Monday night the Sevier County commission voted to defer the motion to rezone property on Tittsworth Springs Road. The vote came after the commission heard public remarks from area residents and the property owner.
Patrick Doyle, whose property neighbors that which is to be rezoned, noted in his remarks that, "the road is under review to be widened" and that "the road is not a feeder road". He also argued that the .63 acres in question was not suited for commercial building or zoning. He asked that the zoning request be set aside or rejected.
John Soter, who owns the property and filed the request to have the property rezoned, notified the commission that instead of building storage units on the property he was planning to build a 10 unit single story apartment complex.
Upon hearing that the property will be used for residential buildings, several members of the commission highlighted that the property would be better zoned as residential instead of commercial. Mr. Soter was asked to return to the planning commission and refile his request to reflect his new plans for the property.
After the discussion of the request being sent back to the planning commission, Dennis Campbell, a resident of Lexington Place, raised to ask the commission to notify residents of the date and time of the planning commission meeting.
While the commission discussed the rezoning, Commissioner Bryan Delius, a Seymour area commissioner, said "I spoke out in opposition of rezoning this property because of the width of the road and because of the dynamics in the area." The dynamics Commissioner Delius spoke of is likely the controversy the commission has found itself embroiled in surrounding the proposed park on North Knob Creek. Delius went on to say that "Irresponsible reporting by one of those papers in Seymour stated I had ownership and I was the only one who voted against it."
Delius was referring to the story printed in the Seymour Herald that referenced a comment submitted to the Seymour Herald website via seymourherald.com:
". . . it would be difficult to keep up. Judy Godfrey has outright lied. Buster Norton has outright lied. Bill Oakes has outright lied and now Bryan Delius is working his way towards rezoning a piece of property as commercial that sits right in the middle of this mess. He may have a financial interest in the property."
The comment never stated that Delius owned the property to be rezoned; it merely asked the question if he had a financial interest.
After the meeting, Mr. Soter, visibly frustrated stated, "...I just got ambushed with this hearsay -widening that road is hearsay. I did my homework, two months ago when I applied for this permit and there was nothing about widening that road." Mr. Soter was adamant that he had no notice about the road being widened and was upset at the thought of losing property to easements needed to widen the road adjacent to his property.
Johnas Smelcer told the Seymour Herald last week in a phone conversation that the county was in the final process of securing ‘right-of-ways' for Titsworth Springs Road.
The County Commission will reconsider the request to rezone the property to residential at the next County Commission meeting.
Updated: Our apologies to Bryan Delius for misspelling his first name in our print edition.
— 
— 
— 
Comments may take up to 10 minutes to appear due to site cache.
User Comments
Interesting that for some reason, the widening of Titsworth Springs has been a big secret. What this secrecy does is verifys the existance of backroom deals, deals done in secret to facillitate some future (also secret) deal and shows clear violation of the State's Sunshine Law. Obviously ethical government in Sevier County is a long way off. Perhaps it's time for the State of Tennessee to step in and investigate. If you agree, write to the Governor and complain about the lack of ethics in Seveir County government. Maybe then our Business-as-Usual Mayor and our so-called Representatives (also called Commissioners) will understand that their underhandedness and lying has got to stop.
I want to thank Commissioners Bryan Delius and Harold Pitner for leading the commission in a proper decision. After speaking with John Soter, the gentleman who owns this land I think a good resolution will come from this.
"Our appologies to Bryan Delius for mispelling his first name in our print edition."
Will you apologize to your readers for misspelling "appologies" and "mispelling" as well?
Sheesh.
Sorry!
I thought it was a play on words and was kind of funny! I think they were poking fun at their own mistake!
What the article doesn't mention is that commissioner Whaley got his pet project passed by his fellow developers, I mean commissioners. He got his new cement plant approved for your district - across a one lane bridge and narrow road that can't handle the traffic. I'll bet you will see the county road crews out soon working on a new bridge -at taxpayer expense.
Where is his cement plant? In Seymour?
Someone needs to keep their eyes and ears opoened for back room dealings. That Is all That the so called officals know how to do.
How about the 1000 grand to study building codes. You can get HUD codes for nothing from the US GOV Printing office. When you people are tired of getting ripped off by these Good Ole Boys, you might want to put a real PUBLIC SERVANT in Office for a change.
JT: The 100k isnt to study the codes --that has already been done. the 100k is to hire the chief and then start the new office. They already settled on the '1999' building codes --whatever that is.
As I recall Brian Delius said in his closing arguments of the Stan Martin Murder Trial that we needed to "Get Up Out of The River" Was that experience talking back then?
Is it really true that Seymour/Sevier County didn't have an office that clearly defines building codes? Does that mean that our new homes with the water supply and septic tank within a foot of each other was never inspected by a building code inspector??? They certainly need an inspector then. So this means that, prior to the commissioners appointing an inspector, any builder out there could build a house, sell it to some poor unsuspecting buyer with a family, and it could have numerous safety violations???
I also wanted to thank Brian Deluis and Harold Pitner for doing the right thing in the "John Soter" application for residential zoning. Commercial it was not...
Would you believe that our STUCK ON STUPID county government has formed an Ethics Committee and put the DOG CATCHER on it. The want written complaints about nepotism and cronism sent to the the DOG CATCHER Phil King. Take about putting the fox in the hen house to guard the chickens. We really need the TBI and FBI in here to investigate this situation. This is the last straw. The days of the Good Ole Boys are over and it is time for the people of this county to rise up and just push them out of the way. It is more than obvious they just don't have the good sense to take the hint.
