Planning commission defers Lewis Head Commercial Plaza site plan after neighbors and commissioners press traffic, drainage and buffer concerns

The Sumner County Regional Planning Commission on Feb. 18 deferred for 30 days a by-right Site Plan for the Lewis Head Commercial Plaza, a proposed 10,000-square-foot commercial building on W. Roberts Road, after commissioners and a nearby resident raised concerns about stormwater, traffic study currency, septic and water permits and the adequacy of landscape buffers.

Josh Suddath, Sumner County director of planning and engineering, told commissioners the property was rezoned as a Planned Unit Development (PUD) on March 22, 2021, and the current Site Plan is a by-right exercise of that earlier approval. Suddath said the submitted grading, drainage calculations and detention-pond design “appear to meet” the County’s Stormwater Management Resolution and that the applicant provided a septic soils map and a septic permit application filed with the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC). He added the building would use public water from White House Utility District and that a fire hydrant is located at the northeast corner of the property.

A neighbor, Robert Eadens of 141 W. Roberts Road, opposed the request, citing flooding, concern for well water safety, the proposed plaza use and what he called a lack of direct mailed notice for by-right Site Plans. Commissioners pressed staff and the applicant on several technical points. Commissioner Jon Belcher said the existing landscape buffer along adjacent lots was poorly maintained and asked for a 6-foot berm with plantings "to beautify" and screen the development; he also pressed county staff about detention-pond capacity and the potential for increased runoff velocity.

Commissioner Ron Strahle questioned the relevance of a traffic study conducted in 2020 and said the county owed residents more current information. Commissioners raised that the traffic counts had been normalized using a COVID-era adjustment factor and that some station locations used by the study were not explicitly identified in the report. Suddath and staff said the traffic study had been reviewed and previously accepted by the County and that required road improvements tied to the original PUD had been completed as part of earlier development on the corridor.

Procedurally, Commissioner Adam Issa moved to approve the Site Plan with standard conditions (County Engineer approval of construction plans, land disturbance and state permits, building permit and septic permit from TDEC, certificate of zoning compliance and required sign permits). That motion was not seconded and therefore failed. A later motion by Commissioner Strahle to deny the plan received no second and failed as well. Vice‑Chair Chrissi Smith Miller then moved to defer the application for one month to allow the applicant to provide documentation regarding TDEC septic-permit issuance, a White House Utility District water-availability letter and to present potential buffer/berm alterations. The motion, seconded by Commissioner Deborah Holmes, passed 3–2 (Holmes Aye, Miller Aye, Issa Nay, Belcher Aye, Strahle Nay).

Suddath cautioned commissioners that the application is exercising vested property rights under the earlier PUD approval and that staff’s review found application materials meeting County technical standards. He repeatedly urged any conditions be narrowly tailored so as not to require changes beyond the scope of the vested approval. "When someone is seeking to exercise a constitutional property right that they have, to utilize the property as approved, the cow is out of the barn," Suddath said during the discussion.

What’s next: The applicant has 30 days to furnish the requested documentation and proposed buffer revisions. If the Planning Commission chooses not to further condition a by-right Site Plan, county staff said standard next steps remain: County Engineer approval of construction plans, issuance of any required TDEC permits and a Land Disturbance Permit, then building permits and on-site construction.