BRADY FLANIGANStaff Writer

It’s an ugly business, politics and potholes—a morbid business where everyone fights to keep their dollars in their pockets and off the asphalt. While the city debates raising property taxes to fix its own streets, it’s already telling businesses to fix theirs.

Complaints started long before budget season. Tullahomans have been grumbling about the state of the roads for years. It’s been a ghost for the new administration that a bottle of charms hasn’t cast out. In a February interview with The News Mayor Lynn Sebourn said street repair was near the top of the administration’s list of chores. “The amount of roads we have to pave, with the increased price of asphalt especially, is exceeding our ability to pay,” he said. “It’s a problem across the whole state, so it’s not just our community.”

Still, not all the potholes belong to the city. When your tire hits a crater at 15 mph outside a drive-thru, the distinction between public and private feels pretty trivial. Some parking lots look worse than the streets of Verdun.

Now the city is doing something about it—at least where it legally can. Letters are being mailed to commercial property owners with damaged parking lots, citing violations of the 2018 International Property Maintenance Code and Tullahoma’s zoning ordinance. Each letter includes photographs of the specific deficiencies: crumbling pavement, faded striping, wheel-rattling divots.

According to the code, parking areas must be properly maintained, free of hazards, and surfaced in a way that controls dust and erosion. Perimeter markers are required. Driveways leading to gravel lots must be paved at least fifteen feet from the street. The ordinances aren’t new—they just hadn’t been enforced this way. There was always a skepticism of being too hard-nosed and scaring off commerce. 

Whether this push is about safety, image, liability, or simply timing is anyone’s guess. Landscapes use more than one oil paint. The city hasn’t said why the enforcement effort is happening now, only that it plans to start with high-traffic areas: strip malls, shopping centers, and commercial corridors. Public Works and the Codes Department are leading the effort.

The move comes as the city inches closer to a vote on a 20-cent property tax increase, largely pitched as a way to pay for road work. It’s looming. Some may see the parking lot letters as a prelude to a larger infrastructure push. Others may see them as a way to show progress without spending public money. 

Either way, the message is clear: if the road doesn’t belong to the city, it best not look like it.