Please see attached PDF letter requesting that you recommend to Knox County Commissioners that we retain our existing Use on Review Appeal Process View Attachment
The Board of Town Hall East urges you to retain our existing Use on Review Appeal Process. 1. Appealing through the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) saves time and money. The BZA typically takes one or two months, Chancery Court takes twelve months or more. Less time equals less money spent. 2. BZA decisions are usually accepted by both parties: 69% of the BZA decisions were acceptable to both parties. (There have been sixteen cases since 2008, of which five continued to court and eleven did not.) 3. As a quasi-judicial body, the BZA hearing record carries a lot of weight, yet is flexible enough to find legal compromise. Chancery Court is more limited. BZA modified almost one-third of the sixteen appeals heard by BZA since 2008. Of these modified decisions only one was further appealed to court (the court upheld the BZA). 4. There are many types of Use on Review categories. There could be unintended and unforeseen consequences should the BZA appeal process be removed.
The existing Use on Review Appeal Process using the BZA works well. Removing the BZA and requiring all appeals go directly to Chancery Court slows and complicates the appeal process for all parties. Rather than "streamlining the appeal process," it will make it more formal, expensive, and time consuming.
