The Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BoMA) approved the Revised 2011 Comprehensive Plan on its second and final reading Monday night, providing the city with a map of future land uses.
The plan that was approved was presented by the Community Plan Development Committee (CPDC). After the BoMA ceased discussions over the long-debated 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 is intended 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.
Critiques have been made on the original 2011 Comprehensive Plan, with some aldermen and former aldermen expressing hesitation in using it, even as a base. Former Alderman Robin Dunn referred to the plan as a “copy-paste” with “no input from citizens.”
The original 2011 Comprehensive Plan was taken from the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS), from their example plan of what city comprehensive plans should be based upon. Because of the concerns regarding citizen input, the board created the CPDC to intake citizen input and use their own to amend the existing plan.
The 2040 Comprehensive Plan took two years for city staff, along with project consultants the Walker Collaborative Group, to finalize, working with the citizens to intake comments and critiques through numerous town halls and surveys. Rumbling started to gain traction in 2022, opposing the 2040 plan, highlighting the sale of the acreage farm behind Tara Estates and Macon Manor, locally referred to as the Anderson Farm, as a sticking point.
Aldermen Dunn, Daniel Berry and Mayor Ray Knowis initially opposed the shutdown of the 2040 plan, citing the many citizens whose homes are zoned industrial and unable to be repaired. They additionally referred to the disregard for the thousands of comments compiled from citizens for the 2040 plan that were being disregarded in favor of establishing a board of seven citizens who would have total control over whether comments and suggestions from the public would be heard or considered.
To this point, the Planning Commission raised concerns over comments of multiple citizens that were not considered by the CPDC, including any from Col. Beverly Lee with the Tullahoma Area Economic Development Corporation.
After the draft of the Revised 2011 Comprehensive Plan was finalized by the CPDC, it was reviewed by the Planning Commission, which recommended six changes.
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 BoMA voted down both the version of the plan with recommendations by the Planning Commission and the original draft by the CPDC at their April 24 meeting. The vote was reconsidered at the May 8 meeting of the board, with the board adding two of the recommended changes by the Planning Commission, removing a reference to a map in the 2040 plan and allowing mixed-use development on Cedar Lane. This version of the plan came before BoMA at its May 22 meeting, and it was approved unanimously on the second of two readings.
