The County Powers Act with “Distance Requirements”?

October 2, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Taking another look at the “County Powers Act”

During its regular monthly meeting Monday night, the DeKalb County Regional Planning Commission, without taking a vote, came to a consensus in asking the county commission to renew efforts to adopt the County Powers Act with a “distance requirement” going forward in the interim modeled after a Grundy County plan. The planning commission will later consider establishing a plan for county-wide zoning. The next step in the process is for the county’s Health, Education, and Public Welfare Committee to meet regarding the County Powers Act on October 10 at 6 p.m. in the courthouse to possibly come up with a recommendation for the county commission to consider.

While the County Powers Act exempts certain businesses and practices from local regulation such as surface mining activities, etc. covered by environmental protection laws, County Attorney Hilton Conger has learned that Grundy County has established a 5,000-foot distance requirement in its County Powers Act which means no quarry or other undesirable identified land use can operate within 5,000 feet of a residence, etc. Conger shared what he learned with the planning commission Monday night.

“Grundy County passed the County Powers Act with a resolution that said you cannot have a quarry, landfill, adult entertainment, and I think there were five or six other land uses that were within 5,000 feet of a residence. That’s almost a mile,” said Conger” You won’t find a place anywhere that is not within 5,000 feet of a residence, church, school, park, or hospital and places like that. I think it’s a good place to start. That is something that could happen relatively quickly. You could enact it and pass an ordinance,” said Conger.

While a distance requirement for DeKalb County modeled after the Grundy County plan may be an immediate solution, Conger cautioned that Grundy County is facing a legal challenge.

“The people that wanted to put in the quarry filed suit in the Chancery Court of Grundy County and the Chancellor there upheld that ordinance. They can regulate distances,” said Conger. “It went to the Court of Appeals, and it upheld that. Its in the Supreme Court right now so the jury is still out as to whether that is going to be the law once and for all,” Conger explained.

Outside the four cities, the county currently has no zoning or other regulatory authority to prohibit, limit, or oversee development of any land uses including for quarries, data mining, cell towers, pallet yards, junk yards, etc.

To enact the “County Powers Act”, the county commission must adopt a resolution by two thirds vote as well as a resolution to establish and enforce regulatory standards regarding health and safety conditions of residential and non-residential properties within the confines of DeKalb County outside the boundaries of the municipalities which already have codes and ordinances.

The “County Powers Act” issue had not been addressed since last August until residents in the Snow Hill Community recently discovered that a rock quarry operation had moved into the neighborhood without their knowledge, and they came to the county commission in September to complain about it. More recently residents in the Liberty and Alexandria area learned that another company is planning to develop a rock quarry in their community. Since then, neighbors just beyond the southern border of the Smithville city limits have been told a data processing center is planned to soon begin operation which could generate excessive noise.

While the planning commission has not given up on the idea of zoning for DeKalb County, the process takes much longer to adopt than the County Powers Act.

“In Cannon County it took five years. I don’t think it would take five years here because they (Cannon County) were in no hurry. They took their time. I feel like a reasonable, general timeline is 12-18 months for zoning,” said Tommy Lee, Director of the Upper Cumberland Development District, who serves as UCDD staff planner and advisor to DeKalb County. “With the County Powers Act you can target what businesses or uses you want to regulate. With zoning you regulate all land uses and with zoning every parcel in DeKalb County is going to be zoned something outside the city limits of your four cities. And if it has the word agriculture associated with it anywhere it is not subject to zoning,” Lee explained. “Chicken houses and things of that nature more than likely you couldn’t zone it. It’s a state law. You can’t regulate any kind of agriculture,” he said.

“Commercial structures in Cannon County were zoned commercial. Industrial buildings were zoned industrial, and any large residential neighborhoods were zoned residential. Everything else was zoned agriculture. The only permitted uses in the agricultural zone were single family residential and agriculture uses. Any other use with a use permitted upon appeal had to come in front of a board,” said Lee.

“State law requires that zoning comes from this board (planning commission) because zoning affects everyone,” explained Lee. “Cannon County has a building inspector/codes enforcement officer, and they had to come up with ways to generate revenue to pay for that. They charge a $400 application fee for any and all subdivisions and $75 per lot. A two-lot subdivision in DeKalb County costs $150. In Cannon County that same plat costs $550. They also have local building permit fees which are in addition to the state fees you pay,” Lee explained.

During the public comment period, Mike Antoniak, one of several concerned citizens at the planning commission meeting posed a question. “What’s the quickest way to know what’s coming? Identifying what are the threats to the way we live. Quarries, the burning of pallets, adult entertainment and data centers are a real threat. If you identify those businesses, you could say to them you have to come before the county to get compliance. At least we are aware,” said Antoniak.

