Regional Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the January 13, 2026 Johnson City Regional Planning Commission meeting. If you're here to speak during the public hearing portion of the agenda, please wait until I've opened the public hearing. Once opened, one person at a time may come to the podium to be recognized. Please speak clearly into the microphone and begin by giving us your name and address. Then each person will be allowed to speak for three minutes. And if you're the applicant, you may be given additional time up to 10 minutes to present your request. And we ask that you only address us at the as the commission. I'll now call the meeting to order at one minute after six. Commissioner Dutton, would you please lead us at in an invocation and the pledge of allegiance to the flag?

Certainly, sir. Please bow your heads and pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening with grateful hearts, thanking you for the privilege to serve this community. We ask for your guidance in all that is said and done in this meeting. Grant us the wisdom to make decisions that reflect your kingdom. And please help us to lead with humility, to listen with compassion, and to act with integrity. Lord, bless our city and all who call it home. Let your presence be among us now and may we uh all bring glory to you this evening. Amen. Amen. Please rise for the pledge.

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [snorts] All right, we have the agenda before us dated for January 13th today. Does anyone have any changes or additions to the agenda? No, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda. Second. All right. I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented and a second. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed?

All right. I also have the minutes from the December 9th meeting. Does anyone have any corrections or additions to the minutes for December 9th? The minutes. Mr. Chairman, I've reviewed the minutes and find them to be in conformance with uh uh with with the occurrence of the meeting. I move that we approve. Second. All right. I have a motion to approve and a second of the minutes for the December 9th meeting. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? I will abstain since I was not in attendance. All right. We have no public comments on tonight's agenda. So, we'll move directly to the consent agenda. We have one item on the consent agenda and that's a chase drive extension bond release. Does anyone have that? Anyone want to have that brought forward for discussion? Mr. Chairman, I move to um approve the consent agenda as presented. Second.

All right. We have the consent agenda. one item chase drive extension that has been moved to be approved as presented and a second. Anybody have any further discussion? If none, I'll have listen for that to be approved as say I for that to be moved forward. I

any any opposed? I'm sorry. We'll move that forward then. I take those all's unifi uni unanimous eyes. So we'll move directly to new business 7.1. Miss Hodges, I believe you're presenting all of our items this evening. We have one text amendment for Washington County. It's a zoning code resolution text amendment.

Oh, let me go back. Okay. Um the Washington County Planning Department would like to um add a definition into the zoning ordinance just to kind of show you where we are when it comes to the the public process. We are the start we were part of the start of that in the beginning. What they would like to do is to be able to clarify some things around um certain meat processing and packaging. And so a summary is here and has been provided in your packet as well as the direct language of what they are changing. Um these are your decision options for that text amendment and um Washington County is here if you have questions.

All right. This text amendment relates to the meat processing processing house being then built in the county. Yes. Any questions for staff? Any questions for the representative from the county? I'll entertain a motion. It is a public hearing, so you will need to open the It's a text amendment.

Excuse me. I'll open the question for a public hearing. Does anyone have a question that they want to speak to the question in favor or against? Seeing no one to to speak to the question, I'll close the p public hearing. Mr. Chairman, having reviewed the um the the staff packet, um I I thought the rationale made perfect sense. The clarifications were um were likely were likely overdue. Um and accordingly, I'd like to move that we uh recommend approval of the text amendment as presented. Second.

All right. We have a motion to approve the text amendment as presented to adjust the article 2 zoning resolution. And we have a second. Any further discussion? Miss Hatfield, would you please call the role? Commissioner Aldridge? Yes. Commissioner Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner Williams. Yes. Commissioner Goetsz Gats. Yes. Sorry. Vice Chairman Dutton. Yes. Chairman Dagenheart.

Yes. All right. We'll move to item 7.2. This is also a Washington County issue. It's a resoning on 144 Bob Clark Road. Request to reszone from R1 low density residential to A1 general agriculture. All right. So, where we are in the process here is that we are the recommending body for the county commission for this one. And so, what we would be recommending on is for the future land use map of how that complies. And this request is to reszone the property from R1 to A1 in order to establish a second residence of a very small nature around 600 square feet. to kind of show you where this property is. Here's some slides of where we are on Serenity Lane and Hairtown Road on Bob Clark Road. And this is um a zoning map of what it's currently zoned. Um again, our recommendation is based off the future land use map. And so what this place type is is for neighborhood residential. Now they are wanting to go to an agricultural district which for us would be something more like a rural a rural residential place type but because they are wanting to increase the housing and using the A1 as the vehicle as the kind of the vehicle to do that we feel as though that it meets the intent of the neighborhood residential place type. So, we don't recommend changing the place type and do think that it is in line that the request is in line with our future land use map. And this kind of also goes through that as well. Sorry, I didn't fast forward your options here for um a decision. Again, the applicant is in the audience if you would like to hear from them as well as the county.

