by an area developer eager to convert it into housing for profit.

In some cases, this means that Moore County families who’ve enjoyed living peacefully alongside a 20-acres hayfield for decades, can suddenly find themselves living next to 20 busy, noisy single-family houses instead.

Citizens like Barnett often come to public meetings hoping to stop this process, but there’s not much the Commission can do to appease them – a point Commission Chair Dexter Golden conceded on Monday.

“There’s not a lot that we can do for those people,” Golden confessed to his fellow Metro Council members. “If it’s in the book, and someone comes in, and they are following the book … That’s what they are allowed to do. That’s why they bought that property.”

Voice concerns earlier in the process

Golden however did state that as more growth comes to Moore County, local zoning laws might deserve a second look.

Some of his suggestions included requiring infrastructure improvements to come before development to avoid growing pains as well as raising the building lot size requirement on agriculture land to 5-acres to give citizens more recourse during the process.

“We need to think about whether or not we’re ready for 500 new houses coming in,” he stated. “Are we ready for that to happen in Lynchburg as quickly as it’s happening all across Tennessee?”

Golden also explained to the group that the Tanyard Hill subdivision did not require rezoning – and thus Metro Council approval – because the land being developed is currently zoned agricultural.

“In our book, it allows you to build multiple homes on one-acre lot sizes on A-1 land,” Golden explained.

Increasing the agricultural building lot size to five-acres would force developers to either build less dense subdivisions or request rezoning, thus forcing them to seek approval from both the Metro Planning Commission and Metro Council – giving local citizens more opportunities to voice their concerns earlier in the process.

“The rezoning would happen here, for your approval, which would give folks more of a say. A room full of people came in there with us on multiple nights and felt like they had no voice. There is a voice in this room,” Golden stated.

But citizen pushback isn’t enough

Metro Attorney John T. Bobo reminded the Council that legally, citizen pushback isn’t enough.

 “One reason that is not valid is just neighborhood complaints,” Bobo explained – citing a recent case that his law office represented but which was appealed. “There’s a list of things that you can take into consideration, but just because someone doesn’t like it isn’t enough. If it fits, it fits.”

Bobo also stated that insufficient infrastructure also often halts projects.

“A lot of these communities have outgrown their utilities and infrastructure, and that’s normally what gets these big developments,” he said. “Even if the book allows it, they can’t do it if they can’t get the water and sewer they need. They can not force the utility to expand services at the utility’s expense.”

In the end, the Council asked Golden and the Planning Commission to draft A-1 revisions and present them at a future Metro Council meeting.

The next Metro Planning Commission meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 6 at 4:30 p.m. at the County Building. The next Metro Council meeting will take place on Monday, February 19 at the American Legion Building. Any member of the general public who wished to be heard during the public comment period should contact the Metro Codes office at 931-759-7068 or the Mayor’s office at 931-759-7076 to be added to the public comment section of the meeting. •

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