LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — Moore County Road Superintendent Shannon Cauble has formally denied the commercial entrance request at 1075 Main Street adjacent to the south side of the Main Street Bridge — the access point at the center of a months-long dispute between Whiskey Creek developer Chip Hayes and Moore County officials — declaring in an official statement to the Metro Moore County Planning Committee that a safe commercial entrance at that location is “a physical impossibility.”
The statement, dated June 15, 2026, identifies four compounding factors that make the proposed entrance permanently unworkable: accelerated structural stress on the bridge deck from commercial traffic, encroachment into what Cauble describes as a critical bridge safety zone, dangerous driveway geometry including a significant skew from standard 90-degree alignment, and legal conflicts with a shared easement involving a non-consenting residential neighbor.
Cauble’s statement includes photographic documentation and precise measurements. Per the statement, the existing property pin sits exactly ten feet, two inches from the guardrail. The existing guardrail terminates less than ten feet from the structural bridge wingwall. Cauble states that because of the driveway’s skew, vehicles navigating within eleven feet of critical bridge infrastructure are “virtually guaranteed to strike the guardrail or the wingwall itself over time.”
The statement addresses the historical residential driveway that has existed at that location, noting it was granted exemptions “strictly for low-volume residential use.” A change to commercial use, Cauble writes, strips away those historical allowances entirely — and the geometry that was tolerable for a private residence becomes legally and physically untenable for commercial traffic.
Perhaps most significant legally: Cauble’s statement reveals the existing driveway footprint is split near the center by a property line, with legal easements between neighbors governing access. The developer owns approximately half the driveway footprint nearest to the bridge. Any commercial upgrade requiring widening, paving, and geometric corrections “cannot physically be contained on that side of the property line” — meaning Hayes would need a non-consenting neighbor’s cooperation to fix problems he cannot fix unilaterally.
“The site simply lacks the spatial geometry to ever satisfy both highway safety requirements and subdivision design standards,” Cauble writes. The Highway Department, she states, “stands firm on this denial.”
The denial comes as the Whiskey Creek development faces scrutiny on multiple fronts. The Lynchburg Times reported this week that a structural bridge assessment submitted by Hayes to county officials in support of the project was produced by an engineer who does not hold a Professional Engineer license in Tennessee. The Tennessee State Board of Architectural and Engineering Examiners has opened an active complaint — number 202603950 — against the assessment’s author for potential unlicensed activity with a hearing scheduled for August 2026.
Following publication of The Lynchburg Times report, Bhegani Engineering issued a written statement claiming the assessment was performed under the direct supervision of licensed Tennessee Professional Engineer Jonathan Clark, identified as the firm’s principal and Engineer of Record. The Lynchburg Times is in the process of independently verifying that claim through the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance and the State Board of Architectural and Engineering Examiners. Clark has not been independently reachable as of publication.
Cauble’s statement addresses the access dispute in specific technical and legal detail — and arrives as a formal submission to the Planning Committee, placing the county’s position officially on the record for the first time in writing.
The Planning Committee is scheduled to meet next on Tuesday, July 7 at 5:30 p.m. at the County Building located at 241 Main Street in Lynchburg. Cauble’s statement will likely be formally discussed at that meeting. •
About the Lynchburg Times: The Lynchburg Times is Moore County’s locally owned, independent news source and the only local media source own by a Lynchburg native. Our reporting is supported by readers, small business partners, and underwriters who believe community journalism matters. If this story was valuable to you, consider becoming a supporter at lynchburgtimes.com.