Withdraw The Signal Mountain Rezoning Proposal

  • Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Last night at a Signal Mountain Town Council hosted informational meeting concerning a re-zoning scheme that would lower the lot size on Signal Mountain from 1/2 an acre to 1/4th an acre, Commissioner Bill Wallace and Mayor Dick Gee both stated that withdrawing the re-zoning proposal would be preferrable than going forward with the re-zoning effort. Since the re-zoning down-sizing of lots from 1/2 an acre to 1/4th of an acre was initially proposed to help out a widow on Signal Mountain who was in dire straights, and since this woman has moved on, and she is no longer requesting the change in zoning, the commissioners stated that there was no longer a reason to change the zoning on Signal Mountain, especially since the Signal Mountain town councilmembers have met with an incredible resistance by their citizens to such a change. In fact at the Town Meetings for the most part, the only defenders of this change have been builders, realtors and developers. 

Unfortunately Commissioner Howley and Dr. Spalding were a no-show at the meeting, which is a loss for them since it was an opportunity for citizens to give in-put to their elected officials. Bill Lusk could not attend because of a sickness in his family. Bill Lusk is the only commissioner squarely against such a down-sizing in lot size. 

Although Bill Wallace and Mayor Gee took the position they did about wanting to withdraw the re-zoning proposal, they did not commit to voting against it. This fact is troubling because they both agreed that creating smaller lot sizes would put our already at capacity schools at risk of over-crowding. The over-crowding of schools could put some of our students in trailers, it could also open the Signal Mountain High School students to being re-zoned elsewhere or devastating teacher to student ratios in that school. These commissioners agreed that at the present time we do not have the sewer capacity for greater volume, which more density would create. They also acknowledged that we only have one main road going up and down Signal Mountain, and it is fragile, which at the present density is at risk of another collapse. 

I hope that Bill Wallace and Mayor Gee will take the next logical step, since they were both in agreement that the re-zoning proposal needed to be withdrawn, that they will either do so for the good of the community they represent, or that they vote against it. The citizens are against higher density with all the complications that greater density entails, so I hope they will listen to their constituents and do the right thing. 

There is another informational meeting scheduled, and I do hope that Chris Howley will attend. He has children in the school system so it would seem that he would have a vested interest in not over-crowding these schools. I hope to see Dr. Spalding as well, because since he is trying to allow a change in signage on Signal Mountain with lighted blinking signs up here, there were many citizens that wanted to express their disapproval of this initiative. 

Rachel Miller
Signal Mountain

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