The Coffee County Regional Planning Commission recommended during the Feb. 25 meeting a 180-day moratorium on new major subdivisions in the A1-agricultural districts of the county.

The proposed moratorium addressing five or more homes, brought before the commission by Coffee County Mayor Dennis Hunt, would not affect areas in the Urban Growth Boundary.

“The destruction of (agricultural) lands has reached epidemic proportions,” Hunt said. “We would be remissed not to address that. Anything that we do to bring residential… growth back to the municipalities will be viewed favorably in the future.” 

Citing University of Tennessee data Hunt said that statewide 9.7 acres per hour of farmland are being lost to residential, industrial or commercial development. He added that in Coffee County since 2023, 7,653 Ag parcels have been converted to non-farming uses.

“You have to remember when you go into a grocery store it didn’t come from a factory, it came from a farm,” Hunt said.     

The Planning Commission unanimously amended Hunt’s 90-day moratorium to a 180-day moratorium with commissioners expressing the opinion that more time would be needed for proposed zoning amendments.

“I think that if we go to 180-days we wouldn’t have to rush,” Commissioner Randy Harrell said. “One-hundred eight days would give us enough time to take our time and be thorough.”  

Planning Chairman Steve Cunningham said, “Anyone can guess where the next big development will be. Where the next old farmer passes away and he has kids – offspring that doesn’t want any of that land, that’s where the big development is going to be.” 

The Planning Commission also recommended a series of restrictive changes to the county zoning resolutions that if passed by the County Commission will heavily impact potential developments in rural areas.

Those changes include a restriction on the size of roadways that major developments can feed onto, a mandate that subdivisions have minimum water flow back to the source and a 5-acre minimum requirement for lots in A-1 districts.

Under state statute, the county’s two municipalities address growth in the UGB using the county’s zoning resolutions. The UGB is specifically set aside for the city’s growth and are the only places immediately available for annexation at the landowners’ request.