The proposal to build a collision center in Soddy Daisy met resistance at the commission meeting Thursday night. It was not the business but the location that many were opposed to. Two lots would be needed to build a Calvert Collision Center. A site at 9450 Dayton Pike would have required a zoning change from Local Business to General Business, and the second property at 9508 Dayton Pike from Agricultural and Rural Residential to General Business district. Both are between Daisy United Methodist Church and a doctor’s office.
When the project developers for Calvert first came to the city, the staff recommended denying the zoning change because they felt there were better uses for the property. At that time, the suggestion was to locate it in the Soddy Daisy Industrial Park. The next part of the rezoning process was to ask the city’s planning commission for their input. Their recommendation was to approve the rezoning that would have allowed the collision center there. The city commission has the final say, and Thursday night no motion was made one way or the other, so the motion died.
The business would have brought good paying jobs to the city particularly for the graduates of the local vocational school, and, with $3 million-to-$3.5 million in sales per year, would have also brought in needed sales tax revenue, proponents said. But the highly visible location on the main street through town would be a good location for a new restaurant or a hotel that the city is hoping to attract, it was stated.
A representative from the church said it had been discussed and the church did not have a problem with putting the business there. One speaker feared that a bustling business there would change the character of the city and she did not want the main street through town to become “Lee Highway.” Commissioner Travis Beene said something will go there eventually, with some restrictions since it is adjacent to a church, but he said as long as they kept their word about how it would be operated, and they do right for the community, that he would have supported it.
Another item on the meeting agenda was the second and final reading to establish the property tax rate for 2026 at $1.10 per every $100 of assessed value. It passed unanimously. City Manager Burt Johnson had been telling the commissioners for a couple of months that a tax increase would be requested, and at the July 17 meeting he said the certified rate, established by Hamilton County after the reappraisals this year, was $.90. That would have kept property taxes the same as before the reappraisals. At that meeting, he also laid out the city’s upcoming needs and said that the rate he planned to propose, would exceed the certified rate. And the commissioners were told what money from a tax increase would be used for.
That was done in more detail at the Aug. 7 commission meeting where he had prepared charts showing where the city spends money and where the increase would be used. He compared Soddy Daisy to similar-sized cities and gave a justification for the increased tax rate he proposed. At that meeting the first vote taken resulted in the approval of the new tax rate of $1.10.
And at the Thursday night meeting the ordinance establishing the new tax rate at $1.10 passed unanimously on the second and final vote.
An ordinance must be voted on twice at different meetings to become law. After the first vote on any ordinance, the city of Soddy Daisy provides a time for residents present to voice their opinions about the ordinance. Then two weeks later at the following commission meeting the second and final vote on an ordinance takes pace. Along the way, residents can request minutes from meetings or read newspaper coverage.
Thursday night, after the final vote on the property tax rate, a resident who had not participated previously throughout the process spoke at length in opposition to raising the rate. Too late to make a difference, he said the public had been cut out of the process of setting a tax rate, unaware of what had been done before to inform the public. The city manager and each commissioner justified in detail the reasons for the new tax rate, challenging anyone to find any way that the city spends tax money frivolously.
City Manager Johnson has found a way to provide tax relief to some qualified homeowners in the city that need it. It is the 2025 property tax relief program from the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury. This program is aimed at the elderly and disabled, disabled veterans and widow or widower of a disabled veteran. Mr. Johnson said 201 people in Soddy Daisy qualify. There are multiple ways to apply by phone and email. The city can be contacted for more information.
Soddy Daisy is entering into a 40-year lease with Hamilton County for the former Sequoyah Health Department building located at 9531 Ridge Trail Road. It will be used for a Senior Center. The city will be responsible for maintenance and repairs and will pay $10 annually for the lease.
The commissioners also amended the municipal code to adopt the 2018 edition of the International Fire Code and 101 Life Safety Code. It has previously been using the codes from 2015. State law says the codes standards have to be within seven years of the current year’s code. This is consistent with the other surrounding municipalities in the area.