NEWPORT-Amidst a spirited debate, the Cocke County Regional Planning Commission approved a one-lot division of the Marie McCarter Baxter property off Carmack Road at its monthly meeting Tuesday evening.

State Planner Ronda Sawyer disagreed with the commission's action to allow a home to be built on Baxter's 1.005 acres, which are located about four miles southwest of downtown Newport.

"That clearly does not meet the (subdivision) regulations. If you continue to do it (with other properties in the future), you need to change the regulations (to read) the way you want them," Sawyer said.

There was some discussion of changing the county's subdivision regulations and whether the one-acre lot had a 50-foot right of way.

Before the vote, commissioner Lee Hollis asked the board to carefully consider its action in essentially granting a variance, the precedent it would set, and the signal it would send to the community.

Hollis said, "This is not a subdivision of land, but it could become one." He also said, "I didn't mean to be the villain" in bringing up an objection prior to the commission's vote.

Chairman Phil Morgan said common sense should be used in the situation, and favored approving the subdivision to build a home on it. 

When a motion came up for a vote, Hollis said he was "reluctantly" voting "aye".

"I don't want to cause them (the property's owners) any problems...I brought up those objections to get us (members of the Planning Commission) thinking, that's all," Hollis said.

In other action, Cocke County Attorney Fletcher Ervin read aloud the draft of a letter he had mailed out around June 15 to Brad G. Loar of the mitigation division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), located in Atlanta, Ga. The county attorney said he had not yet received a response to his letter from FEMA.

The county is requesting that the federal agency include H&H studies (an abbreviation for Hydrology and Hydraulics studies) conducted by private developers in its new digital flood maps as a way to save money.

H&H studies analyze the potential reach of flooded waterways and where it is safe to build developments in areas where the base flood elevation has not been determined.

The new maps will go into effect beginning Sept. 25.

In the letter, Fletcher contends that the Planning Commission "was informed during 2005 and 2006 meetings with local State Planning Office representatives, that if a private developer conducted an H&H study in unnumbered A zones, that study would be included in the new digital flood maps."

"Unnumbered A zones" are various areas along waterways in Cocke County that have never been surveyed for H&H studies.

The letter continues, "Based upon that representation, the Cocke County Regional Planning Commission convinced three developers to have H&H studies performed on their developments prior to same being approved by the Cocke County Regional Planning Commission."

The letter contends that upon learning the three H&H studies in question were not to be included in the new maps, "a protest was lodged on behalf of Cocke County, Tennessee."

The county protested to FEMA, and as a result, Loar's office apparently approved part of the French Broad River H&H study, but continued to deny the two Gulf Fork Big Creek H&H studies.

Ervin goes on to state in the letter that at their Planning Commission meeting last month, the board was informed "for the first time" that H&H studies would be required for developments in unnumbered A zones in the future, possibly at a cost per property, and "that FEMA would refuse flood insurance for residence(s) in these subdivisions in unnumbered A zones if we (the Planning Commission) approve a subdivision without H & H studies."

State planner Sawyer said that "banks and insurance companies will go by the (new) maps" beginning Sept. 25.

In other action, the Planning Commission approved a flag lot resolution. Under the resolution, the minimum road frontage access standard that is required must be a continuous strip of land not narrower than 50 feet at any point between the existing public and/or private road and the "buildable portion" of the lot.

They also discussed, but did not vote on, a resolution that would allow up to six lots in a subdivision to be on an unpaved road. In that case, it would be a private road. All other subdivision regulations would remain in effect. Either residents or the developer would have to maintain the unpaved road. A road has to be paved before it can get on the official county road list and be maintained by the county.

Planning Commission Chairman Phil Morgan announced that Cocke County Mayor Iliff McMahan Jr. reappointed Jack Clark and Doug Shoemaker to the Planning Commission. The County Legislative Body approved McMahan's reappointments. Clark's and Shoemaker's new terms expire in 2012, Morgan said.

The Planning Commission also approved:

• Don and Gayelynn Norwood's two lots located off North Highway 340 in the 2nd Civil District;

•  John Holloway and Jessica Griffith's two lots in the 8th Civil District; and

• the James and Karol Lindsey property off Point Pleasant Road, in the 3rd Civil District.

The Planning Commission also approved the release of a letter of credit for Eugene Arrowood to seed the Buttercup Fields Subdivision. Arrowood's seeding work was completed, the board was told.

The County Attorney also said he sent two letters to Guy Hommel, Jr., for English Springs, Phase II and Blue Springs, Phase I, to remind Hommel that his two letters of credit for the properties expire Aug. 26.

The County Attorney also notified developers of the Sugar Cove subdivision that is located off Pintaure Way in the 4th Civil District that subdivided property can not be sold unless the plat is first recorded in the Register of Deeds Office.

Sugar Cove is subdivided into nine lots. Ervin contacted Nancy Blachowski, one of the owners of Sugar Cove, and her brother, asking them to remove information from their Website that was promoting the sale of individual lots in Sugar Cove.