Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. It is 4 o'clock. This is the meeting of the Coffee County Planning Commission, March 24th, 2026. I'm going to call this meeting to order. The first thing that we have is public comments. Anybody have any public comments? Okay, that was pretty easy. Uh the next thing we have is approval of the agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. We have a motion to approve the agenda. I second. Got a second by Randy. All those in favor say I. I. I. Say I.

I. It's unanimous. Okay, we're going to move on to the approval of the previous minutes. Do I hear a motion to approve the previous minutes? I'll make a motion to approve. I have a motion from Anna Gonzalez to approve the previous minutes. Do I have a second? I'll second. Have a second from Randy Harrell. Any discussion of the previous minutes? If not, all those in favor say I. I.

Oppose. We move on to bond review. Cindy, since Kurt's not here, I don't think we have a bond any bond review, do we? Okay. Uh unfortunately or fortunately, however you want to put it, uh neither item that is on the present agenda uh got completed. I guess we lack signatures. Is that correct? From Tekk. So both of those are going to be deferred to our April meeting. That's a major preliminary for MC England Road and the minor final plat for Fountain Grove Road. Uh that was pretty fast. What we're going to go on to is we're going to go on to other uh anybody have any other? Well, I want to say a few things here. Uh, I don't do social media, but it was been pointed out to me last night and this morning about some comments that are coming up. And it seems to be a lot there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about what's going on here and what we're doing. And I want to clear up a few things while we're doing this. Number one is the 5 acre minimum. Now, from what I understand, there's all kinds of discussion about the five acre minimum. And there was actually a former commissioner who I respect a lot that said there's a 5 acre minimum and a moratorum in effect. And the fact of the matter is is there

is a five five acre minimum, but there is no moratorum. and has not been since May. May May, April or May. Yep.

So, want to dispel that rumor. There is no moratorum. The A1 area, as I said, can only be in the UGBS. And the UGBs of Manchester and Taho, I don't think people realize how big they are. They almost cut this county in two. Teleoma's UGB extends from Bedford County to Franklin County to Moore County. It wraps around one one side of of uh of Normandy Lake and there's a plan growth area on the other side of Normandy Lake. Those are that that is UGB and the planned growth area is another area that is outside the A1 district. Uh the uh Manchester UGB and UGB join at Crumpton Creek. Manchesterers runs almost to Forest Mill Church north. It runs to Watenorf Highway to the east and it runs to almost exit 105 to the west. I think I'm correct on all that. Uh, by the way, Tal's UGB also extends up to the federal land from Arnold Engineering Development Center. So, that's a pretty that's a pretty big area. That's all in the UGB. Go back to my notes here. this uh I think there was a statement that nothing had been done to the UGB. Well, it was updated when Ray Johnson was mayor. I don't know who was mayor of Manchester, but that's when Asbury Road

was brought into the UGB. That's right now is where the Little Leaf Farms and where the Great Lakes Cheese Company is. Uh the zoning resolution was updated in 2006 and our zoning resolution I think as anybody up here can tell you is under constant review

and we've changed it many many times. Uh another misconception is the property that we don't have any control of. Arnold engineer devel Arnold engineering development center is federal property. The mega site is state property and there's lots of other stateowned property here in the county. Bark camp, several of the hunting areas

are all stateowned. The county has no control over that. None. Uh, however, if the state sells a track of that land in the in the uh mega site, the it might have to come before the planning commission, but it depends on the conditions that the state sets. I mean, they could sell it uh a company and not require them to go before the county. That's a that's a state deal. personal property rights. That's been a big a big deal and a big issue. And I think a lot of you have heard me say this before. Personal property rights depend on the density of the population. I don't care what anybody says or what anybody wants to argue. The more dense the population, the fewer rights you have. It's a fact. Land use rules, zoning, and codes are intended to balance those rights. Some folks call it an evil, but it is a necessary one. Rooftops. We hear a lot about rooftops all of a sudden. Companies do count rooftops in and around city limits. Uh if they're expecting to come, they they read your social media. They read your newspapers, John. They they uh and they they count rooftops in and around the city limits. Rooftops on 127, 280, 41 east of Hillsboro, the east ends of Ragsdale and Asbury, 41 from Beach Grove to exit 105, and all the small roads throughout Coffee County don't get counted. The 5 acre minimum has succeeded in pushing the growth into the UGBS without slowing growth in the rest of the

