Both of these planners began to encourage denser development for the county. This is when Planned Unit Developments began to take off. 

Planned Unit Developments, PUD's are a zoning overlay that essentially allows developers to exceed the density of the residential zoning district. Early on, a developer could get a PUD overlay with as little as seven acres and could build as many as eight homes per acre. Over time, the commission adopted policies that only allowed 2.5 homes per acre and a total of seventy five acres to apply for a PUD.

The current residential zoning, R-1, requires a building lot to be at least 20,000 sq ft. which translates into approximately 2 homes per acre with certain front, side and rear lot setbacks. A PUD overlay, allows developers to have up to 2.5 homes per gross acreage. This allows a developer to build additional homes and have much smaller lots and much lower setbacks. These are the kind of developments we see all over Lenoir City, and west Knox where houses are jammed almost on top of each other. .

In the May election, voters made their views known as to what they thought about dense, over development. Every candidate that was supporting over development was defeated badly.

At tonight's county commission meeting, there will be a discussion and vote to eliminate PUD's all together. Hopefully the vote will pass. If you are supportive of common since, controlled development, let your commissioners know.

Developers can still do business in Loudon County but their maximum density will be at two homes per acre. It's our duty as representatives of the people to support their wishes.