The Wilson County Board of Zoning Appeals on a voice vote denied a request to waive the county’s paving requirement for a commercial storage lot at 6060 Highway 109 North, after staff urged denial and a nearby resident warned of contaminated runoff.

Staff told the board the site is zoned C-3 commercial and that the county ordinance requires paved parking and drive aisles for parking‑lot uses. The applicant, Billy Jones, told the board the area is used primarily to store trailers long term rather than as a high-turnover parking lot and said he discussed the site with stormwater staff. Staff recommended denial because the ordinance language requires paving for parking and drive aisles for that use and because a full site plan review will be required by the Planning Commission if the site expands.

At the public‑comment portion of the hearing, Reagan Fuquay Saar of Northern Road said she has observed asphalt millings migrate into a drainage creek that leads to Spence Creek and Old Hickory Lake. Saar, who said she has a background in landscape design and construction management, asserted the millings were not being hardened when placed, and she described them as containing bitumen and reporting that they can leach heavy metals (she named cadmium, thallium and zinc). Saar urged the board to consider the water‑quality consequences and recommended installing subsurface drainage that routes stormwater to Spence Creek rather than allowing the millings and storm runoff to reach the lake.

Board members and staff clarified that the question before the appeals board was whether the paving requirement should be waived on the site plan — not the later site-plan approval itself. Staff reiterated that even if relief were granted for paving today, the site plan process would still require stormwater controls and detention if paving produced impervious surface changes.

A board member moved to deny the variance request based on staff recommendation; the motion passed by voice vote and the applicant’s request to waive paving requirements for the storage‑lot area was denied.

What happens next: the applicant will still need to pursue any expansion through the Planning Commission with a site plan; neighbors and the board discussed stormwater review and the role of the county’s stormwater department during any subsequent permitting.

Transcript provenance: reporting in this article is drawn from staff recommendation and testimony in the public hearing for case 4349 (topicintro SEG 500; topfinish SEG 911).