All right. Any questions for staff? I've got one question. So, currently with the R1, you can only have one single family residence. Correct. That is a better question for the county because they administer their ordinance, but yes, I think so. Yes, I I could I can't answer I don't I don't answer on their ordinance. We have a county representative here. I believe she's appropriate person that could answer that question if if you would mind coming forward. Thank you. Um, yes, the R1 zoning allows one residential dwelling res.

That is correct. But the A1 clearly would allow for multiple. Correct. It it would it's dependent on the acreage available for the property. So, one of this size would allow a second dwelling. So, what's the limit? Is it is it two or per acreage you can have more than one residence? the limits based on the availability of utilities. So public water andor public sewer. So in um this property where you have public water but septic system, you need a half acre of land area for one dwelling unit. So with their lot size, they have enough for two. Okay. Yes, sir. No further question. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Any other questions for staff? All right, I'll open the floor for public comment. Uh I see the uh petitioners here. Do you have any things that you'd like to present? If you could come to the podium, please ma'am. Sorry. And if you could please give us your name and address. My name is Aaron French, 144 Bob Clark Road, Jonesboro. Yes, ma'am. Um basically it's just a mother-in-law suite. I'm just an only kid. I'm trying to keep my mom with me. That's it.

Yes, ma'am. [snorts] Do you have any questions for the Thank you. Are there any other PE persons in the audience who'd like to speak to the question either in favor or against? I'll close the floor. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve the resoning as requested, but keep the place type the same. I'll second that.

All right. We have a motion to approve the zoning change. Approve the recommendation for the zoning change to the Washington County Commissioners, Board of Commissioners from R1 to A1 and a second. Any further discussion? And again, this is a recommendation to the Washington County Board of Commissioners. Any further discussion? Miss Hatfield, would you co please call the role? Commissioner Aldridge, yes. Commissioner Goodson, yes. Commissioner Kelly, yes. Commissioner Williams, yes. Commissioner Gats, yes. Vice Chairman Dutton, yes. Chairman Denhart, yes.

All right, I think that moves us up to item 7.3. Uh that's Buckingham Boone Station Subdivision. Okay, this is a county. This is also in a a um it's a county request. I realize that I have not said my name or because we are very familiar with each other. Whitting Hajes, planning manager for those watching at home. Um this is at the intersection of Pafer Road and um Boone Station Road and where uh we have seen this before is a resoning and what they're coming back forward with is their um basically a preliminary plat. And what this is essentially as it's laying out is is really like two developments. There's a 42 lot subdivision in the front and a 60 unit um or sorry 42 lot in the back and then kind of a 60 unit duplex PUD in the front which looks like this. Um the minimum it's meeting the minimum lot size of 10,000 square feet. There's water and sewer available to the site. They will be widening can you see? You cannot see my arrow. Let me get it over here. They're going to be widening Peaky Fuffer Road through here, which is one of the requirements that the county had. And because it is a county subdivision, no sidewalks will be required. So, staff recommends approval because it does meet um all the needs for the preliminary plat. And you have these decision options. I'm available for questions as well as anything else that y'all need.

Questions for staff.

Thank you, Miss Hodges. All right, we'll open the floor for comments. And I believe the at least a representative for the developer is here. So, I invite him to come forward in case we have questions. Good to see you again, Mr. Wood. Good evening. Todd Wood, 1804 Galen Drive, Johnson City. So, yes, engineer representing the owner. Hopefully answer any questions you have. We agree with their recommendation. By the way,

I do have one question. Is this are the is this a timephase development? Is this is develop broken into two portions or is is this simultaneous? I just ask out of curiosity. Uh I'm not sure they know yet. They may be done concurrently. Um there's also probably at least a second phase of the single family lots. They're only doing about half of that part of the property right now.

Okay. Could you move this back to the plat, please? the uh adjacent to the what I think is the portion which is the duplexes on the upper portion of that is that wetland in the curve up there's I think there may be some wetlands just below the pond between there and the in the curve in the river is the intent to preserve that or just to not develop that

the only thing we need to do in that area is get the public sewer across the road. And hopefully we'll be up above the wetlands between the little parking area right coming through probably that area right there and hopefully around the wetlands. Okay. Todd, I know that the uh Keith Offer Road is going to be widened in partnership with the county. [clears throat] Can you explain which portion of the road is going to be wide? Is it all?

