Hendersonville Standard
HENDERSONVILLE WEATHER

Property owners seek to rezone 750 acres for industry use




Proposed Industrial Site

Proposed Industrial Site

A group of more than a dozen landowners are seeking to have around 750 acres of land rezoned from R1A and Agriculture to SP (special provisions) Industrial.

The land is located off of Dobbins Pike, just outside the city limits of Gallatin in the county proper.

Bruce Rainey, who has been hired by the group as a consultant, filed a final application for the rezoning on Tuesday. The matter is on the agenda of the Sumner County Planning Commission to be considered next week.

The property is the same land that the county several years ago considered for an industrial park. Financing and involvement in that proposed project was voted down by the county commission who said they were not on favor of a taxpayer-funded industrial park.

“The county had an interest a couple of years ago, but they no longer have an interest in it and my property owners decided this year to move forward with rezoning,” Rainey said Monday. “My owners have had through their agents, a lot of conversations with foreign countries and large companies and in every case, they have been told, ‘once you get it zoned we will work out the development.’

“All the companies we have talked to are very large and with this type of development, money does not scare them.”

Now being called the Mid Sumner Industrial Park, Rainey explained why the rezoning application includes information in the project narrative section that indicates the county would be contributing to the project; as well as other information such as the need for an overpass at the CSX railroad. Rainey said he included information from the original proposal from three years ago when the county was looking at the site, for reference use only.

“The reason anything is in there from that submittal three years ago is because my land owners had their property tied up for 18 months and couldn’t do anything because the county was looking at the proposal,” Rainey said. “The only thing the owners got was the information they accumulated through their sources and I included that because it was good information as far as utilities and transportation.

“The only people involved now are me and my property owners – they want to rezone their property to SP Industrial so that they can sell the property. There are no local, state or federal agencies involved.”

Group opposes rezoning

Audrey Hesson, spokesperson for Preserve Sumner County – a 501c3 formed in 2016 with the specific mission to “preserve Sumner County historical, agriculture and environmental resources,” said the group is concerned about the proposal.

“The biggest thing is we want is for it to be transparent and to be done accurately,” she said. “Once a master plan is submitted and there is more information, we can move forward. 

“We want the county to coincide with the 2035 master plan for zoning which does not have this area zoned for industrial – we want the plan to be adhered to.”

The Sumner County Planning Commission will meet Tuesday, Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. in the chambers of the County Administration Building, 355 N Belvedere Drive in Gallatin. 

Leave a Reply