Commissioner Graham Says Citizens Should Sue The County Over Acre Requirement For STVRs

  • Wednesday, July 17, 2024

County Commissioner Joe Graham (District 11) told the County Commission that he will encourage pushback against short-term vacation rental acreage minimums adopted last week for unincorporated county lots.

“I’m going to encourage them to sue the county,” Commissioner Graham said. He proposed that commissioners should have the power to “opt out” of the lot restrictions, saving the county “a whole world of problems,” he said.

Commissioner Warren Mackey said he, too, wants to revisit the lot rules in favor of “exemption rights.”

County Attorney Rheubin Taylor said the county has no mechanism to allow such exemptions but that he will explore the option and report at the next meeting on July 31.

Last week’s amended resolution requires one acre for Residential zoning and two and a half acres for Agricultural zoning for STVRs in unincorporated areas.

Last week it appeared that the amendment by Commissioner Steve Highlander to raise the limit from two to two and a half acres for Agricultural zoning had failed.

But Attorney Taylor clarified that because Commissioner Warren Mackey had stepped out for both votes the amendment did pass, according to Tennessee code. The 5-4 vote in favor was a majority, not a tie.

The County Commission began regulating STVRs in April 2023, right after the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission extended the right to operate STVRs to all zones except manufacturing.

Commissioner Graham spoke Wednesday of people who bought property in the last year and now may be barred from doing business.

“I have people that are coming here to be part of our tourism trade, the biggest trade that we have here,” he said.

He referenced property owners who spoke against the lot requirements last week. One said his 35-lot development project will be interrupted after developing just 21 lots.

“Those don’t have acre lots. And they’re already geared up,” Commissioner Graham said.

District 11 includes Ruby Falls, the Incline Railway and the new Lookouts stadium, the “tourist belt of Hamilton County,” he said. He said small swaths of unincorporated county, around the skirts of Lookout Mountain and along Highway 11 toward Trenton, have been roped into strict rules that don’t benefit the area.

Other commissioners reiterated that lot minimums are necessary to protect rural neighborhoods from being overrun with partying tourists, and to keep neighborhoods for residents.

Last week the commission had voted 6-3 to approve the "compromise" resolution from Commissioner Lee Helton. In favor were Commissioners Helton, Chip Baker, Geno Shipley, Steve Highlander, David Sharpe and Chairman Jeff Eversole.

Opposed were Commissioners Graham, Mike Chauncey and Greg Beck. Ken Smith was absent and Commissioner Mackey had stepped out of the meeting prior to the vote.

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