“Zoning requires that all multi-family, commercial, and industrial uses submit a site plan,” Lee explained. He added that site plans might also be required under the County Powers Act, but he was less certain about that.

Planning commission member Jack Barton said the county needs to at least pursue the County Power’s Act in the short term and then look at zoning.

“As a former (county) commissioner I have heard enough to say the County Powers Act needs to be pursued because its a more expedient route. He (Lee) asked me the question today if we took the quarry on Snow Hill out of the equation would I still be in favor of zoning? I think I’ve heard enough about rural counties being hood winked or people trying to take advantage of cheap taxes to come in here to put a landfill. Trash is a big thing, and we don’t want somebody coming in here to have a big landfill and there’s any number of land uses that we want to try and protect our pristine county from if we can,” said Barton. “The county commission has been upset because there has been 60 or 70 of you concerned about the quarry but believe me if you try and start voting on zoning there will be thousands of people at the meetings worried about what it means to their property and what is going to happen and that’s why it takes 12-18 months because it’s a very deliberative process,” he said.

Planning commission member Greg Matthews took a different view. “We can sugar coat it. We can hide it behind landfills and rock quarries, but it is still the county telling you what you can do with your property”.

When the planning commission meets again on December 9, Lee said he will “bring a copy of the Cannon County zoning resolution for you to look it and we will start going through it,” he said.

The idea behind the “County Powers Act” is to prevent or eliminate dangerous and or unsanitary conditions resulting from overgrown vegetation, accumulation of debris, trash, litter, and garbage, or the presence of vacant dilapidated buildings or structures. Although DeKalb County currently has no zoning regulations in place, the “County Powers Act” gives counties, without establishing zoning, the authority to set and enforce standards for county property owners with respect to nuisances and other practices deemed detrimental to their neighbors.

However, according to the County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) website, there are limitations under the “County Powers Act”.

“The law exempts certain businesses and practices from regulation. The powers conferred upon counties by T.C.A. § 5-1-118(c) do not apply to the following activities which are regulated under other provisions of general law: sale of beer and alcoholic beverages; wholesale of beer; surface mining; production of oil and gas; activities covered by environmental protection laws and regulations dealing with air pollution, atomic energy, solid waste disposal and management, landfills, hazardous waste management, petroleum underground storage, oil spill cleanup, dry-cleaning, water, wastewater and sewerage; water management; wells; and dams. Additionally, T.C.A. § 5-1-118(b) provides that counties may not use these powers to prohibit or regulate normal agricultural activities”.

October 1, 2024
By:

The Lady Tiger golfers, Alison Poss, Chloe Boyd, and Emily Anderson, on Monday, September 30 won the AA Region 4 Golf Tournament by 26 strokes over their nearest competitor. Alison Poss won the tournament with a sterling round of 71. Chloe Boyd finished 2nd with a 73. “Our girls are flat out awesome!” said Tiger Golf Coach John Pryor. The Lady Tigers are now 38-1 on the season.

The win sends the team to Sevierville on October 10th and 11th to compete in the TSSAA Large Public School State Tournament. “We will compete with seven other teams from across the state for the championship. These same three girls went last year, and I think that experience will prove valuable as we try to improve on our 8th place finish last year. I don’t think we will be favored, and the competition will be tremendous, but we got a shot!” said Coach Pryor.

The Tiger Boys team of Bradley Hale, William Blair, Cooper Goodwin, Jamison Troncoso, and Seth Fuson finished 6th. They were led by Bradley Hale’s 77. “This ends the season for my guys, but they had a great year. Most of these guys will be back next year, and we have high expectations for 2025.”

The Golf Team is coached by John Pryor and Luke Dycus.

October 1, 2024
By:

The DCHS Fighting Tiger Band competed at the Yellow Jacket Invitational in Hartsville on Saturday.

Third place awards were presented in percussion, field commander, and guard.

Max Patterson is the Band Director, and the Assistant is Hannah Bratten- The Theme for this year’s program is “Weathering the Storm” to the music of Thunderstruck by ACDC and Umbrella by Rihanna.

The band’s seniors include Elizabeth Cardin, Alexis Stanley-Sectional Leader-Trumpet, Daniel Stifler- sectional leader Clarinet, J.D. Thomas, Jamie Bradshaw, Amy Nokes- Sectional Leader-Flute, B.J. Mosely and Jaden Wildes- Drum Major, Ashton McClain-Captain and Color Guard; Aaron Maple-Sectional Leader-Clarinet, Crissy White, and Soloists- Alexis Stanley and Elizabeth Mosely.

The band will compete next weekend in the Upper Cumberland Marching Competition at Crossville.

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