Ordinance rewrite heads back for review
A draft proposal to update the Town of Farragut’s home occupation ordinance is expected to head back to the ad hoc committee for further consideration.
After a lengthy discussion and hearing from ad hoc members during a workshop Thursday, Feb. 19, the Farragut Municipal Planning Commission took no action on the proposed ordinance. However, several members recommended sending it back to the committee.
“A lot of people — on the streets, emails and phone calls — asked what happened,” said Brian Walker, who served on the ad hoc committee. “We started off with a lot of people, and unfortunately by the last meeting, everyone left except myself, Alderman [Alex] Cain and [resident] Don Mann.
“There were three of us operating as a committee,” he said. “That was unfortunate. I want to note the last meeting we had was June 2025.”
After reviewing notes from the meetings, Walker said, “The trend we had with the committee was every objection, every suggestion we had was basically omitted or overlooked as we brought it in.
“We had questions; we had concerns about what was being shown,” he said.
Walker cited a quote from Planning Commissioner Louise Povlin, who posted on Nextdoor that, from her perspective, “The ad hoc committee process broke down.”
“I want to say the process didn’t break down because the citizens involved in the process and the ad hoc committee did their job fighting back and pushing back on what was being pushed on by the Town,” Walker said. “We gave our opinions; we debated; we argued.
“I wish the original committee members had kept coming,” he said. “I wish more citizen input would have been allowed … but at no time did we have a vote on what you’re seeing now or what you saw before.
“So, whenever you hear ‘we decided this’ or ‘we the committee,’ it wasn’t a we thing.”
Walker added the proposed draft does not include enforcement rules or specify who would enforce it.
“We don’t have the manpower to be circling all the communities over Town,” he added.
“This needs to go back to the committee,” Walker said. “We need to look at it. We need to have more people, more voices on the committee and people looking at this before it’s brought before this Commission.”
“I was very disappointed, and I know I voiced my opinion to this Commission and to BOMA about the ad hoc committee process,” said Cain, who was assigned to the committee by the mayor. “It was like we just stopped meeting.
“It needed a lot more input,” the alderman said. “We needed a lot more discussion, but it did seem like every time we held a meeting, we talked about things, we gave our input to (assistant Community Development director) Bart Hose, and the next time we got a draft back, none of the things we brought up — a lot of it was reworked or reworded.”
“My biggest concern is to stand up for neighborhoods that don’t have an HOA,” said Mann, also an ad hoc committee member. “I would like to continue this process. I think we need to protect all neighborhoods from businesses that are disturbing neighborhoods.”
On behalf of fellow residents, Greg Wiberley asked how existing businesses would be grandfathered under any new regulations. He also questioned how the ordinance would apply to apartment residents and whether homes without approved surfaces for parking commercial vehicles would be disqualified.
He also raised concerns about the length and size of commercial vehicles versus recreational vehicles.
“Is that fair, or should they balance out 40-foot commercial and 40-foot RV?” Wiberley asked.
Ultimately, several commissioners agreed the ad hoc committee should be reinstated and the draft returned to the group.
Hose presented a new version of the proposed update.
“We’ve been working on it since late 2024,” he said. “We had a draft ordinance that came before you all in August ’25, and then it was forwarded to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen for adoption.
“The regulatory approach we took in that initial proposed set of amendments was to come up with a two-tier approach, where we would have very simple home occupations that wouldn’t require a permit, and then the more complicated ones that had the potential for more impact would require a permit.”
However, during the adoption process, the Town became aware of a Middle Tennessee court case dealing with home occupations and equal protection issues, Hose said.
“The Town attorney (Tom Hale) looked at that case — it’s still under appeal — but the Town attorney felt the best course of action would be to eliminate the two-tier system and apply one single set of requirements to all home occupations.”
“When the two-tiered system came forward, I was against it from the beginning,” Cain said. “I thought, how are we to decide that this business is going to be regulated from that business just because of what they did?”
Hose said the new draft maintains the goal of allowing a wider range of businesses.
“In fact, any business that can meet the performance standards could be permitted as a home occupation,” he said. “One of the largest issues that’s still out there and needs input on is vehicles. That was a big issue in the last regulations, and it continues to be something that we are looking to get input from the Town and the larger community.”
Hose said staff considered moving vehicle regulations out of the home occupation ordinance and into property maintenance regulations.
“That way, it would apply to all residential properties, whether you had a home occupation or not,” he said.
“I think a lot of this — regulations on vehicles — could fall on HOAs,” said Cain, who operates a home business using 24-foot sprinter vans and SUVs.
Walker agreed, saying vehicle regulation should be more of an HOA issue than a Town issue.
