City and County Adopt Hillside and Ridgetop Protection Plan

With approval at its January 23rd, 2012 meeting, the Knox County Commission adopted the Knoxville-Knox County Hillside and Ridgetop Protection Plan, completing a process that began in March, 2008 with the approval by the City Council of Knoxville and the Knox County Commission appointing a Joint City/County Task Force on Ridge, Slope, and Hillside Development and Protection. City Council adopted the Plan at its December 13th, 2011 meeting.

The task force was comprised of 29 citizens of Knoxville and Knox County, representing a wide variety of interests and professions within the community, including builders and real estate professionals, landscape architects, engineers, city and county officials and professional staff, environmentalists, neighborhood advocates, attorneys, and foresters. The Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) was charged with providing technical analysis and facilitating the work of the task force.?

Beginning in the summer of 2009, the draft plan was reviewed in many public meetings. In addition, surveys were conducted to assess the general public response to the principles and policies guiding development of the plan. In October, 2010, the task force submitted its final version of the plan to the MPC for consideration and possible adoption as an element of the Knoxville-Knox County General Plan 2033(General Plan). MPC revised the task force version in several places and adopted it as an element of the General Plan in December, 2010. Subsequently, the Knox County Commission voted not to make the plan amendment operable and the City Council of Knoxville took no action on the MPC version.

Upon voting down the MPC version of the plan, Knox County Commission approached the City Council of Knoxville to meet jointly to prepare a plan that could be agreed upon by both legislative bodies. Following a series of facilitated meetings, a new version of the plan was agreed upon in November, 2011. The City Council, on November 29, 2011, submitted this plan to the MPC for review and consideration as an amendment to the General Plan at its December 8th, 2011 meeting. Council adopted the plan on December 13, 2011, approving it as an element of the General Plan. Knox County Commission submitted its version of the plan to MPC and adopted it at its January 23rd, 2012 meeting.

With the adoption of the Hillside and Ridgetop Protection Plan, the initial work of the Task Force, the MPC, City Council, and County Commission comes to an end, but the work to implement the plan just begins. The plan sets forth the principles, policies, vision, and best practices to be used to safely develop steep slopes and ridgetops while minimizing offsite environmental damage. The plan provides a framework for decision-making for future zoning cases and development plan review and approval, as well as the necessary ordinances and regulations needed to implement the recommendations of the plan.

Posted 2-01-2012, written by Mark Donaldson