A nationally recognized research center released a report detailing policy suggestions that Tennessee could implement to help protect property acquisitions and increase housing development.
As a state, Tennessee’s population is estimated to increase to around 8 million people by 2040.
In particular, West Tennessee will see a big influx of people because Ford will begin making electric trucks at BlueOval City in 2027.
The state of Tennessee estimates that by 2045, West Tennessee’s population will increase by more than 176,000 people and need over 70,000 new housing units, according to the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a free-market nonprofit.
Sharon Younger, founder of economic research and strategic communications firm Younger & Associates, who made the population growth estimate, said this prediction is “moderately aggressive.”
“It does make the presumption that our communities will make substantial investments in infrastructure and public services,” she said, according to Tennessee Town & City. “Without these two investments, these numbers most likely would not be achieved. We are seeing there is a path forward to do that.”
According to Tennessee Town & City, the State Data Center at the University of Tennessee’s Boyd Center predicted before the investment of Ford that West Tennessee would have gained “60,001 new residents by 2045.”
The Beacon Center of Tennessee said that with all this expected growth in West Tennessee that “policymakers need to review and address any and all barriers that may impede the construction of new housing, especially zoning restrictions.”
The report “Streamlining Tennessee Land Use Approvals to Address the Housing Crisis,” which was released on October 31, offers solutions that can help areas in West Tennessee and throughout the state cope with the increase in population growth.
Charles Gardner, author of the report and research fellow at Mercatus Center, said that Tennessee zoning is done locally, and it greatly varies from county to county and city to city.
Like many other states, Gardner said Tennessee is experiencing a housing crisis, with prices rising dramatically over the last few years.
To help with this, the report recommends updating Tennessee’s Vested Property Rights Act of 2014 (VPRA), protecting developers from zoning law changes, making the building approval process more efficient, and altering the state’s common law writ of certiorari.
Gardner said these suggestions in this paper are a way to start addressing the housing problem in Tennessee “from the standpoint of either speeding up time frames, lowering costs, and reducing uncertainty just to make the process simpler and faster.”
Gardner said implementing these changes could “potentially” incentivize investment from individual or large-scale builders.
Gardner’s co-author, lawyer George Dean, who practices zoning law, says the VRPA says that if someone gets a building permit or a project with a development plan approved by a board of zoning or appeals or planning commission, then that person is “vested” during that time period. Thus, even if zoning laws change, a person can still proceed with their original plan. According to Findlaw, vested in a legal sense means “fully and absolutely established as a right, benefit, or privilege.”
Dean said he recommends adjusting the law so that “vesting” should begin when the building application is submitted rather than when the license is issued.
If people submit an application and then get approved, then they are “protected from and after the date of the application itself,” according to Dean.
Another suggestion mentioned in the report is to “provide that any zoning in effect at the time a property is acquired cannot be amended in a manner that reduces development potential.”
Things that could reduce development potential include “limiting the number of permitted units, decreasing height limits, or increasing parking requirements, for a fixed period of time after the date of sale,” the report says.
In the Volunteer State, the “process for considering special permits and variances through local boards of zoning appeals (BZA) is slow, lacks specific criteria for approval, and is subject to political pressure,” according to the report.
Dean said that over the 45 years he has been practicing law in Tennessee, it has gotten “more difficult” to build things.
Dean said that network groups have become more vocal, but according to Dean, the legal standards have become “more ambiguous.”
“If someone wants to deny an application, you can use the ambiguity in the language to turn down a project that actually might be a good one,” he said.
“Ambiguity seems to make it much more difficult to get approvals in a timely fashion,” Dean added.
According to the paper, vague language is used to deny permits.
“General health, public safety, and welfare, even if you’re on the zoning board, what does that ultimately mean? And certainly, if you’re the applicant, you also don’t really know what’s going on. What do I have to show in order to comply with that requirement? It’s very difficult to figure that out.”
Gardner said municipalities might write laws vaguely because it leaves them “discretionary judgment” on projects.
“If [municipalities] don’t have clear standards, there’s a wider range of latitude for deciding whether a particular project meets those standards,” he said.
The report recommends allowing administrative officials to approve conditional zone use approvals (CZUA) rather than zoning boards. CZUAs are “a type of contract between a local government and a business or property owner that enables them to conduct operations that current zoning ordinances don’t typically allow,” according to Adobe.
When it comes to the state’s Common Law Writ of Certiorari, the report says it causes “confusion” about how it is written, and many lawyers and judges don’t have much familiarity with it.
Gardner said that Tennessee’s writ of certiorari law is an appeals process that is “somewhat outdated.”
Dean said the writ of certiorari contains “hyper-technical requirements.”
“Make it simple and not have all these crazy rules,” he said.
The report recommends creating a new system for land use approval matters that don’t use the certiorari process, clarifying technicalities, and increasing penalties for localities that fail to hear cases promptly.
Dean said that streamlining the land use approvals could cut litigation time in half. He cited cases he previously worked on where results took two or three years to obtain. According to Dean, if people are not in a “strong financial position,” a case that takes two or three years to complete can hurt them financially.
“Most of the time, my clients, if it comes to litigation, just say, ‘heck with it.’ It’s just not worth it. We will go someplace else,” he said.
According to Dean, “sometimes” members of zoning boards are not “familiar” with the “process that is in front of them.” He cited small communities and rural communities in particular because the boards may only meet once a month or two to three times a year, or these zoning boards may not get many appeals.
Dean said it is harder to get educational support for zoning boards in rural communities.
Dean said zoning board members are trying to do a good thing by donating their time to do “something good for the community.”
To help with this, the report suggests that zoning board members continue their land use education to be more informed about zoning issues.
The report says that to enforce board members’ continuing education, local governments can remove opt-out clauses for training and have these entities keep records of who is going to training. Also, the report recommends preventing members who have missed their required training from voting.
Currently, the average cost of a home in Tennessee is $320,181, according to Zillow.
– – –
Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected]. Follow Zachery on Twitter @zacheryschmidt2.
