public hearings

17 Feb, 2016

Metro Nashville has no plans to shorten notice of zoning hearings

By |2016-02-17T10:24:31-06:00February 17, 2016|Categories: adequate public notice, Open Meetings|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

Metro's law director Jon Cooper said this morning that Davidson County has no plans to shorten the amount of public notice it gives to citizens of public hearings on proposed zoning changes. Metro's own zoning regulations call for 21 days advance notice of zoning hearings, which Cooper says the city has been following for more than 20 years. These local regulations exceed the 15 days required by state law on all other counties in the state. This week, a House committee voted to change a statute established years ago that carved Davidson County out from all other counties, requiring it to give a 30-day notice. The rest of the 94 [...]

16 Feb, 2016

Shorter public notice of zoning hearings draws questions

By |2016-02-17T16:31:51-06:00February 16, 2016|Categories: Legislature|Tags: , , , , , , , |1 Comment

Update 2-17-16. I talked with Jon Cooper, Metro's law director this morning, and he said that Metro Nashville had no plans for changing the way it gives notice for public hearings on zoning changes. Davidson County, for more than 20 years, has followed its own zoning requirements to give at least 21 days advance notice of public hearings, Cooper said. It wasn't until last year during some research that it was realized that state law carved out Davidson County for a 30-day notice in a newspaper of general circulation, he said. The effort to change the statute was to allow for Davidson County's own regulations, which require more notice than required by [...]

11 Feb, 2016

Bill shortens public notice for zoning changes in Nashville

By |2016-02-11T08:22:48-06:00February 11, 2016|Categories: adequate public notice|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

A bill that would shorten the amount of time of public notice for public hearings on zoning changes in Metropolitan Nashville passed unanimously in a key Senate committee and a House subcommittee this week. The bill, S.B. 1809 / H.B. 1848, would change the law that requires Davidson County to provide 30 days public notice prior to a public hearing on an amendment to a county zoning ordinance. It reduces that time to 15 days. Davidson County is the only county in the state required by law to give a 30-day notice, a point made by Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, the bill’s Senate sponsor. “I would classify this as a cleanup [...]

17 Sep, 2015

News stories on state hearings on proposed public record fees

By |2020-11-19T12:26:29-06:00September 17, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: , |1 Comment

A collection of news stories on proposed public record fees in Tennessee, coverage of the public hearings in Knoxville, Nashville and Jackson. KNOXVILLE (Sept. 15) WATE-TV's coverage of the Knoxville public hearing on the proposal to charge fees to inspect public records. WATE (video): Should you have to pay for public records that your tax dollars have already paid for? Knoxville News Sentinel: Proposed records fee met with public backlash WBIR: Room packed with opinions on possible fees for public records WUOT 91.9: Hearings gauge opinion on proposed fees to view public records Roane County News: Public records access fees "akin to a poll tax" NASHVILLE (Sept. 16) Shelbyville Times-Gazette: [...]

28 Aug, 2015

TCOG plans comment for public records hearings: New fees would choke off citizen oversight

By |2015-08-30T03:24:20-05:00August 28, 2015|Categories: fees, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

The Office of Open Records Counsel is conducting public records hearings in Knoxville, Nashville and Jackson in September to ask the question: Should the Tennessee Public Records Act permit the government to charge citizens to inspect public records? The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government believes that charging citizens to view public records would make it easier for some government officials to block citizen access to records. We believe that the result of a change in Tennessee law would be immediate: Some citizens would no longer be able to view public records because they could not afford to pay the fees. The change would roll back Tennessee’s legal tradition of favoring [...]

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