Controversy surrounds 1101 plan
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As expected, officials said the plan as it is proposed provides too little opportunities for urban growth within McMinnville, even with an apparent resolution to the inclusion of the previously disputed Area 4, located between current city limits and Gillespie Road, as McMinnville’s urban growth boundary.
“When I have a problem, I expect 110 percent out of myself. I expect at least 75 percent out of everybody else, and you don’t always get that,” County Executive Carol Hamblen said of an apparent mistake on the map originally presented to city board members two weeks ago.
“The first map you saw did not include Area 4. I backtracked as far as minutes from the 1101 committee meeting and went back to the Warren County Planning Commission and they all said the map was to have shown Area 4. The difference came between the Warren County Planning Commission and Mr. Barrett,” Hamblen added, referring to state planner Joe Barrett, who has disputed a mistake had been made.
The map city officials voted on Monday did reflect Area 4 as part of McMinnville’s urban growth boundary, but they said they had other problems with the plan. They noted the comparable urban growth boundaries of McMinnville and Morrison, and took issue with Morrison’s fire district being turned in as its urban growth boundary.
“That map is preposterous,” Vice Mayor Billy Wood said. “Morrison is going to be 50 percent larger than the city of McMinnville and McMinnville has had this convenient yellow wall drawn all the way around it with spurs running all the way to the county line,” he added, noting the yellow as county planned growth areas.
Hamblen said the county planned growth areas were marked that way because they respectively reflected and were a reaction to urban growth areas both Morrison and McMinnville had previously approved.
“It was never questioned, other than the one area between Gillespie Road and Todd Lane,” she said. “We brought the planned growth areas up to what had been asked for. If you had wanted more off New Smithville Highway or off of Viola Road, it was not on the plan brought to the coordinating committee. When the plan was handed from the city of Morrison and the city of McMinnville, we took those two areas and worked from there.”
Wood said what other city officials indicated last week – that they were encouraged to “back off” in their initial planning efforts to show “good faith” in the process. As to where the issue goes from here, city officials vowed to put their objections in writing and submit them to the coordinating committee.
Hamblen said after the meetings Morrison was to vote on the same proposed plan Thursday and the county was to vote on it Tuesday in accordance with the 1101 process, but didn’t know how the newest objections will affect the outcome.
Once rejected, the plan is supposed to go back to the Coordinating Committee for revision and then be returned to the cities and the county for another look. If no agreement is ultimately reached, the issue go could to mediation and possibly arbitration, where an administrative law judge would decide the boundaries.
“They’re asking for area that wasn’t included the first time and I’m not sure how that affects everything – whether it automatically demands arbitration or if the committee can do that,” Hamblen said.
While some officials indicated last week they would like to see more urban growth areas in areas north and especially south of town, others earlier in the day Monday indicated they would like more areas east and west as well.
Warren County is one of the last of Tennessee’s 95 counties who have not adopted a plan, which is typically supposed to be sent to the state for approval after it is approved on the local level.