Rezoning request for Tanyard Hill subdivision moves forward

Applicants and county officials also clashed over the rezoning process and driveway visibility concerns

10:13 p.m. July 17, 2026

DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

The Metro Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously Friday, July 17, to recommend rezoning property at 3152 Tanyard Hill Rd., sending the request to the Metro Council for consideration.

Voting in favor were Bobby Carroll, Jim Crawford, Scott Fruehauf, Chairman Dexter Golden, Jimmy Hammond, and Jeff Ross. The request involving Joe Denby and Jennifer Savage covers property identified as Map 037, Parcel 037.00.

Nicholas Northcutt, of Northcutt Surveying, appeared before the commission during the special-called meeting. “The only thing we’re looking to do tonight is a recommendation because it doesn’t fit the current zoning,” Golden said. “What he would need to do is go to the council to be rezoned.”

The proposed subdivision would create lots smaller than the five-acre minimum allowed under the property’s current zoning.

The Metro Council is expected to consider the rezoning on first reading Monday, July 20. A second reading would be required before the zoning change could become final.

“We are only a recommendation board,” Golden said. “We can’t change our zoning. That is strictly up to the council.”

Commissioners also agreed that a subdivision plan previously presented could serve as the project’s sketch plan. If the council approves the rezoning and the proposal clears other required reviews, the applicants could return to Planning and Zoning with a preliminary plan rather than restarting the subdivision process.

Golden said the commission could consider the proposal as a preliminary plan once the required checklist and departmental reviews are complete.

Applicants question rezoning process

Much of Friday’s meeting focused on confusion over how the rezoning and subdivision applications had been handled.

Northcutt said the applicants first attempted to seek rezoning in March but were told they needed a signed subdivision plat before they could apply. He said that instruction led them to complete surveying and soil work, set property corners, and advance other parts of the subdivision plan before knowing whether the council would approve the zoning change.

“This has been kicked down the road here two, three, four months now,” Northcutt said.

He said the applicants gathered nearly all the required signatures before being told that the property had to be rezoned first. “We came back in, spent two hours running around getting signatures, and then submitted it,” Northcutt said. “Then we were told, ‘Oh, you have to rezone it first.’”

Northcutt said the process order placed the applicants at financial risk. “You don’t want to spend money on a surveyor,” he said. “You don’t want to spend money on a soil scientist and all that stuff if they’re not going to rezone you and allow you to do the division in the first place.”

He said rezoning requests in other counties often begin with an application, a tax map, and a rough sketch of the proposed lots. More detailed subdivision work follows the zoning decision.

Northcutt also said the county’s regulations address minimum lot sizes and subdivision requirements but do not clearly explain how to submit a rezoning request. “In terms of what you’re supposed to do for a rezoning request, there are no instructions in there for that,” he said.

Ross urged the county to resolve the rezoning question before the applicants spent more money. “You need to go ahead and let them take it before the council and get it resolved,” he said.

Northcutt asked that the record reflect that the applicants had followed instructions they received from the county office. “It was y’all’s office that advised us down this path,” he said. “In your zoning ordinance, there are no protocols for the submission of a zoning request.”

Golden countered that the applicants had not obtained a copy of the county’s subdivision regulations before beginning the process. “If you don’t have a book, go obtain a book where the rules are,” Golden said. “We’ll try to get better as we’re here and we grow.”

Northcutt pushed back, saying the regulations would not have answered the applicants’ central question because they do not outline the procedure for requesting a rezoning. “If I would have obtained it, though, there’s no instructions,” Northcutt said. “Y’all should be on the same page about what’s being put out of your office.”

Driveway visibility remains unresolved

The meeting also included a disagreement over driveway access near a curve on Tanyard Hill Road.

Northcutt said earlier discussions included removing a barn and establishing a sight easement to improve visibility for a proposed driveway. He said a barn and a tree had been removed. “I did a lot of work based on our conversation,” Northcutt said.

Highway Department Superintendent Shannon Cauble said the barn was only part of the visibility concern. She said vegetation or future construction could again obstruct the view. “We’re not going to have to sue somebody for planting rose bushes that get too high,” she said.

An engineer is expected to review the proposed driveway and available sight distance.

“We can solve that with an engineer doing the traffic study,” Denby said. “We’ll let him run the report.”

No public comment was taken during the special-called meeting. The unanimous recommendation now moves to the Metro Council, which is scheduled to consider the rezoning on first reading Monday.

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