Monteagle Planning: Lighting Ordinance, Parks, Tiny Homes


by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

At the April 6 Monteagle Planning Commission meeting, the commission discussed adopting an anti-light-pollution ordinance, applying for a parks and recreation grant, and tiny homes regulations. The commission also took up two zoning questions.

Building Inspector Earl Geary referenced a model lighting ordinance drafted by the Engineering Society of North America and the International Dark Sky Association. “You can see lights 125 miles away,” Geary said. The requirements of the ordinance intended “to soften the blow of lighting.”

Mayor Marilyn Campbell Rodman pointed out this was the lighting ordinance Nashville used and the model RBT Enterprises had agreed to follow in the lighting design at the truck stop RBT hopes to build. “We need to come up with some model we can adopt…With future businesses coming in we will need to have [a lighting ordinance] that has some teeth in it,” Rodman said. “We would implement ours [anti-light pollution practices] as we change our lighting and develop lighting for the town.”

Geary said the ordinance used lumens-based metrics to measure lighting. The planning commission will hold a workshop to broaden their understanding of the proposed ordinance’s provisions.

Revisiting a parks and recreation grant the town might qualify for, Rodman asked town planner Garret Haynes for an update. Hayes explained the deadline was extended to September 2021 for communities, like Monteagle, who did not have a recent parks and recreation plan to allow them time to adopt one. The town will host a public meeting to invite public input on developing a parks and recreation plan suitable to the community.

Responding to planning commission member Dorraine Parmley’s question about tiny homes, Hayes said tiny homes must be in a tiny-homes subdivision in an area zoned R-4. Monteagle allows R-4 zoning, but currently has no property zoned R-4. In R-1 zoning, minimum square footage for a home is 800 square feet; in R-2 and R-3 zoning, minimum square footage is 600 feet. R-4 zoning does not stipulate a minimum square footage. Geary said International Building Codes had room size requirements that no room could be smaller than 120 square feet and no room can be less than 7 feet in any direction. “We need to look at [tiny homes] to be consistent with municipal codes and with our own codes,” Rodman said.

Geary brought up a request to put a double-wide mobile home on a South Central Avenue lot. The R-3 zoning prohibits double-wide mobile homes. A second problem stems from the proposed mobile home’s situation on the lot falling two inches short of the required property line set back. Hayes proposed rezoning the lot to R-2 and a variance on the set back as a possible solution.

Planning commission member MaryJane Flowers suggested the commission take into consideration what they wanted the character of the neighborhood to be, mobile homes, apartments, or single-family residences. “What are we wanting to happen to the property?” Flowers asked.

Hayes will look into possible ways of resolving the issue.

Hayes introduced a related request to rezone a property from C-2 to R-2 so the owner could add on to the residence and possibly build another residence. The commission tabled the issue until the May 4 meeting, since the owner requesting the amended zoning was not present to answer questions.

The commission also anticipates taking up the proposed truck stop site plan on May 4.

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