At its meeting on Monday, March 23, the Tullahoma Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BOMA) approved the 2045 Comprehensive Plan on its second reading.
The plan is meant to guide Tullahoma’s growth over the next 20 years, but is not binding.
The approval came a week after the Planning Commission unanimously denied the BOMA’s recommendation that the plan require low- and medium-density single-family dwellings to have a driveway and a garage.
Find more details on that recommendation here and the Planning Commission’s denial here.
Alderman Kurt Glick, who originally proposed the recommendation at the March 9 BOMA meeting, said he would accept the vote but questioned the process used to put the recommendation on the Planning Commission agenda. The recommendation was added to the agenda at the commission meeting but did not appear on the version of the agenda published ahead of the meeting.
“I’d planned on going to the Planning Commission meeting to speak if this was going to be on the agenda, but I looked on the agenda, [and] it wasn’t going to be on there,” Glick said. “I thought for some reason they didn’t have time to put it on there, so I didn’t go to the meeting, and I talked to several other [Comprehensive Plan Development Committee] members who did the same.”
Glick questioned how attorney Garth Segroves, who has represented some local developers and spoke against the recommendation at the commission meeting, found out that the recommendation would be on the agenda. Segroves said at the commission meeting that he became aware that the recommendation would be on the agenda about an hour before the meeting.
Alderman Bobbie Wilson agreed with Glick’s concerns.
Planning and Development Director Samuel Luthi said that he generally publishes Planning Commission agendas on Tuesdays. Since the BOMA meeting was on a Monday, he did not have time to add the recommendation before publishing the agenda. Once an agenda is published, Luthi cannot make changes, but he can recommend items be added to the agenda at the commission meetings.
Luthi denied notifying anyone that he planned to recommend that the BOMA’s recommendation be added to the agenda. Segroves confirmed in a statement to Peterson Media Group that he received a call from a non-city-staff-member who notified him that the recommendation might appear on the commission agenda.
“I showed up just in case,” Segroves said. “I stayed, and I talked.”
Segroves speculated that the person who notified him may have called city hall to ask if the item might be added to the agenda.
After discussion about Glick’s concerns ended at the March 23 BOMA meeting, Alderman Jerry Mathis made a motion to table the plan. He said he and the other BOMA members needed to spend more time making sure they understood the implications of the plan.
“In reference to this 2045 plan, I think it’s very vague. Very little do we know about the 2045 [plan],” Mathis said. “I’ve been out and talked to people, and they say, ‘What is the 2045 [plan] and how much will it cost the city to implement this?’ We have no idea.”
Mayor Lynn Sebourn clarified that the plan itself would not cost the city anything and would not bind the city to “any specific costs.”
The motion failed for lack of a second.
BOMA approved the 2045 Comprehensive Plan with a 5-1 vote (Mathis opposed).
