Norris council delays zoning for boat store, punts on utility changes
The fate of a proposed boat sales, service and storage facility on Andersonville Highway in Norris was delayed a week by the Norris City Council on Monday night, as the council decided to put off a vote on necessary rezoning until all members could be present on March 20.
In a separate, mostly symbolic action, the council ended nearly three months of high drama by deciding unanimously against reorganizing the city’s water and sewer utilities as a regular city department under the city manager.
Instead, the council voted 4-0 (with Councilman Bill Grieve not present) to keep the utilities under control of the Norris Water Commission, which had launched a formidable grassroots political campaign to stop the council’s potential change in the utilities’ setup.
To that end, the council approved an “organizational chart” presented by Mayor Chris Mitchell that keeps Water Superintendent Tony Wilkerson reporting directly to the Water Commission. It was a symbolic gesture, though, as it merely continues the status quo.
Councilwoman Loretta Painter began the controversy during the December council meeting when she got a motion approved unanimously to hold a workshop to consider bringing the utilities under control of City Manager Adam Ledford, with Wilkerson reporting to him instead of to the five-member Water Commission.
After considerable and sometimes quite emotional opposition was directed at the council during two public meetings on the potential change, the vote on Monday night brought a quiet end to the controversy. That leaves the Water Commission intact in its mostly autonomous role running the utilities.
As for the proposed boat sales, service and storage facility, the final vote on zoning changes to accommodate the project were delayed to a special meeting at 5 p.m. March 20, which all five council members have pledged to attend.
One of the two required rezoning ordinances most likely would have failed on a 2-2 vote if the council had moved ahead with consideration of them on second and final reading Monday night.
Grieve’s vote was expected to be in favor of the rezoning, but even though he was attending the meeting by remote video hookup Monday, state law would not allow him to vote remotely, the council decided.
The mayor made a motion to delay the vote on the rezoning ostensibly so he could “review the tax implications” of the proposed new business. But it was clear to those in attendance that the delay was meant to allow Grieve to participate in the final vote.
During the Feb. 13 council meeting, the council voted 5-0 and 3-2 to approve the two separate rezoning ordinances on first reading for the two tracts that would be used for the boat operation.
James and Jessica Broyles of Jacksboro want to move their LaFollette business, Big Creek Marine, to the new site, which is between Exit 122 Outdoor Power Equipment and Meadow View Senior Living on the south side of Andersonville Highway.
The key to the move, however, is approval of the rezoning of two parcels — a 2.65-acre lot fronting on Andersonville Highway at Acuff lane to C-2 Commercial from its current P-1 (Professional and Civic) status, and a 5.5-acre lot behind it to I-1 (Light Industrial) from its current P-1.
James Broyles said the front lot would be the site of the company’s boat sales and service operation, while the back lot would be used for covered, secure year-round boat storage.
The rezoning request — made by the current property owner, Clayton Holding Company — was given preliminary approval by the Norris Planning Commission Feb. 6 and the City Council Feb. 13. But it still needs final approval by the City Council.
Broyles said that if the rezoning is approved, he plans to pay Clayton HC $800,000 for the property, then spend about $3 million to build the structures for the boat sales, service and storage operations.
“We would employ five to six people to start, and we would hope to be open before the end of the [coming] season,” he said.
The two different zoning designations are necessary because Norris doesn’t allow this type of storage facility in a C-2 zone, but does now allow such storage units in the I-1 industrial zone, thanks to a separate ordinance approved by the council Monday night.
With the change to C-2, the front piece of property would be allowed to have the boat sales and service operations, but not the boat storage.
Mitchell said during the Planning Commission meeting that he was “struggling” with rezoning the rear tract to I-1 because it could open it up to manufacturing later if the boat business moves out.
During the first reading of the zoning ordinance Feb. 13 for the second tract, which would give it the industrial designation, Mitchell and Councilwoman Loretta Painter opposed it, making the vote 3-2.
Painter said she also had reservations about what might end up on the property if the boat facility were to close later.
In other council business Monday:
• The Norris Water Commission announced that Norris had received an award for the “best-tasting drinking water” in the East Tennessee area in an annual competition among utilities.
Water processed and distributed by the Norris water system comes from a spring in the Norris Watershed, and has long been recognized for its high quality.
• The council approved on first reading an ordinance adopting the “2018 International Fire Code,” which was in response to a recent fire at a local drug abuse treatment facility. The Norris Fire Department learned after the fire – during which there were some issues with emergency egress from the building – that the city actually had never adopted a fire safety code.
Mitchell said he favored the adoption of the fire code, but would want to make sure the city could enforce it equally and effectively.
• The council denied, on a 2-2 vote, an agreement presented by the Water Commission that would have paid Superintendent Tony Wilkerson more than $30,000 over the next six years for vacation and compensatory time off hours he had been accumulating since 2018.
Councilman Will Grinder made the motion to approve the payout, and the motion was seconded by Mitchell.
But Painter and Councilman Chuck Nicholson voted against the deal, saying they felt that the formula for deciding the amount of the payout was flawed and would end up in an overcharge to the city’s water and sewer customers. The money for the payout must, by law, come from the water and sewer bills that customers pay.
