The Loudon County Commission officially voted to eliminate its cluster zoning option from local ordinances at their Dec. 1 voting meeting.
The move comes just two weeks after a lengthy workshop discussion surrounding the excerpt titled “cluster development option” located within the R2 zoning option of the Loudon County Zoning Resolution.
The developments, which were effectively dissolved at a Loudon County Planning Commission meeting on Nov. 12, constitutes one of the last chinks of an armor that County officials are trying to protect the region with — as mass development continues to pop up in nearly all of its surrounding counties.
“The cluster development option is established to encourage clustering of residential development promoting more creative design options based on the size, shape, natural resources of a site; constraints which have direct implications for development,” the Zoning Ordinance reads.
“The primary purpose of the option is to maintain open space, preservation of natural environmental features and enhance design which may not be practical under traditional development standards.”
RIGHTING A WRONG
While initially designed to make more use of outdoor space and provide unique detail to parts of a property that weren’t the immediate residence, County officials found that what was occurring instead was a densely packed grouping of houses — leaving the rest of the property to serve merely as water detention or unused green space that failed to benefit the property or its owners in any meaningful manner.
Loudon County Codes Enforcement Director Jim Jenkins stated that, after discussions with his Planning Commission and mulling over a few independently executed studies, the body felt it would benefit from eliminating the language from its governing documents altogether.
“To us, it’s not being used in a beneficial manner,” Jenkins said in an earlier interview with The News-Herald. “We’re just creating smaller, substandard lots and the open spaces aren’t being used for anything, and not even providing anything for the community.
“So their feelings were, they thought that out in the county we’d be better suited to eliminate that development option and basically just have our R-1 subdivision-type developments.”
While the County Commission ultimately voted to do away with the subsection at their Dec. 1 meeting, Jenkins did supply further information as to Planning Commission’s reasoning behind its elimination when an explanation was requested by Commissioner Rosemary Quillen.
“We’re not really sure where it becomes beneficial,” Jenkins explained. “There were some documents even sent to me by one of the Planning Commissioners on what true cluster developments look like, and it’s literally (the) clustering of small parcels of housing and then they create these open spaces.
“And, when you look at some of the development we’ve had, that’s not what we get. …
“We typically end up with a small, 15,000 square foot lot size. The remainder of the property ends up in detention space or its an unusable area, period.
“There’s no preservation of natural resources, which is one of things that our standard says it should create.”
FURTHER CHALLENGES
Commissioner Quillen also challenged Jenkins on a potential monitoring of developers who are building within the guidelines of this specific zoning ordinance, in an effort to ensure that what’s being done with the green space involved reflects the intent of the initial guidelines.
Jenkins answered by stating that what is being done in the construction process, while undesired, isn’t technically breaking any rules. While the Director said that more restrictive language was discussed, it was ultimately dropped as an option due to its lack of feasible implementation.
The “cluster option” was initially designed to impact neighborhoods and communities where lot sizes were a half-acre minimum. While a recent Greenback neighborhood, currently under development by Turner Homes, was approved to move into an R-2 rezone, Jenkins stated that it won’t be impacted by either Planning Commission or County Commission’s ruling.
As of right now, there are a few neighborhoods that fall under the “cluster” subcategory but will remain unaffected due to their preliminary plat approval, Jenkins stated at the Dec. 1 voting meeting.
The decision to rid the Zoning Ordinance of this subsection of the R-2 zoning passed 8-0 at Loudon County Commission, with Commissioner Bill Satterfield being absent from the vote.
