By Tabitha Evans Moore
Editor & Publisher

LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — A Tanyard Hill Road subdivision the Metro Council has already turned down is headed back to that body, this time with three changes to the plat that planning officials say may make it different enough to be considered again.

The Metro Planning Commission on Tuesday reviewed a revised sketch plat for the major subdivision proposed by developer Joe Denby and agreed to send it to the council for a rezoning request.

Chair Dexter Golden told members the plat could not simply be resubmitted as it was.

“The way Robert’s Rules of Order works is that you cannot vote on the same plat twice,” Golden said, adding that any new submission had to include a significant change. He said the commission informed Denby of that and Denby was willing to revise the plat.

THE THREE CHANGES

According to a summary sheet provided by Denby to commissioners, the revised plat differs from the earlier version in three ways:

The visual easement on Lot 3 has been widened by five feet across the lot to increase safety.

The ingress, egress and utility easement serving Lot 6 has been extended more than 50 feet to allow added flexibility in obtaining driveway and utility access.

A restriction has been added to Lot 8, which Denby described as the big tract, stating that no further development of the lot will be permitted within three years of approval of the subdivision plat.

“So that means when I get rid of it, they have to wait three years to do anything,” Denby told the commission.

Denby said everything else on the plat remains the same, and that he still expects to work with Roads Superintendent Shannon Cauble on driveway placement for Lot 5, as the two previously discussed. Cauble indicated that because the project has been in the pipeline for some time, newer driveway restrictions would not apply to it.

Commissioners checked the plat against the preliminary checklist and raised no objections. Golden asked Denby to supply 10 copies of the revised plat and the list of changes so both could be forwarded to the council.

SECOND ATTEMPT

The property is a 23.25-acre tract on Tanyard Hill Road between Damron Road and Coffee Creek Road, owned by Denby, doing business as Denby’s J&J Construction.

In July, the council voted 11-2 against rezoning the full tract from A-1 agricultural to R-2 residential. Members cited uncertainty about what would eventually happen with the entire parcel and safety concerns about adding driveways near a curve on the road.

In August, a reduced request covering roughly 9.4 acres of road frontage passed first reading 8-5, with the remaining 13.89 acres, described by both Denby and planning officials as too steep to build on, to stay agricultural.

That version failed on second reading in September, 3-7. Arvis Bobo, Amy Cashion and Peggy Sue Blackburn voted for the rezoning. Robert Bracewell, Bradley Dye, Jason Estfon, Brady Goodwin, Sunny Rae Moorehead, Payton Keller and John Oosting voted against it. Golden, who also sits on the council, abstained. Five of the members who voted on the August first reading were no longer seated by the September vote.

At the time, the path to reconsideration was unclear. A failed second reading generally means a rezoning must start over from first reading, which is what the revised plat now sets up.

The changes presented Tuesday track the two concerns the council voiced in July: the Lot 3 visual easement and Lot 6 access easement address sight lines and driveways, and the Lot 8 restriction addresses future development of the remaining land.

The council is expected to take up the new rezoning request at an upcoming meeting. It will need to pass two readings to take effect.•

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