September 8, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
Is it time for the county to renew an effort considered last year to establish regulations under the “County Powers Act” for oversight in the development of certain land uses?
The Health Education and Public Welfare Committee of the County Commission will meet to discuss the pros and cons on Monday, September 16 at 6 p.m. in the lower courtroom of the courthouse.
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, cell towers, pallet yards, junk yards, chicken farms, etc.?
The issue was raised last summer when residents on Nikki Lane off Highway 70 east in the Midway Community came to the county commission complaining about having to put up with the stinky, unsightly and unsanitary condition of a neighbor’s unkempt property. The residents wanted something done about it but there was little the county could do without regulatory power. At the same meeting, the commission learned of a business on Highway 53 at Liberty which at that time had been conducting a regular burning of wooden pallets sending plumes of smoke into the air for hours. In one case, heat from the fire damaged utility lines and the thick smoke spread throughout the community affecting residents and livestock.
Because of those complaints, the county commission entertained the idea of adopting the “County Powers Act” but when it came time to act, the commission voted 8-6 to remove it from the agenda. That was in August, 2023.
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 came to the county commission last month to complain about it. Last week, residents in the Liberty and Alexandria area learned that another company is planning to develop a rock quarry in their neighborhood.
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”.
Still, residents with concerns want the county to do something.
“If county government doesn’t yet have the will to embrace zoning, I urge you to reconsider the County Powers Act as a means of establishing and enforcing standards to protect residents in this county and against exploitation and nuisances in the future,” said Michael Antoniak, a resident of the Snow Hill community during last month’s county commission meeting. “I believe adopting the County Powers Act would be a good and necessary first step and I urge you on behalf of all my neighbors to revisit this,” he said.