JOHN COFFELTEditor

The Board of Mayor and Alderman passed the final reading at the Feb. 6 meeting of an update to the Land Use Plan, following a back and forth discussion that goes back to the summer of 2022.

The document, described as a planning tool for developments, rezoning requests and infrastructure upgrades, has moved since that time unaltered since the changes to the current land use plan were drafted by a Planning Commission subcommittee, and twice approved by the Planning Commission to then see two separate first readings by BOMA. The current Land Use Plan dates back to the 2014 updates to the 1970s document.

According to Codes Director Brittany Fiske, the city saw the first wave of residential building boom around 2016

This proposed plan was challenged by Alderman Julie Anderson at the meetings in March 2023 when she said that proper public notices were not given prior to several of the subcommittee’s meetings. A second challenge questioned the lack of representation from the Urban Growth Boundary, the area just outside the city limits that are set for likely expansion by the city.

Tuesday’s meeting was the first time that the matter received comments from the public. More than five residents spoke, uniformly opposing the plans, most with concerns that the plan would rezone their properties.

UGB resident Sarah Bradley spoke against the plan, criticizing the process it was developed, and said it would not help with the city’s sewer issues, its lack of affordable housing and said that the people she has spoken with does not support the plan.

“What I’m hearing from people is not in this way – not at this time,” Bradley said.

Planning Commission Member representing the UGB Rob Clutter was asked by the mayor his views on the plan. Clutter said at first he was skeptical of the plan.

“From what I’ve been told, this is like a long-term vision of what might happen 10-15 years from now,” Clutter said.

Clutter, who was appointed to the Planning Commission after the proposals were made, compared the growth that the city is expecting to that of his former hometown of Murfreesboro.

“I think we are on the edge of a lot of growth. We need to have a plan or else we’re going to be in big trouble.

“I don’t know if this (plan) is awesome, it’s a suggestion, it’s a guide…,” Clutter said, noting that rezoning requests are not approved solely by the Land Use Plan.

Codes Director Brittany Fiske explained that the plan does not rezone anyone’s property.

She said that in the months leading up to the decision to update the land use plan, the commission saw the need to update the out of date 2014 plan because of the number of piecemeal updates that were occurring.

“We had been amending it bits and pieces along the way for several years. The Planning Commission felt we need to update it as a whole,” Fiske said.

She said the UGB, an area surrounding the city limits that that is already designated as potential city expansion (at the owners’ request), was seeing a lot of annexation requests. When the city annexes a property, a decision is made at the time what the zoning will be for the property.

“The Planning Commission had no guide before … for the urban growth boundary,” Fiske said.

According to Fiske there were 10-12 meetings of the Planning or subcommittee level. She said that two were publicly announced.

Alderman Anderson said Tuesday that she opposes the land use plan due to over representation of developers in the changes to the plan and an underrepresentation of “the regular people that she talks to.”

She said the city’s infrastructure is not ready for the amount of higher density zoning that the plan shows. Anderson criticized the process in which the plan was updated and has suggested previously that the entire document was tainted and required redoing.

City Attorney Craig Johnson said at an earlier meeting that violations to the sunshine law are remedied by a new vote in a properly posted public meeting. The first and second reading of the ordinance that would update the Land Use Plan were announced and a public hearing was held.

The updated land use plan passed the second reading 4-2 with Anderson and Alderman Donny Parsley voting no.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.