BOMA to vote on Knox Growth Plan after criticism told
Farragut Board must approve, at its March 28 meeting, for plan to be implemented in Knox
Amendments to Advance Knox’s Knoxville-Farragut-Knox County Growth Policy Plan, heavily criticized by Town of Farragut’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen recently, are expected to come before BOMA during its Thursday, March 28, meeting.
While City of Knoxville and Knox County Commission have given the plan a thumbs up — with one contingency — Farragut’s elected leaders must also approve the plan, needing approval from all three Knox governing bodies to be implemented.
The Board will reconsider the plan and are expected to make a final vote Thursday, March 28, after Knox County Commission unanimously approved the plan during its Monday, Feb. 26, meeting — subject to also approving a Future Land Use Plan with more development specifics, which is expected to come before the Commission during its Monday, March 25, meeting.
Knoxville City Council also voted to accept the plan, by a 7-2 vote, during its Tuesday, March 5, meeting.
The plan attempts to pinpoint sectors of the county where commercial development would be sought, versus other sectors recommended to remain rural. These smaller geographic areas — based on census tract boundaries — are in the East, North, Northeast, Northwest, South and Southwestern parts of the county.
After County engineer Jim Snowden and Advance Knox representatives described recent Growth Plan changes to BOMA, some Board members were scratching their heads during a Feb. 22 meeting.
Alderman Drew Burnette saw the document as “ambiguous,” while Vice Mayor Louise Povlin — after relating the history behind the Growth Policy Plan — criticized it, saying the plan did not protect the rural areas of the county.
“The law is very specific about how the formulation of the initial and subsequent amendments to the plan are handled,” she said. “If the county or any municipality rejects the recommended growth plan or amendments thereto, there are methods of resolution disputes spelled out in the law (§6-58-104(b)).”
She noted the Town already rejected the plan Jan. 23, 2020.
The next step would be to “resolve this dispute,” Povlin said
However, “the steps were never taken,” she added.
“Knox County embarked on a two-year process to create an integrated land use and transportation plan for the unincorporated county in 2021,” said Michelle Forte of Advance Knox.
According to the county’s presentation, the plan “establishes land use policies, principals and concepts to guide future development.”
Povlin said the proposed amendment deleted several sections of the plan.
“These sections governed development in the areas designated rural on the growth policy map,” she said, adding it “replaced those protections with the following language: ‘Rezoning in the Rural Area shall be consistent with and controlled by the applicable Sector Plans as adopted by the Metropolitan Planning Commission and Knox County Commission.’”
Snowden said Advance Knox is proposing to change the plan to read: “‘As of the effective date of this plan, all previously approved densities in the Rural Area shall remain in effect and are subject to all plan, regulations and/or conditions of their approval.’
“The task that we heard from the citizens about this two-year process was they wanted to reduce sprawl; they wanted to align infrastructure with all — utilities, the municipalities we work with, as well as schools — with the proposed growth — (and) also fiscal responsibility,” Snowden added.
