On Facebook I came across something that made me decide to publish the column here with the council members name deleted so you can see what I was trying to say and what is an example of the problem as I see it.
I’ve had something rumbling around in the back of my head and it simply has not settled down. A statement made in the [redacted] Smyrna Town council meeting needs to be addressed. I was surprised and a bit disappointed to hear what [redacted] said that evening.
The Division Street church of Christ is moving ahead with its plan of moving the "Tipperary" one room school house to a town property to preserve it. [redacted] commented that the town was of the mind that the church was just in the informational phase. It seems the church is moving forward with fundraising to move the building and now the town is in the position of not having budgeted the money to deal with their end of this historical preservation project.
It was during Council member [redacted] addressing the issue that [redacted] said “a lot of the people that have called me didn’t feel like that the parks were a place to put it, a lot of them indicated that they felt like that the building, as a whole, not just the back portion of it, held historical significance sitting just exactly where it is and the way it is, and it’s not..it’s not for us as the town of Smyrna the council or whatever to tell anybody what they can do with their property or whatever…”
I’m happy that a private organization is attempting the use private money to save part of the history of Smyrna I was rather bothered by the last part where the innocuous comment that the town does not tell people what to do with their property flies in the face of reality.
During the recodification of 2007 the town seemed to be an a regulatory ‘buzz’ passing new laws left and right telling us what to do with our properties. They told us what to do when they added bush height limits near windows, and parking vehicles on certain material. They really enjoyed the governmental ‘high’ of running tow trucks off of people’s property and making people moves their own school buses behind their houses.
Of course controlling items ON a property is much different then controlling the property itself. There was the case of a landowner near Front Street who was not allowed to rezone her property to allow a lawyer’s office to move in, thus quashing her sale of the property. They have made so many rules telling us what to do with our properties that one member of the council found himself in violation of some of the sign ordinances and property ordinances during the package liquor campaign.
Maybe some council members feel that they do not tell us to do with our properties. Maybe they say that to their selves as a way to feel better about all the ordinances that they have passed to make Smyrna into Brentwood-lite, but do not expect me to sit and agree with you. You cannot control the minutia of our lifes and then claim not too…that doesn’t pass the sniff test.
Now understand that I'm not talking piles of trash, or a person who decides to open a junkyard in their backyard...but items like this from Facebook by county commissioner Rhonda Petty Allen.
I disagree with the Town regarding their interpretation of a zoning ordinance that prevents the return of our weekly produce vendor to The Market. Respected unnamed Town Officials agree with me that there is a flaw in this ordinance. If you would like to see produce return to downtown, please make your feelings known to the Town Planner or any Council Member. Hopefully, this will expedite amending the ordinance.
Everything has to be put into neat controllable columns for the town so in my view the town DOES have a desire by act to control our property.
My humble rant for the day.
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