Cumberland County has updated its health and safety standards for residential and non-residential properties.
County Mayor Allen Foster said the county has a Health and Safety Standards Board that handles property safety standards. Foster said the board is also a place for people to go and file complaints about property problems that violate the safety of other people. Foster said the notable change in the standards is a new procedure for evaluating complaints.
“How it happened before was the people on the committee would go and you know committees are meant to do policy and things like that,” Foster said. “Not the executive part of it so they just wanted somebody from the codes department to go look.”
Foster said the idea of changing the standards was brought up after several complaints were made by the public. Foster said he assures residents the board remains focused on just the most egregious of property issues.
“Some people are worried it’s something like you have to keep your lawn mowed to a certain height and that’s absolutely not the intent of it at all,” Foster said.
Foster said one of the county commissioners made the promise that if the changes were not right, then the commission would go back and look at the procedures and standards again.
“In Tennessee and in Cumberland County a lot of people have moved here and they are used to living in places where if there is a conflict between rights the government wins,” Foster said. “In Cumberland County, the people win and that’s how it should be.”
Foster said he is a strong believer in property rights and that he believes the county has worked well with the public in implementing the new changes.
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