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 residential properties must be constructed and maintained in perpetuity.

County planning staff recommended approval subject to the conditions the board adopted. Cameron told the board: "The approval will be subject to a preconstruction meeting, a revised lighting plan ... and a detailed buffering plan in addition to all applicable permitting to include TDOT, TDEC, and applicable county permitting." Staff also said county engineering and the county review process had evaluated the traffic study and drainage at a surface level.

Two nearby residents spoke at the meeting raising site-specific concerns. Justin Hall said the plans show an entrance onto Old Niles Ferry, which he described as a narrow, primarily residential road, and said that increased traffic there was a concern. "Old Niles Ferry is very narrow at that point. It's primarily residential up and down that road. So ... we have a concern just about the increase in traffic coming out of the back of the business," Hall said. He also said the rear of the property holds standing water much of the year and that the developer’s grading plan did not appear to change grades in the wet area where the proposed septic field would be placed: "There's standing water there during a lot of times of the year," he said.

Board members and staff discussed drainage and permitting. Staff said the site plan shows a detention pond at the front of the property and that stormwater is intended to drain from the back to the front and be stored in that pond adjacent to the highway. Staff advised that the developer must obtain necessary stormwater and grading permits and that TDEC would review related permits. Cameron said regarding groundwater and on-site wells: "If there's a well where that septic field's going, it would have to be decommissioned before they would ... install the new drip system." The board noted that county environmental health must approve any septic permit; staff cited Bill Wilson, the county environmental health manager, as the official who would not issue a septic permit until an on-site well or cistern in the proposed septic area was properly decommissioned or otherwise addressed.

Another speaker, William Hall, described the on-site opening as an older, hand-dug cistern and urged the board to ensure runoff and drainage would not affect nearby farm wells. "We just don't want, like, runoff from whatever going down in it because we've got a well up not far from there," he said.

After discussion, a board member moved to approve the special exception with the staff-recommended conditions and with the added direction that the on-site well/cistern be addressed as part of the permitting review; another board member seconded the motion. The board chair called the vote and the motion passed. The board did not provide a roll-call vote tally in the hearing record; the public record indicates the motion carried.

The board’s approval allows the applicant to pursue building permits only after meeting the listed conditions and receiving any required state and county approvals. Staff said final construction permits and any septic construction permit would not be issued until required decommissioning and permitting steps were completed.

The board also completed routine organizational business after the vote.