Rutherford County officials discuss planning for rural growth and development

Rutherford County officials met Thursday to discuss the crafting of a new plan to guide fast-growing suburban development outside the cities and preserve rural farmland .

The work session included the elected Rutherford County Commission and the appointed members of the Rutherford County Regional Planning Commission and the PlanRutherford Steering Committee that's been working on the new comprehensive plan.

The meeting was at Middle Tennessee State University's School of Concrete and Construction Management Building.

'All about the money': Murfreesboro residents irritated by heavy industrial zoning plan

Loss of farmland: 'We have been overtaken by the growth'

Hay farmers such as Michael Sliger hope the county officials will craft a plan that will "preserve the lifestyle," he said after he sat in the audience with his wife, Madge, of a recent PlanRutherford Steering Committee meeting.

"We had to shut down our family (Caffey) dairy farm," Sliger told the committee members. "The farming community has been totally impacted."

Commissioner advocates for agricultural zoning

The fast-growing county had "55 grade A dairy farms that used to exist in 1980," said Jeff Phillips, chairman of the county commission and a retired Human Resources director at the Heritage Farms Dairy processing plant in Murfreesboro.

"We’re down to zero," Phillips said.

Phillips also serves on the county's regional planning commission. He's been an advocate for the county to establish agricultural zones in the outer rural areas that give farmers incentives to continue farming with lower property tax rates.

Sliger, who farms more than just his own land, said he hopes the county officials will have incentives that help both farmers and land owners for agricultural uses.

Phillips said the goal is for the county to establish a plan with a vision of the future that's well defined. This means focusing on residential, industrial and commercial growth being closer to the cities while preserving agricultural areas.

The county should move away from zoning all areas residential because much of the rural parts of the county lacks the sufficient roads , drainage ditches, schools and other infrastructure to serve the added residents, Phillips said.

The revenues from many residential developments are not covering the added costs to provide the services, Phillips said.

"None of what we’re doing is looking for the long-term best interest of the citizens of the county," Phillips said.

Fellow County Commissioner Pettus Read, who's also chairman of the county's regional planning commission, agreed more efforts are needed to preserve remaining farmland rather than continue to approve plans bringing in more rooftops.

"You can lose something if you're not careful," said Read, who farms hay on 40 of the remaining 170 acres of farmland that belonged to his maternal grandparents.

Read also noted the he grew up milking cows when dairy was the top industry in Rutherford County.

New plan must consider property rights: 'A farmer's land is his 401K'

County officials also must consider property rights. Farmers, for example, may need to sell property to fund their retirements, suggested Rhonda Allen, a former county commissioner who's serving as the chairwoman for the PlanRutherford Steering Committee.

Allen recalled how former county commissioner Will Jordan used to say that "a farmer's land is his 401K."

Jordan grew up on a dairy farm operated by his late father, Ed Jordan, before the Murfreesboro government purchased most of the property off Cherry Lane on the northside of the city and now uses the land for soccer fields and the release of repurified water from the government's sewage treatment plant.

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Meeting to plan Rutherford County land use

Rutherford County officials will meet for a work session to discuss a new plan for future land use at 6 p.m. Thursday (July 11) at Middle Tennessee State University's School of Concrete and Construction Management Building.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Rutherford County officials discuss planning for rural growth and development