At the August 19th zoning meeting, the Knox County Commission adopted a Plan Amendment to the county’s brand new Land Use Plan (just adopted April 22nd). The amendment was approved without meeting the new plan’s criteria for amending the plan, without a written staff background report, and out of cycle with the new quarterly update schedule. The vote was 7-2-1. Yes votes were cast by Commissioners Beeler, Dailey, Hill, Jay, Oster, Schoonmaker and Ward, No votes from Commissioners Frazier and Lee, and a pass from Lundy. (Durrett was absent).
KCPA and other community members sent comments to commissioners, and presented spoken remarks about these concerns. Incoming 9th district commissioner Andy Fox made public forum remarks asking if the new plan means anything, and providing examples of when courts might recognize a change in conditions. Commissioner Frazier re-articulated all of these comments to fellow commissioners. But, the discussion primarily focused on the applicant’s donation of land to Legacy Parks for a ballfield that would replace the existing Bower Field Park, and on vague promises of a master development plan that would be submitted in due course.
Frequent updates to the county’s old land use plan with little justification caused neighborhoods and communities to lose faith in the old planning process. Advance Knox was touted as the answer – a new plan, that would be updated at regular intervals. A key ask from planning advocates was strengthened criteria to amend the plan. KCPA and other advocates suggested specific redline changes to the draft criteria in April to the county commission. Several commissioners supported these changes – particularly commissioners Frazier, Schoonmaker, and Lee. But county mayor Glenn Jacobs opposed changing the draft criteria. The bar for amending our new plan was not substantially raised.
This was the FIRST amendment considered by the County Commission and Planning Commission under the new plan and criteria. By approving it without meeting the plan amendment criteria or schedule, County Commission has signaled to future applicants that it is “business as usual.” (see our prior post with our analysis of the proposed amendment)
After 3 years of work on Advance Knox, with over $1 million dollars of consulting fees paid and tens of thousands of hours of staff and community time, it looks like our new plan is going to be as malleable as our old one. It is not going to provide the goals of predictability and good planning unless our Planning Commissioners and County Commissioners enforce it.