12:36 pm Commission defers requests on multiple items
By Ashley Rader
The Elizabethton Regional Planning Commission deferred a decision on multiple issues during the meeting Tuesday night opting to wait until more information could be made available on each request.
The commission deferred decisions on a proposed ordinance change to allow special event banners, deciding whether the Quilt Trail is allowable in downtown Elizabethton and a subdivision plan approval for a commercial property. They did approve a subdivision plat approval for the Tennessee Technology Center in Stoney Creek.
Director of Planning and Development Jon Hartman brought the requests for the special events banners and the Quilt Trail before the commission. For each request he said he had been approached by Chamber of Commerce staff regarding the matter.
For the special events banners, Hartman said the Chamber had requested permission to allow for a banner to be hung announcing the Covered Bridge Celebration. He noted that this year marked the 130th anniversary of the Covered Bridge.
Under the current ordinance there is no provision for special events banners. The ordinance only states that they are not allowed. Hartman said he did not see any issues that could be caused by allowing the banners and presented the proposed changes to the ordinance to the commission.
The ordinance would be changed from that no signs can be placed in public right of way, publicly owned property or on utility poles to stating that signs can be placed in the areas with City Council permission. A special events banner would be defined as a banner that hangs over a right of way and announces a community or civic event and does not display any business or religious logos.
The banners could only be hung for seven days and would not be displayed in the Highway Entrance Overlay District and would not be closer than 300 feet to any traffic signaled intersection. Special event banners must be located along an arterial route and the bottom of the banner must have a minimum height of 15 feet from the highest point of the pavement. Special event banners would be limited to one banner per event per year.
Commissioner Dena Bass asked Hartman to define a civic event. He said it would be any community event that was not related to a business or a religious organization. She questioned if churches and schools would be included in that. He said churches would not be but schools would be.
Commissioners were also concerned with who would install and remove the banners, where they would be placed and how the banners would be policed to make sure they were hung correctly and safely. Other concerns were that too many banners could be hung at once. Commissioner Nancy Alsup said she was concerned the town would start to “look like Pigeon Forge.”
Hartman said the banners could be hung from the intersection at West Elk Avenue and Hudson back toward the east side of town and along East Elk Avenue. The signs could not be hung over the Highway Entrance Overlay District.
Chairman Victor Deloach questioned the other commissioners on what the real likelihood would be that more than one banner would be hung at the same time. He suggested the city have a permit fee that would be charged when the permit for the sign was submitted and then when the group removed their sign they could be reimbursed for part of that or could get all of it back. He said that could help alleviate some of the concern over who would take down the signs and the possibility that the signs would not be taken down by the group. Some of the commissioners thought the groups would leave the signs up and pay the fine for removal so the city would take them down instead of them having to deal with it on their own.
Bass said she did not think a permit fee should be charged since the city would not be doing anything for the signs. The city would not be responsible for installing or removal of the banner. The city would only remove the signs if they were not taken down after the seven days and then a fine would be charged.
Vickie Manuel said the biggest concern for her was the signs were properly installed and that they were securely hung. She said if the sign were to fall then the civic group should be held responsible for any damages. Curt Alexander questioned how that would be patrolled. Since the city would not be responsible for installation then whoever the group chose would be hanging the banners.
The commission agreed to defer a decision on special events banners until more information could be gathered. They asked Hartman to look into how other cities handled banners, how much the cost would be if the city did installation and what kind of fee would need to be charged and any legal aspects associated with the banners.
The other sign related request that was deferred was the discussion and decision on the Quilt Trail in downtown. Hartman said he had been approached by Steve Burwick with the Chamber who is pursuing the possibility of bringing the Quilt Trail to downtown. Hartman said he was told there was interest in the Quilt Trail and that Burwick was eager to find out if the quilt squares could legally be hung in downtown according to the sign ordinance.
Hartman said after reviewing the sign ordinance there was no clear answer on the quilt squares. He said they met the definition of a sign but there was not provisions for them in the ordinance so he was turning to the commission for guidance. He asked them if this was something they wanted to pursue and if they did how many should be allowed and what size should they be.
If the quilt squares were allowed in downtown they would be a 4×4 foot square wooden block with a quilt pattern painted on it. They would be affixed to the front of the buildings so that visitors could drive by or walk by and view the quilt squares. Hartman explained to the commission that he had tried to find out more specifics on the squares but that nothing had been decided yet because Burwick wanted to know if they would be legal first.
Manuel said she felt if they addressed this it would bring about more issues since the sign ordinance did not even mention something like that to begin with. She suggested they defer the decision until they completely reviewed the sign ordinance as a whole. Alexander noted that the businesses were not even allowed to have a sign that would be 4×4 foot in size.
The commission unanimously agreed to defer this decision until they were ready to review the whole sign ordinance.
They also deferred a subdivision plat request from Daniel Lewis for a property at 1201 Highway 19E, which is the multi-unit commercial space and a storage unit. The plans were to divide each unit in the commercial space into its own property.
Hartman said he had advised Lewis to divide the storage units as well but he said he wanted to keep those. Bass questioned if he gave a reason why and Hartman said that no specific explanation had been provided.
The commission had multiple questions regarding the plans and the property. Lewis was not in attendance at the meeting so Bass moved they defer until next month so he could have the chance to attend and answer any questions they had.
The commission did approve a subdivision plat request from Tennessee Technology Center. The Center is planning a large expansion and presented the commission with a land parcel swap agreement along with a parcel purchase that would make their property lines straighter which means they would better match the plans.
Also, the commission formed a sub-committee to work with the Planning Department on the Community Visioning Project. Hartman said the project would work with the community to determine what their needs and desires for future projects would be.
Bass said she wanted to make sure the project would be followed through with and would not be another plan that was developed just to get a grant and then abandoned. Hartman said his goal was to follow through with the project and he expected the commission to hold him accountable to those plans.
Jeff Treadway cautioned that they not make too large of plans or make too many promises that could not be followed through on because of the economic conditions. Hartman said the city was developing a new method of handling capital projects that would develop a budget and a project list for future projects to ensure they could be completed.
Deloach appointed Paul Bellamy, Bass and Manuel to the subcommittee for that project.
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