Monday, Williamson County Chancery Court ruled to dismiss a case brought against Williamson County Government, its Regional Planning Commission and parties associated with the development of the Hillsboro Cove subdivision.
The petitioners, Save Rural Franklin (SRF) and Save Old Hillsboro Road (SOHR), earlier this summer, filed the suit over the controversial development, located on Old Hillsboro Road.
Petitioners claimed that the Regional Planning Commission’s approval of the development was not in line with the county’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan approved by the county commission in 2007, which addresses low-density rural preservation.
Chancellor James G. Martin III heard the case, first brought before the court last summer.
Ultimately, the petitioners asked that development of Hillsboro Cove cease and that the parties not be allowed to continue on the current Final Plat.
The 15 page ruling, handed down at approximately 6:00 p.m. on Monday evening , when it was all said and done, boiled down to this:
- The Court “sympathized with the petitioners” (i.e. SRF, SOHR) but” found no wrong doing in the steps followed by the RPC.”
- The petitioners couldn’t make claims of “assumed” property damage (i.e. You can’t assume that your property will be damaged due to improper drainage)
Williamson Source has been following this story since April of this year. When we received questions from members of SOHR last week as to why construction had begun in Hillsboro Cove and why permits had been given on 4 different lots, with the case still not decided at that time. When we reached out to the county on Friday , Kristi Ransom, County Attorney for Planning and Development gave us the following statement:
It is the County’s position that the Hillsboro Cove development has an approved Final Plat.The Petitioners in this case chose not to seek a Writ of Supersedeas from the Court in order to halt the construction or continuance of the development of the subdivision, as permitted by the Tennessee Code Annotated. As a result, when presented with an application for a building permit or septic permit that meets the regulations and requirements, the County has no authority or grounds upon which to deny an application. The Developer was put on notice of the pendency of the litigation prior to the sale of the lots.
SOHR and SRF didn’t bring this case to court because they didn’t want development in their area. They brought this case to court because they wanted development that was consistent with the area. The original zoning was 1 lot per 5 acres. If that had been the Final Plat, there would have been no argument It’s the Final Plat approval of one house (in this case 6-8 BR houses) per acre that the residents are against.
But, construction continues at Hillsboro Cove as SOHR and SRF have 30 days to decide if they want to move forward with more litigation or just swallow the bitter pill of mass density development that is springing up in their rural area. For some, such as the The Wades who were listed as petitioners in this case and whose property backs up to the development, there is a separate issue of conflicting soil reports. We’ll have more on this on Sunday.
The property in question has been zoned for 1-acre lots since 1988. At no time was it zoned for one home per 5 acres. Please get your facts straight when presenting a story such as this.
Thank you.
Chuck Lynch, adjoining property owner to and welcoming Hillsboro Cove.