Blount County Board of Zoning Appeals approves special exception for convenience store with fuel sales on U.S. 411, with conditions

At a meeting of the Blount County Board of Zoning Appeals, members voted to approve a special exception allowing a convenience store with fuel sales to be built at 6040 U.S. Highway 411 South (Map 110 Parcel 2). The approval is conditioned on a preconstruction meeting, a revised lighting plan, a detailed buffering plan and all applicable permitting from the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), and county permitting, staff said.

The parcel is zoned R-1, where a convenience store with fuel sales is not a permitted use but may be allowed by special exception under the county zoning ordinance. County planning staff (identified in the meeting as Cameron) told the board that the ordinance sets four requirements for such an approval in R-1: the site must have frontage on an arterial or collector road (which staff said this parcel does), the lot must be at least one acre (it is), the structure must be no larger than 4,000 square feet (plans show it is smaller), and a buffer between the commercial use and adjacent…