So, it's from the intersection to right about here. So, it's just up to the part that the developer is using the road. If if in the future phases back over here, if they don't access the road, then the the developer would not be widening anything at that point. But if they had any lots or a new street connector, they would widen up to that point. So nothing in the western portion. Correct. Nothing in the western portion of the Yeah, there's nothing happening through here with the county. They haven't said they need any of that widened. And if it was widened, it would probably just increase the speeds through there.

And would you mind, since you've got the the pointer on the screen, to point out where you believe there could be a small portion of wetlands? Uh, it's right about here. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

I'm kind of curious about the um the little angle at the end there. Um, right there. Yeah. Does that I guess code allows that? I thought with the Isn't there something about teeing off? And that to me looks like a almost a tea off.

So the public rightway ends right there. Uh that little come back here. That's private parking along with parking there, parking there, and here. They're outside of the public right ofway. So, it's just a driveway entrance to the four or five parking spaces in each so that there's extra parking and not everybody's parking on the street.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Wood. Thank you.

Any other comments from the public? Uh either in favor or against this plat. I'll close the floor for public comment. Mr. Chairman, I think this is pretty straightforward. Um, I move that uh move that we approve the uh preliminary plat presented. I'll second. All right. Any further discussion?

Heather, would you please call the role? Commissioner Aldridge? Yes. Commissioner Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner Williams? Yes. Commissioner Gats? Yes. Vice Chairman Dutton. Yes. Chairman Dugenheart. Yes. Okay. And the the next item 7.4 is the Boones Creek Prominade subdivision preliminary plat and site plan.

This is a another um request that we have seen as a as an annexation and an initial zoning. Um so where we are just to kind of orient us is at Puns Creek Road and Christian Church Road. Um the request is for this is the area of site plan approval and then there's a nine lot subdivision that's accompanying the that would be accompanied with some future residential development. The project boundary is in red, but just to kind of let everybody I think that map kind of helps show what we're what we're talking about. And so to kind of correspond that this is the area where the commercial site plan is. This is the area of future development which is on that that left side. And these are the additional out parcel lots. A site plan has been reviewed and has been is in your packet. Um and they are meeting the requirements for setbacks. Um this is a private road that they're proposing. Um they are providing uh improvements for Boon Creek Road and Christian Church Road. Um and there's also been an agreement with the city as far as um doing that. Water and sewer has no availability has no concerns and they are um one of the things that it's is very great that they're doing is they're also providing a greenway trail along Boone Creek which came out of one of our planning efforts um with Jonesboro in Washington County. So this is um so as far as the subdivision site plan, this is just a a slide showing that it is meeting all the requirements. Staff recommends approval and this and the applicant is here if you'd like to speak with them further. Um but we feel as this is a a really great next step so that they can get started on construction plans.

Any questions for staff? I've got a question. So, I I live in Boone Creek and I've I've seen where the city has started to clear the intersection there at at Boone Creek and Christian Church. Can you expound on uh what is actually going to be done as far as the road improvements? I really want to look behind me to see who is here. Wallace Camp. [laughter] Wallace can't tell you exactly what we have. we have gone into an arrangement with you know I'm sorry I couldn't hear the exact question.

I I was just trying to understand [clears throat] uh exactly uh how the roads are being improved both on Boone Creek and Christian Church. Uh are they adding additional turn lanes uh lanes from [clears throat] the red light uh the red light towards the second ingress egress? So, for Christian Church Road, we're going to the the plan is to ultimately have it as five lanes. Uh it would have Wallace, can you make sure you're to the mic?

Sorry. We'll have we'll have five lanes. Um exiting there will be two left turns to head back towards the interstate. There'll be a separate through and a separate right. So, at at the um at the intersection, that's six lanings. Uh because we're adding an additional left turn lane. [clears throat] We may or may not build it. It initially we're going to build it for three lanes. It it's going to be built out as if there was going to be five, but we may only pave for three lanes depending on where we are. We could go ahead and do the five lanes. that's kind of up in the air, but we've promised to do it to to pay at least for three lanes. Um on Boon Creek Road, um we're looking at doing five lanes all down through there. Initially, again, the that what we've promised them is to provide a right turn lane into their their private entrance plus three lanes, a left turn coming from uh Jonesboro, but we're looking at what it would look like for five lanes down through there. So, there's there's quite a bit of improvements that we're looking at for that whole area. Is the time frame going to be um in conjunction with their time frame or will it be done before or after or what?

What we've promised them is to provide three lanes on Boone Creek with with their right turn lane in addition to the right turn lane and then three lanes on Christian Church. They're going to provide the back fill for Christian Church Road. And so they're going to back fill for the full five lanes. and we may or may not do it the installation um when we when we do the construction. We're not certain, but this will all have to be done before they're open, which is the summer of spring summer of next year. This is going to when you get the rightway uh or when you extend those expansions on the intersection, you're going to encroach quite a bit into the flood plane because that creek runs right through there almost. Right. How's that? How's that being handled? That's we've [clears throat] seen flooding, you know, when it rains real bad.

