After government officials heard concerns from
property owners about incomplete work at a pair of
local subdivisions within the last year, Loudon
County Commission on Monday approved a resolution
that will prevent developers from obtaining new
building permits if they are in violation of zoning
regulations on other projects.
“If a developer comes in (and) he doesn’t finish it
correctly, it’s going to be hard for him to do any
further business inside Loudon County,” Mayor Rollen
“Buddy” Bradshaw said in a follow-up interview
Tuesday, noting that before the county can adopt
roads, they need to be up to code and include a top
coat of asphalt.
Addressing incomplete work at Warrior’s Chase
off Highway 70 in Lenoir City, the subdivision’s
property owners association self-funded the
addition of a top coat to finish the road,
Bradshaw said.
Silver Oaks is another affected neighborhood
near the Knox County border east of Martel Road.
“The road itself has got some pretty bad spots
in it,” Bradshaw said, noting that a portion of
the road has a “sunken spot” and some “rough
patches.” “Before the county adopts them it will
be the job of the developer to complete those
before the county can adopt them,” he said.
Commission voted 9-0 to amend the county zoning
resolution. Commissioner David Meers was absent
to attend another event related to his work on
commission.
“This is the change to the zoning stuff (which)
is to hopefully prevent any more — I believe the
word here in Loudon County is ‘scofflawing’,”
Commissioner Van Shaver said during the meeting.
Commissioner Leo Bradshaw said in a follow-up
interview that he thought the change to the
resolution was a “very important” step in
protecting property owners and ensuring
“expectations and promises” are met. He said
incomplete work often puts a burden on
homeowners who could be left footing the bill.
“I think it needs to be corrected, and I think
this resolution corrects that,” Leo Bradshaw
said. “It’s a pretty strong step in making sure
that doesn’t happen again. Developers they just
need to do what they promised to do is what it
boils down to.”
Buddy Bradshaw said the change to the resolution
doesn’t target all developers but only those who
abandon subdivisions without completing the
work.
“There’s plenty of reputable developers around;
it’s not all developers,” he said. “But it’ll
prevent the developers who want to skip out
early, it will prevent that from happening.”
In other business, commission:
• Voted in favor of naming Oct. 5 as David
Blackburn Day in the county. Blackburn, a Loudon
High School graduate, is the University of
Tennessee at Chattanooga’s current athletic
director. Blackburn delivered a speech Monday at
Fort Loudoun Middle School, and Meers was in
attendance on behalf of commission.
• Adopted an update to the county policy and
procedure handbook. Under the new policy, new or
rehired employees will be allowed to use
vacation leave upon accrual but can’t use sick
leave “until successfully completing the
probationary period.” The county’s probation
period for new hires is six months.
• Approved rezoning about 0.91 acres at 180
Littleton Drive from R-1, suburban residential,
to C-2, general commercial district.
• Voted to accept 0.161 miles of Mountain Drive
in Avalon into the county road system.