Pigeon Forge says no fun with buggies

Wednesday’s special called meeting of the Pigeon Forge Planning Commission took an alternative turn when it got into the subject of the alternative vehicle rentals within the city limits. City Attorney, Jim Gass, made a report to the commission. The report on the two rental operations was requested at the last regular meeting in June. Ed Baldwin, co-owner of Fun Buggies, was in attendance at both meetings. Gass reported that the businesses were in violation because they had not filed site plans with the commission. He also reported that a 2002 Tennessee law allowed the vehicles on state roads as long as they operated at but did not exceed a speed of ten miles an hour below the posted speed limit. The law also allowed an exception for any local ordinance (county or city) that banned the vehicles use. The vehicles at Fun Buggies are road worthy according to the manufacturer’s statement. The illegal nature of the business was determined because no site plan had been filed with the commission. Fun Buggies opened the first week of May and received their business license from the city on May 23. Baldwin, has been seeking guidance to filing the appropriate paper work with the commission, but says the Community Development Division has been telling him to hold off on filing until the report came back at the meeting. The report found his only fault at present was for being late in filing the site plan he was told to hold off on. “Mr. Baldwin has asked us earlier what he needed to do to file a site plan. We told them, let’s see what the city attorney comes back with,” said Community Development Director John Jagger. State planner Midge Jessiman stated at the meeting that she saw no need for a site plan to be filed because the Board of Zoning Appeals had ruled on the use of rental fun vehicles in the past and didn’t want the owner to go through the expense to be turned down. Slow moving vehicle businesses denied site plans for rentals by the Board of Zoning Appeals in the past due to public safety concerns included scooters and horse drawn carriages. According to the Tennessee Code however, only the City Commission can deem a four-wheeled-electric vehicle as unsafe on its roads. The opinion in Nashville is that the Planning Commission, which is also the Board of Zoning Appeals, cannot deny a site plan on the vehicles for safety reasons without a city ordinance against such vehicles being in place. According to Jessiman, public safety concerns that have been used for denial on scooters and other rental vehicles included their speed in traffic, their low visibility and rentals to drivers under 16. However these concerns didn’t hold up to a Herald undercover investigation of Fun Buggies. We found that the rental agreement in use was the same as used by other car rental companies such as Hertz and Enterprise. Drivers must be at least 21 and pay an additional fee unless they are older than 25. We had to sign additional agreements to use the seatbelts and to stay on the streets listed on our map. We also had to sign off to staying in the right hand lane unless turning left. The vehicles had license plates and registration like a normal car. Measurements of the vehicles found them to be higher then a standard passenger sedan and the bright colors and designs to be much more visible to other drivers. We found them to be very maneuverable and kept up with traffic well on a somewhat crowded summer afternoon in the city. The vehicles are capable of higher speeds but the owners keep them altered so that they stay within the state requirements for the vehicles. The slow moving vehicle law only applies to electric vehicles. It would not cover the gas vehicles being used by Scoot Cars. Owners from that business were also at the meeting and have not yet filed a site plan with the commission. Baldwin produced some environmental numbers for the Planning Commission. In comparing the 12,000 plus miles of usage the buggies have received over the last two months with gas-powered cars, the low speed vehicles prevented almost six tons of green house gasses from being released. 7.2 pounds of volatile organic compounds were not released that would have been in normal car traffic. Such numbers would seem to be a positive for a city that has staff members on the East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition. The Planning Commission members then voted at meetings end to have Gass draft a ordinance concerning the vehicles. The Planning Commission can vote to recommend an ordinance to the Pigeon Forge City Commission. Baldwin says he intends to file a site plan as soon as possible, but was informed that the deadline for submission to the next meeting has already passed.