... they definitely undid the laces.

Today (Feb. 18) was the deliberative meeting of the Tullahoma Planning Commission. The most contentious item on the agenda was a request for rezoning a plot of land at the corner of Wilson Ave. and Sharondale Dr. to accomodate two medical practices.

Those in favor of the rezoning were outnumbered at the meeting. Many Sharondale residents spoke out against the plan, and the two main reasons were,  1) the area should remain residential; and 2) there are many other options already available in Tullahoma where the medical offices could locate.

Another item that came up only during today's meeting was a proposed change by rezoning requester Dr. Mark Burson to only rezone a one-acre chunk of the land, and surround it by a small R-1 subdivision consisting of five half-acre lots for houses. While Burson did this in an effort to assuage residents concerns about having a medical office right next to their neighborhood, the reaction was strongly negative.

The commission was about to vote to send the request to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen with an unfavorable recommendation when Burson and his wife requested a 30-day delay so that they could meet again with Sharondale residents and the commission members could consider the updated plan. Any changes to the current plan will need to be ready for the commission's next study session on March 3, with the next vote on the matter to take place March 17.

While this is solely my belief, it does not seem as if this medical office will locate at Sharondale and Wilson. Besides the hurdles the requesters face with the Planning Commission, which would ultimately be "spot zoning," if they did succeed with the rezoning, and built the practice, they'd be surrounded by mostly hostile neighbors. It just doesn't seem likely.

That would be Monday night's meeting of the Tullahoma Board of Mayor and Aldermen. The controversial issue (and there's ALWAYS a controversial issue with this board) Monday was whether it was OK for Mayor Troy Bisby to recuse himself from voting on the issue of changing Board/Mayoral terms from three years to four.

The most conservative wing of the Board, Jonathan James, Janice Bowling, and Scott Shasteen, were upset! Incensed! That Bisby thought he could just recuse himself from a vote on which he wanted to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. The nastiness worked its way down to parliamentary minutiae of whether a vote would have to be taken on whether to allow Bisby to abstain from voting. Tempers flared. On a certain level, it was comical.

The consensus (among the three ultraconservatives) ended up being something in the way of, "Fine. If he doesn't want to vote, then that's fine. We'll just have our vote without him." The vote ended up being 6-0 in favor of the resolution amending the charter to go to four year terms.

I did wonder where things would have gone had the three not relented. Would one of them have held the mayor down while another forced his index finger onto the voting button? I had my camera with me, so I was prepared if it came to that. In the end, they got the same vote they would have had if they'd respected Bisby's desire to recuse himself from the beginning.

Those Planning Commission study sessions can fool you. Sometimes there's excitement, like Monday in Tullahoma. Even though the Commission as a rule does not vote on items during the first meeting of the month, sometimes just the consideration of something that MIGHT happen will bring out the citizens to get their side of the story in. I say, "Huzzah! Good for them!" If you head out of town on Wilson Ave., you'll notice a nice, big, flat cleared field on the corner of Wilson and Sharondale. It's been for sale for a long time, and it doesn't appear likely that someone will buy it and put a house or houses there. To the people who live on Sharondale, that's no big deal. What's wrong with a nice field? It's clean, mowed at a reasonable frequency, and not an eyesore in any way. The owner of the land wants it rezoned to accommodate O-1, or office/medical so it will fetch a higher price on the market. Dr. Mark Burson, a urologist who came to Tullahoma from Atlanta a couple of year ago, wants to buy the lot and locate his business and that of Dr. Ben Mahan, an ophthalmologist, there. Burson assured those gathered that "clean businesses" such as his close to residential areas are quite normal in Atlanta, that they won't mess up traffic, and that he'll put up an "aesthetically beautiful" building. Dr. Mahan's wife, representing her husband, complained that the current location of the practice, across Jackson Street from the high school, is difficult for sight-impaired patients to navigate, implying that Wilson Ave. would be a piece of cake for a blind person to cope with. Tullahoma has long had its share of hero worship for Medical Deities, but the Planning Commission seems to be willing to stand up to what might be a bad precedent. There is no zoning designation that is solely for medical offices. If and when Burson and/or Mahan moved or closed their offices, it wouldn't necessarily be a medical facility that would move in. Maybe a sign maker would move in. Or a day care facility. You can bet your last dollar that if a sign maker or a day care facility wanted to move in next door to any physician's home, they'd be spitting nails over it. About a dozen or so Sharondale residents showed up Monday, but there was little speakiing out on the subject. Burson gave his arguments, but since it was only a study session, the Sharondale residents apparently decided to save their arguments for the public hearing on the matter that is to take place Feb. 18. I, for one, can't wait. What Burson wants is what is known as "spot zoning," or zoning that does not extend naturally from adjoining properties. The legal type of spot zoning is called "non-conforming use" and can be granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals if the Planning Commission turns down the request for rezoning. Planning director Dwayne Hicks rightly warned that a "non-conforming use" designation would be dangerous and could expose the city to legal action, should someone decide that preferential treatment for doctors is not fair. Though nothing was decided Monday, there was a definite cautionary vibe among commissioners, thinking ahead to 2015, or 2020, when perhaps a totally different kind of business could move in, perhaps causing a cascade of zoning changes back toward Tullahoma's commercial center. The deliberative meeting on the 18th should be interesting.

Governor Phil Bredesen gave his State of the State speech on Monday, and with it an outline of his proposed 2008-2009 budget. Tax revenues are down, and apparently the increased tobacco taxes aren't helping as much as everyone expected, so the budget is tight, probably like that of the average Tennessee household. But Bredesen's budget doesn't tap the state's reserves, and doesn't have any new taxes. Actually, the budget looks like the least melodramatic of what awaits on Capitol Hill in Nashville this year. The state Senate is divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans, and since it's an election year - state as well as national - there's bound to be an annoying amount of grandstanding by lawmakers. The late Molly Ivins once said that she never felt a need to write fiction, because the reality of covering state politics always comes through with stories nobody would believe if they were written in a novel.

OK. Occasionally they are. But last night's meeting of the Tullahoma Mayor and Aldermen was town hall politics at its best. Dozens of people showed up to voice their support for the renovation of the D.W. Wilson Community Center, which will include extensive repairs and improvements to the indoor pool. Parents of swim club kids, triathletes, and retirees all spoke to the Board, emphasizing the great importance of modern recreation facilities in improving the lives of everyday citizens. More than one person commented on Tullahoma's ability to draw new residents if the CBAT facility comes to Coffee County. And several commented on how Tullahoma used to be the leader in the area as far as recreation facilities, but now Manchester has a fabulous new Recreation Center that constantly does a roaring business. Triathletes and swim club members must now drive to Manchester to train, and it seemed to be a point of pride that Tullahoma's facilities eventually rival those in Manchester. The Board meetings, on the second and fourth Mondays of the month at 5:30 at the Tullahoma Municipal Building, are open to everyone. Many times only a few citizens show up, perhaps to hear the result of a rezoning request or check up on the progress of TUB's Fiber to the Premises project. But some issues really draw out the crowds. School funding always fills the place up, as do Alderman elections. Clearly, Tullahoma residents believe in the great asset we have with our recreation facilities, and they're ready to get out there in public and make sure those facilities are all that they can be. Not boring at all.