Loudon Co. is great, however beware of Lenoir City (Knoxville: apartments, credit)

[CrosbyStills]

While Lenoir City is within Loudon County, they do things a little differently than the rest of Loudon County. Lenoir City is pro-development, trying to squeeze on evermore dwellings per acre. The remainder of Loudon County only allows two dwellings per acre, and limits multi-family dwellings to a certain lot size and requires sewer access (as opposed to duplexes and apartments on septic).

The following is from County Supervisor Van Shaver's blog. If you want to know the down and dirty of what's going on in Loudon County (westerly adjacent to Farragut and Knox County), be sure to peruse his blog - he really identifies the backroom shenanigans.(More Changes).

"In Loudon County's continued efforts to preserve and protect property owners and manage over development, more changes have been made to the planning and zoning policies.
At last week's commission meeting, commissioners voted to prohibit duplexes and multi family housing (three or more units) to be constructed unless public sewer is available. Also, all duplexes and multi family housing will be required to have a minimum of 20,000 sq ft of land per dwelling. for instance, a duplex would require 40,000 sq. ft. of land for construction, basically, nearly an acre for a duplex.

Compare that to Lenoir City where they allow 24 units per acre in R-3.

Another problem that has continued to be an issue in some areas is cell towers. Commission voted to require 1 to 1 fall zone for cell towers. This means, for instance, a 300' cell tower would have to be 300' away from any property line.

More changes and improvements are in the works for planning and zoning regulations to bring even more protections to property owners and to manage growth."

[TheShadow]

I'm not trying to be argumentative, and I'm not sure what the agenda is to publish this here, but it's not entirely true.

I don't know about the actual zoning, but I can cite 3 or 4 different subdivisions within unincorporated Loudon County, not to mention downtown Loudon itself, with more than two homes per acre. Tellico Village (unincorporated Loudon), for one, has over 3,000 homes on 1/4 to 1/3 acre lots (I live in one). I can think of at least 3 other newish subdivisions of SFH with tiny lots of 1/4 acre or less within Loudon County, and not within or even close to, Lenoir City.

[CrosbyStills]

I should probably clarify, the new density rules are recent and due largely the last election where the pro-development politicians were voted out and down en masse.

Here are the details from 8/22/22:

Were Delivering

Link only - Just learned copy/pasting articles is a TOS violation.

[jabogitlu]

That guy's website is a bit schizo. One article he's apparently lauding Loudon County's requirements of nearly an acre (!) of land for a duplex, and in another he's reposting an article (? or writing it? Hard to tell since he doesn't credit anyone) bemoaning Knox County's lack of planning and brain drain due to inability to find housing for recent graduates.

You certainly can't increase the housing supply by requiring 1/2 an acre per dwelling unit. Or, does this guy just want to keep all the growth in Knox County and maintain some kind of paradise for a chosen few over in Loudon?

That's not what Jesus would do.

[CrosbyStills]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

... Or, does this guy just want to keep all the growth in Knox County and maintain some kind of paradise for a chosen few over in Loudon?

That's not what Jesus would do.

I think you are exactly right. He is a slow-growth Loudon County politico (County Commissioner?) who wants people to notice why Knoxville is overcrowded and why Loudon County is not. Agree with his conservative ways or not, at the very least, his blog write-ups are a great insight into County politics and some of the back-room things that go on.