Named to the board were: Glenda Eastridge, former Commissioner J.C. Franklin, Doug Gamble, Robert F. Pritchard, Jonathan Sitzlar, Joe Huff, Ken Voorhis and William Newby. Bruce Guillaume was named an alternate.
Commission forms growth panel
By Joel Davis, of The Daily Times Staff
The Blount County Commission voted Thursday to establish an eight-member Growth Management Advisory Committee as recommended in the Hunter Interests Growth Study.
Commissioner Mike Walker has been pushing for the committee to be formed.
“It gives an additional vehicle if the residents are serious about protecting the scenic beauty of the county and to still be able to compensate the property owners without infringing upon their rights. It is a positive move for Blount County.”
The Growth Management Advisory Committee will discuss the idea of purchasing development rights to property to preserve open space. It is made up of private citizens.
Named to the board were: Glenda Eastridge, former Commissioner J.C. Franklin, Doug Gamble, Robert F. Pritchard, Jonathan Sitzlar, Joe Huff, Ken Voorhis and William Newby. Bruce Guillaume was named an alternate.
Hunter Interests Inc. completed the 269-page study in 2005. It cost the county more than $250,000. The study, which was completed in 2005, includes five “action areas” including:
The rural, small town and natural character of the county should be preserved.
Land use and development should be managed and regulated to preserve the quality of the growing county.
The guiding policy in any government actions in relation to the use and development of land should be to limit regulations to specific public health, safety and welfare objectives balanced with responsible freedom in the use of the land.
County roads should be improved and maintained to serve existing and future development.
Growth and development should be matched with the provision of adequate infrastructure such as utilities, roads and school.
In other business, the County Commission appointed several members to the advisory board for the proposed new county animal shelter. The commission appointed Chris Protzman, Rick Yeager and Kandi Yeager of Smoky Mountain Animal Care Foundation and Commissioners Monika Murrell, Wendy Pitts Reeves and Steve Samples to the board.
The Loudon County Commission is temporarily allowing animals from Blount County to be accepted at the Loudon County Animal Shelter. County Mayor Jerry Cunningham is seeking an extension of the agreement while efforts to build the new shelter continue.
Contact the Smoky Mountain Animal Care Foundation at (865) 824-1700, at the Web site smokymountainanimalcare.org or at this address: Smoky Mountain Animal Care Foundation, P.O. Box 7218, Maryville, TN 37802.
The County Commission also took action Thursday on adopting newly revised flood maps for the county, which will take effect in September.
Planning Director John Lambs said this definitely helps the county.
“We’ve got an old set of flood maps, but they were proven to not be very accurate,” he said. “The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) undertook to improve them based them on actual topography. What we got was a very improved set of maps, much more in tune with what’s on the ground. We’re much more capable of identifying properties and how much each property is impacted by floods.”
Adopting the maps also allows Blount County to continue participating in a national flood insurance program.
“Before we had this, when we had floods down on the river, people didn’t have much recourse,” he said. “A lot of people were kind of left holding the bag because they couldn’t get federal assistance.”
Last modified: June 25. 2007 12:55AM
