Jackson County leaders weighing the potential creation of a planning commission to manage local growth while weighing fears from those concerned about the loss of property rights.
Jackson County Mayor Brian Lee said the county is currently one of only 13 in Tennessee that operates without any land use regulations. Lee said the proposed commission would establish specific criteria for new developments and subdivisions to follow.
“What this is it would be essentially establishing a planning commission,” Lee said, “Which would just be if any subdivision or anything like that were to come in, they would come before the planning commission and there would be some criteria that they would meet.”
Jackson County business owner Joey Poston presented the framework for the commission, suggesting it be composed of the mayor, two commissioners, and five appointed residents. The resident said the goal is to protect agriculture and infrastructure at no cost to the county.
Commissioner Joey Denson said he opposes the move because many residents move to the area specifically to avoid government interference with their land. Denson said nearly half of the counties in the state have chosen not to implement zoning for similar reasons.
“I think a lot of people move here because they want to be free and they don’t want to have a government or anyone else telling them what they can do with their property,” Denson said. “That’s been a heritage here.”
Commissioner Dustin Durflinger said he is concerned about the lack of accountability for an unelected planning body. Durflinger said the state already has laws regarding driveways on state highways and that utility providers already manage their own capacity for new developments.
“The only problem I have with planning commission, there’s five people that aren’t elected officials,” Durflinger said. “They’re just chosen at random as your mayor comes and goes, that whole commission changes and you lose the flavor of your county like you’re talking about. It will change and you won’t recognize it.”
Commissioner Mark Dosch said the proposal deserves further attention because it could provide guardrails to protect the community for the next century. Dosch said such a framework could potentially be advantageous to local taxpayers.
“I understand that there’s opportunities to put some guardrails to protect all what we all love and those folks that are not natives, we’ll say,” Dosch said. “I do believe for what they came for the same reason of the county that we’ve all loved to see a progress for another hundred years.”
The commission took no official action on the proposal as it was not on the formal agenda.
In other business, the commission elected Lee as the new chairman and Denson as the new chair pro tempore. The commission also appointed Lori Jackson and Thomas Arnold to the Library Board of Trustees in addition to numerous other standing committee appointments being approved.