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The Revised 2011 Comprehensive Plan failed to pass the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BoMA) on its first of two readings, after months spent in revisions with the Planning Commission and Community Plan Development Committee (CPDC).

After the BoMA ceased discussions over the long-debated ThinkTullahoma 2040 Comprehensive Plan in October of 2022, the CPDC was created, by recommendation of Alderman Kurt Glick, to review and revise the existing 2011 Comprehensive Plan with the maps of the 2040 plan.

The intent of these revisions was to carry the city through until 2025, when a new comprehensive plan was to be completed to guide the city’s development through the next decade, at least.

Tullahoma citizens were appointed to the CPDC by BoMA members, and the committee cooperated with City Planning Director Mary Samaniego to make revisions to the 2011 plan within the bounds of the direction given to the committee in the motion that created the group.

Citizens were able to submit comments to the committee for consideration for revisions, and some were included in the 2011 revisions, while others were deemed to be under the scope of the potential 2025 plan, according to CPDC member Elizabeth Bowling.

The Revised 2011 plan was presented to the Planning Commission for review and changes, of which six were made.

The Planning Commission recommended a change to the CPDC’s revisions, allowing for mixed-use projects on roads other than the principal arterial routes established by the Tullahoma Comprehensive Transportation Plan. They specifically recommended the plan allow for such developments on Cedar Lane.

Furthermore, the Planning Commission recommended that community- and regional-serving commercial developments such as gas stations, grocery stores and pharmacies be permitted to develop on major collector and arterial routes, rather than only principal arterial routes as the CPDC had originally recommended.

The plan was then presented to the BoMA, with recommendation for approval with the changes made by the Planning Commission.

At the April 24 meeting of the BoMA, Glick motioned that the board disregard all changes made by the Planning Commission and approve the plan as presented by the CPDC. When asked by Alderman Daniel Berry to elaborate on the changes made by the Planning Commission and to explain his objections to them, Glick would not.

“I did not plan on going through all the changes tonight,” Glick said. “I didn’t think it was a good use of this board’s time or anyone’s time for a third body to go page by page through the same document. I trust the citizens that we appointed to the CPDC, and I value their presentation of the document.”

“I know of one off the top of my head,” Alderman Bobbie Wilson offered. “It was about having higher-density housing on main roads versus auxiliary roads.”

Glick seconded this opinion, stating this position as his major conflict with the Planning Commission’s changes to the plan.

The revisions by the CPDC only permitted high-density residential developments such as townhomes and apartments to be built on urban principal arterial roads, which are North and South Jackson Street, Carroll Street and Wilson Avenue. The Planning Commission recommended that the plan allow for such developments on any collector and arterial routes.

Berry, who is Mayor Ray Knowis’ representative to the Planning Commission, spoke on the reasoning behind the decision to recommend allowing high-density housing on collector routes. He clarified that the city only currently has three available vacant lots on Jackson Street and that they are zoned for commercial use.

“This is a plan to get us through a year and a half, when the long-range plan can address all of that when there’s more time for the committee and the citizens to hash that out,” Glick said. “For now, these are the only changes that we’re willing to make.”

The motion to approve the plan without the recommendations made by the Planning Commission failed in a tie, with Knowis, Berry and Mayor Pro-Tem Jerry Mathis against. The motion to approve the plan as presented by the Planning Commission failed 2-4, with Knowis and Berry for while Glick, Mathis, Wilson and Alderman Derick Mann voted against. Alderman Jenna Amacher was absent from the meeting.