Area growth gets closer look

City manager Ed Craig, left, shows Shelbyville city council members the final draft of the expanded Urban Growth Boundary, while Public Works Directgor Mark Clanton helps to hold up the map. (T-G Photo by Brian Mosely) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Shelbyville's city council will vote this week on expanding the city's Urban Growth Boundary to the north and to create a new planning authority.

City manager Ed Craig said county mayor Eugene Ray has asked that each of Bedford's municipalities submit a request to them to have their planning commissions become regional planning commissions.

Craig said that means that areas within a town's Urban Growth Boundary would be subject to that city's subdivision regulations.

"As development occurs within our Urban Growth Boundary, our planning commission can ensure they comply with our sub regs, so that when we annex those areas, they are up to our standards," Craig said.

The county will still have zoning authority, but zoning requests would go through the city planning commission, Craig explained.

Mayor Wallace Cartwright said that "regional planning is something that Wartrace and Bell Buckle have been pushing for."

The other matter the city would have to approve is Shelbyville's expanded Urban Growth Boundary (UGB).

The growth plan, drawn up by the design firm of Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon (BWSC), calls for the city's UGB to be expanded northward.

Charles Goforth of BWSC said last year that in the next 20 years, half of the growth that is projected for Bedford County will be in Shelbyville, mostly in the region near the new Heritage Medical Center and Shelbyville Municipal Airport.

Planned growth areas have already been proposed to the county by BWSC as well.

The only change to the Shelbyville map is due to a request by Bell Buckle for a small section of Webb Road north of the Shelbyville airport and connected to Highway 231 North excluded because they didn't want to see the area leading to their town to have commercial growth.

"They want to preserve that rural character they have," Craig said.

The master plan is intended to be an update to the original plan drafted by the county and its municipalities to comply with Public Chapter 1101, which requires cities and counties to formulate a 20-year plan indicating how they are prepared to grow and develop as time progresses, and to identify means of providing public utilities to those growth areas.

The plan also includes a list of goals and objectives for Shelbyville, such as expanding industrial development, improving the physical appearance of the entrance points to the city, promoting the health, safety and general welfare of the community, improving the quality of life for existing and future city residents, and maintaining high standards for future development.

The city council meets Thursday at the City Hall Annex at the police department at 6 p.m.