Planning commission approves spot zoning for billboard

The Dyer County Regional Planning Commission on Thursday reversed a longstanding policy against "spot zoning" and approved a .2-acre parcel for a billboard on Highway 78.

David Adcock carved the piece from more than 270 acres of property he owns off Harrison Road and Highway 78 to place a 10-foot-by-20-foot billboard to advertise his Dyersburg motor sports business.

The surrounding area is classified Forest, Agriculture and Residential (FAR). The billboard was given a zoning for commercial property.

Board member Danny Wilson, the sole vote against the re-zoning, said the move would likely spur unchecked commercial zoning in the county.

"What's to keep anyone from attaching two acres or four acres or five acres to that two-tenths of an acre and making that commercial in the middle of a residential area? I'm not worried about the billboard, but what comes after. We open this door, we can't close it."

Board chairman Jimmy Putman and members Barbara Johnson, Roy Barker and Larry Maupin voted to approve the rezoning.

Mickey McClure, who surveyed the parcel for Adcock, abstained from the vote.

Adcock said he moved the sign from its original site across from Springhill Baptist Church on advice from county planning chief Daniel Cobb to a spot farther south, away from a curve in the road.

Adcock said the sign "is for personal use as much as commercial. I won't make any money off of it. It's to advertise my business and nothing else."

The sign could be lighted in the future, said Adcock.

The board based the approval on a 1,000-foot-by-100-foot strip zoned for commercial use near the I-155 overpass on Lenox-Nauvoo Road for a cropduster hanger and airstrip.

"But that was wasteland," said Wilson. "No one lives nearby."

State Planner Don Bunton said the move would set a precedent.

"Isn't consistency more important?" said Adock.

The board considered beginning the process to get the billboard specified as a "use permitted on appeal," but the idea did not go forward.

The board also denied a request by Charles Anderson and Thomas Towson to waive a survey.

The state in 2006 deleted the Tennessee law that allowed property descriptions to be altered without a legal survey.

The board in 2007 allowed a request to waive a survey, but Cobb said he was not aware at the time the law had changed.

Anderson and Thomas had agreed on a 25-foot property transfer, recorded the act in the Register of Deeds office and thought the matter was settled until receiving a letter from Cobb that the transfer was illegal since it was not surveyed.

The board also approved by consent adoption of the revised Flood Insurance Maps, which goes before the Dyer County Commission before October for approval.