June 10, 2025
By: Dwayne Page
County Zoning. Where does it go from here?
If a plan ever moves forward to establish county zoning outside the unincorporated areas, it’ll have to be enacted by the county commission.
According to Tommy Lee, Director of the Upper Cumberland Development District, who serves as UCDD staff planner and advisor to DeKalb County, the county commission already has a proposed resolution and county zoning map prepared by the DeKalb County Regional Planning Commission and now its up to them.
During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting of the planning commission, member Beth Pafford asked if the planning commission study would continue.
“Are we not going to do any more work on zoning until the commission looks at it,” asked Commissioner Pafford.
“We have gone as far as we can go without guidance from the county commission,” said Lee. “We have established the resolution and gave them a map and now in my opinion the ball is in their court and if they want us to continue, we will and if they don’t, we won’t,” said Lee.
County Mayor Matt Adcock explained that the county commission last month basically tabled the issue.
“At our county commission meeting (In May) we presented the idea (county zoning) and wanted a recommendation about what they felt like needed to be done with zoning and if they liked the map or didn’t like it and any suggestions going forward. The topic got tabled,” said County Mayor Adcock.
In April the planning commission sent a proposed resolution and map establishing zoning to the full county commission for review. The idea was if the county commission still wanted to move forward with zoning, changes could be made and sent back to the planning commission to improve the plan.
During the monthly meeting in May, the county commission made no decision on a review or recommendation. Two separate votes were taken but neither failed to get a majority from the 14-member body.
The first motion was made by Commissioner Larry Green to “send it back to the planning commission for further study”. Commissioner Tony Luna offered a second to the motion. Although the vote was 7 to 4 in favor it failed because 8 votes (of the 14-member commission) were needed to make it official.
Commissioner Tony Luna later in the meeting moved to table the discussion until the next county commission workshop in June and Commissioner Green seconded the motion. But again, the result was 7-4 in favor with 8 votes needed for approval.
The issue may still be revisited by the county commission later. If not, a proposal for county zoning could be on life support