JT: Read the state rules/regs on this. The committee allows it.
Yes, it's true - there are NO building codes in Sevier County and we don't have a comprehensive growth plan either - and no parks department. All the commercial rental cabins are not inspected and currently classified by the state as "residential". This means that they don't have to have fire extinguishers, smoke alarms or any other safety equipment or meet any guidelines at all. The County is setting itself up for one heck of a lawsuit but no one cares. Even our state officials know this and they don't act. I agree that the new "Ethics Committee" is a sham and not worth the effort. Foxes in charge of the hen house, indeed. Shameful. These boys wouldn't know an ethic if it hit em in the head.
OH MY GOSH! Frightening isn't it? No wiring, plumbing, roof truss inspections...
There have already been several instances of entire decks falling down the hill while loaded with people due to the lack of building codes. One of these days there will be massive loss of life and a good lawyer will eat this county up. The taxpayers will foot that bill and maybe then they will realize that who we elect really does matter. This neglect is disgraceful - it is all about profit, not safety.
I'm guessing you haven't read the story where the county is hiring a chief building inspector to start up the office which will enforce the 1999 set of building codes? It has been a long time coming and we need to support it!
Will he get paid by the county or by payoff's and bribes. Hey wait a minute, that is the same thing now that I think about it. # 18 We have already had Cabins slide down mountains and blow up and cut a womans foot at Star Crest Resorts. These are just more of the Secrets of Sevier County.
Look out Seymour looks like we have become the new city dumping grounds too!
Raw sewage spills into Sevier County creek
June 14, 2007
By ERICA ESTEP
6 News Reporter
SEVIERVILLE (WATE) -- A problem at the Sevier County pump station on Boyd's Creek Highway Saturday sent thousands of gallons of raw sewage into Boyd's Creek.
Nearby residents say they are concerned.
6 News found out this is not the first time the pump station has lost sewage.
"I saw raw sewage flowing right out of the top of the pump station out into the creek," says Ben Brabson, whose farm runs behind Boyd's Creek. "I was absolutely shocked."
Sevierville city leaders admit at least 2,100 gallons of raw sewage flowed out of the pump, onto the ground and into the creek.
Brabson says he's concerned about public safety. "All the people that rely on this system through Seymour could have sewage backing up through their houses, schools, businesses, economic disaster, a health disaster."
The issue is a temporary fix to a mechanical problem the city has known about since December. That's when workers set up a bypass pump to transfer the sewage from the original pump to the water treatment facility when the original pump wasn't working properly.
The city workers had been checking the bypass pump on a daily basis, but they weren't able to see the nasty problem that emerged. Floats inside the sewage tank are supposed to rise when the tank is full, triggering the pump, but they didn't.
"Those floats didn't work because there was a buildup of some type of sediment on the bottom of the tank," Sevierville Public Information Officer Bob Stahlke explained.
The city has three alarms in place as well, an audible, a flashing light, and a cellular alarm that rings the main sewer department. All three failed.
"We are doing our best to try to not allow that to happen again," Stahlke said. "We are certainly sorry that it did."
6 News found another problem area while surveying the area around the pump station, another area that had leaked raw sewage.
A manhole a few feet from the pump had what appeared to be the dry remnants of sewage and the ground around it as wet.
6 News brought the discovery of the second area of concern to city workers, who agreed it was sewage, and treated the area with lime immediately.
"It looks like that was a spot that they just did not see," admits Stahlke. "So, I appreciate you bringing that to our attention."
The Tennessee Department of Conservation is investigating the environmental impact.
TDEC confirms this is the fourth time since June 2006 that the Boyd's Creek pump station has lost sewage.
State law requires a moratorium on future sewer hookups if a station has six overflows in a year. The city is working on plans to build a new station and continues to check the current one daily.
TDEC spokesperson Tisha Calabrese Benton has been quoted in the Mountain Press as saying that the 2,000 gallon sewage spill was "minor." I don't think she would consider it "minor" if we could arrange a delivery of 2,000 gallons of raw sewage to her front yard while she and her family were having a cookout. How dare a state employee charged with enforcing the clean water regulations say such a thing publicly. It shows just how much the regulators are in bed with the polluters. Sevier County is seriously lacking in environmental enforcement and this type of collusion does no good at all for TDEC's reputation. We should all be outraged.
There is alot more to this story than just the sewage spill...but nobody even cares about the sewage spill so the "other" violations they aren't speaking of don't even matter. Of course, as usual our mayor has nothing to say.
Developers build one bedroom cabins with large living rooms which can sleep 6-10 with a 750 gal. septic tank, designed for 2 people. When they sell the cabin, the problem now belongs to new owners. No wonder Sevier County has over 50 percent of wells polluted, which is the highest in Tennessee. Codes should restricted renting to more people than the septic was designed for!
Did anyone ever find out where the cement plant is going?
You betcha!! That's why it's important to have a home/property inspection done whenever you buy in Sevier County (and anywhere else for that matter). The cost for an inspection is small relative to the selling price of real estate in this county. Think about it...why wouldn't you want an independent set of eyes looking at the property upon which you intend to spend (in most cases more than) $100,000? It's mind boggling.
Is it a cement plant or a ready-mix concrete plant? They ARE two different things you know.
WHO DO YOU TRUST??? CHARLIE BLALOCK OR WOODS & ATCHLEY
Add Your Comment!