We we've we we they provided a study to show that there is no rise on the uh storm water elevation during any storm event with the filling that they've done upstream on the other side of the of Boon Creek Road. There will be no rise in the in the flood elevation on that side. And then we're also getting an ARAP um an aquatic resource permit from Tdeck. Yeah. Uh to extend the bridge that's there on Christian Church Road. So we have to extend widen it quite a bit to make the make the road wider. So the Ruins Creek itself is going to still be open.

Yes. Yeah. We're not going to we're not going to encapsulate the creek at all. We are going to, like I say, extend that existing bridge box cover culvert on Christian Church Road, but that's the only part that we're doing. Thank you. Thank you, Wallace. Any further questions for staff?

Okay, I'm going to open the floor for public comment. I see a representative of the uh project here, I believe. Would you like to come forward? Any questions for the for the project manager? I think we won't grill you tonight. Go to the mic. So, John Baker Horn Properties representing the development. So, any questions y'all have, I'm happy to answer, tell you the update on the process, where we are. Thank you for appearing for for us tonight. I don't believe we have any questions for you. I apologize.

Oh, no. You're fine. I just I'm here to I'm happy to help and the city's been great to work with through the process. Good to hear that. I do think it'll be a great development, much needed out there. We've been coalitioning with the city for all the improvements and we're sharing in some of the to help the city out storm water-wise and things like that. Then this bought the trail, you know, the shared we're going to beautify that with some good landscaping and things like that. So, it's going to be overall good project and Publix will make us do that as well.

Yeah. Yeah. We're going to integrate around that. The good thing is we're not disturbing the creek. We want to preserve that because that's but we are going to put some nice uh plantings along that fort deck. That's kind of our side agreement with the disturbance that we've recently done in the clearing. So, they want to preserve the aquatic life and things like that. So, we're going to go back and replant. That's kind of the ultimate goal. Do they already have tenants lined up or can you even say um for those nine spaces? Um we do have LOIs in for the shops and the Publix is already secured. It's fully signed. It's ready to go. And we have some tenants on the outlots that are restaurants.

Uh right now we have two. Um I don't have it fully signed so I don't want it to close but nice upper scale sandwich. Um we've had multiple restaurant sit downs but we are we were looking at those very closely because we want an upper scale type use. Um so and Publix wants that as well. So so they limit us to two restaurants on the shops, four restaurants on the outlots. So that's kind of our that's what we're required on our lease. But for future expansion, we can do more uses along the front. That's our intention for the future. It'll continue to build. So, I'll have some other co-enate um retailers for phase two already pressing, but we want to get this phase started before we go into sec second phase.

Have added. It's great. Thank you very much. Thank you. So, at this point, I'll close the floor. further conversation. I'll go ahead and make a motion since I think this is a great development. I think it's going to be great for the area um and for the community that that lives out there. I think it's much much needed. So, I'll go ahead and make a re recommendation that we approve um the preliminary platite plan.

And I'd like to second that. Okay, we have a motion to approve the site plan and the uh prelim preliminary plat and a second for the prominade subdivision of Boone Creek. Any further discussion? Miss Hatfield, would you please call the role? Commissioner Aldridge, yes. Commissioner Goodson, yes. Commissioner Kelly, yes. Commissioner Williams, yes. Commissioner Gats, yes. Vice Chairman Dutton, yes. Chairman Denhart, yes. Very good. Our last item on the agenda this evening is the uh administrative issue of our bylaw adoption for the planning commission.

So we discussed them at last month's meeting. They have been in your packet. If you have anything that you would like to add or change, let me know and I will can not sure what that's um and I can make those changes. I don't think this is a topic that's appropriate for public comment. Is that correct? No, except it's just you guys. So, do we have a motion? M. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the bylaws as presented. All right. Do I have a second? I'll second. All right. We have the mo a motion and a second to approve the bylaws that have been revised and as they have been presented. Any further discussion?

I'd just like to thank Commissioner Dutton for all the hard work that he that he put on the bylaws. Thank you very much. And I echo that. Great work. Thank you very much, Ben. All right. Any know any further discussion? Miss Hatfield, would you please call the role? Commissioner Aldridge? Yes. Commissioner Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Kelly? Yes. Commissioner Williams? Yes. Commissioner Gates? Yes. Vice Chairman Dutton? Yes. Chairman Dagenheart? Yes.

All right. Seeing that we have no reports from officers or subcommittees and [snorts] uh that's the end of our agenda and we have no other items for agenda tonight. I'll call the meeting adjourned.