The Franklin Town Council is pressing forward with its effort to regain a vote on the county Planning Board.
In February, the Macon County Board of Commissioners voted to reduce the number of Planning Board members from 11 to five members and approved new bylaws in March. As part of the restructuring, the Town of Franklin’s and Town of Highlands’ seats on the board were designated as liaisons or advisory, meaning they have no vote.
Franklin Mayor Stacy Guffey brought up the issue during Town Planner Justin Setser’s report at the Town Council meeting on April 6. Setser has served on the board since 2014.
“The people who live inside the city limits are town taxpayers and county taxpayers, and they deserve some voting representation on the Planning Board,” Guffey said.
Town Council member Rita Salain asked if the town should try to get its vote back, and the mayor said it would be up to the board. “I think we need to move forward on that,” Salain said.
Vice Mayor Michael Lewis said it sounds like a voting block. “Those people don’t just vote in town, they vote in county elections too."
Setser noted there are county ordinances that are enforceable inside the town limits.
During the council’s special meeting on Monday, April 20, the council approved a resolution stating that the Town of Franklin requests that the Board of Commissioners “reconsider and reverse its decision, restoring the planning representatives from the Town of Franklin and the Town of Highlands as full voting members of the Macon County Planning Board,” and that “the Town affirms that fair and reciprocal representation for all county taxpayers, including those living within municipalities, is essential to transparent, collaborative, and effective planning.”
The resolution goes on to state that the town is “ready to work in partnership with Macon County to strengthen coordination, trust and shared decision-making for the benefit of all residents.”
Guffey said he had spoken to Highlands Mayor Patrick Taylor prior to the meeting, and their town board had considered a resolution at its meeting last week but did not take action on it.
The Macon County Board of Commissioners appoints two people to the Franklin Planning Board to represent the Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ), and both those people have voting rights on the town’s planning board.
When the issue came before the commissioners in February, Chair Josh Young said, “A lot of folks in the rural part of this county look at the government as authority and when you have employees as voting members on a board, let’s say a five-member board, and two government employees are voting members, there appears to be a conflict.”
Council member Travis Higdon is the town’s liaison to the county and will deliver the resolution to the commissioners along with Town Manager Amie Owens.
Look for more coverage from the town’s budget planning session in next week’s edition of The Franklin Press.
Reporter Shelby Powell contributed to this report.