county. But that growth is more responsible. The cities should welcome this because there's two qualifications to be annexed. One is that you have to be in the UGB and number two is a property owner has to ask to be annexed. The city can no longer go out and reach and grab a piece of property without the property owner's consent. Infrastructure, we keep hearing about infrastructure, schools, and roads. My s, this is not a planning commission thing. This is my personal opinion. Why do I want why do we want the citizens already here in this county to pay for those who are coming here? that that's just not right to me. And don't think that there are not discussions on how to handle these situations and we're without local taxpaying citizens putting the bill. There are ways those discussions have been going on in this planning commission. They've been going on across several uh people in this county. Uh, just wanted to clear those things up. Uh, I will tell you this. If you have a question that you want some clarification on, I don't have a side in this thing. We try to look at everything right down the middle. If you have a question, call Cindy or Kurt at the codes office and if you want my phone number, they can give it to you. But let's get this cleared up and let's let's have an election and everything based on the facts and not on hearsay one side or the other. That's all I have to say. If there's any more comments,

anybody can step forward and have them. I just like to verify my I may have missed it when you said it. I had an individual today ask me myself ask me about the five acres and he was He misunderstood it. He thought the five acre was basically throughout the county. I told him, I said, "No, the 5 acre minimum is in A1 only outside the UGB

outside the UGB and stuff." And he was talking, he said, "Well," he said, "I was just wondering," he said, "I've got, I think he said, like three and a half acres and I was just wondering what I was going to do with that." I said, "Well, you're not in the A1." So that's, you know, that's still open. So I just want to be that it is in the A1 only. Something that I should have said and I skipped. There are two pathways. If you want to go smaller than five acres,

you can go to the board of zoning appeals and ask for a variance. And that has been done. And the board of zoning appeals, I think, has done a great job. uh they have done they have done a wonderful job particularly for parents wanting to give an acre or two acres or something like that to kids. They they've done a great job with that.

Anything that was started before this conversation uh they've handled that very very well. The other thing that you can do is you can ask for a reasonzoning and uh you that process you come to the planning commission and you ask for a reszoning we give it a positive or negative review and then it goes to the full commission. One caveat for the five acre minimum. If you divide your property into five acres, you don't have to come across here. You can just get a deed and you can go like you want to go. You don't have to come before the planning commission if you divide your property in five acres. So, when you're talking about uh property rights, that looks to me like that's pretty easy fix right there. So,

anything anybody got anything else to say? by in the audience. Well, I hope I hope that clears some stuff up for some folks and uh good luck to all the candidates. Let's try to get our stories right and go from there. Is that it? That's it. Anybody here want to make a motion to adjourn? Go to say that's his job. I got a motion motion to adjurnn. I got a motion from Sammy to adjourn. I hear a second. Wait, hold on. Wait a minute. I got a comment. Okay.

We're going to hold hold our journal. Just a second.

Yeah. I just wanted to say that a lot of individuals have made uh comments on social media and in the public regarding a strategic uh growth plan. Coffee County did have a uh committee specific to that subject and we have a uh updated strategic growth plan that runs through 2028 under agriculture which is of course one of my pet projects. recommendations in bold print from the group of the county uh strategic growth plan committee in bold print under their page for addressing agriculture. Collaborate with the Coffee County Soil Conservation District to protect farmland with zoning and future land use map updates, which is exactly what we did. Mhm.

The Farm Bureau adopted a resolution unanimously uh support in support of our 5 acre minimum parcel in the A1 district only. We adopted this uh exactly the way uh TCA sets it out. The planning commission made the recommendation. The full legislative body voted on it. And this is affecting the A1 district only. You know, I we have to say that ad nauseium because some people just think it's a countywide thing and it is not. So, I just want to be sure. I'm in there with uh I was in there with the Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation people because we're fixing to have a public hearing regarding farm ponds quaries. Uh, I'd invite everybody's probably got time to get here. The question and answer period will start at 5:00 pm. Uh, the I will uh I would like to reiterate that TAC doesn't want to hear about dust, dump trucks, noise, road damage. They're here to listen to water quality issues only. So, uh, anybody listening to this meeting, and I hope all the members of this planning commission will set in on that because I think it will be interesting. That's all I have, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for listening.

Do they not have a six o'clock? They Okay, let me explain the format. From 5:00 until 6 o'clock, it's an informal question and answer period. Anybody can ask them anything. At 6:00 pm the official uh public hearing begins. They don't say anything. They will not answer question. The public will come to a microphone make their statement and that is recorded by the TC officials for their public record.

Could we adopt that? That's all I had. Everybody needs to needs to come and listen to the T deck. They came all the way from East Tennessee. Uh they're they're a great group of people. They they they've already uh commended us. We're one of 48 counties in the state that have adopted countywide zoning and they say, "You guys are smart." So, uh, we do have we do have countywide zoning. Thank you, guys. I guess that was discussion of our motion to adjourn. I see.

Any more discussion? Did I hear it? Did I get a second? I got second. Okay. All those in favor of say I. I. You've had a long drive, a clicked off some miles.