NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Earlier this year, the new Nashville Airport Authority sent a letter and map to Wilson and Williamson counties informing them that the new board would have a say in building and zoning in their counties.
“You’re so close to those counties that a flight starts its descent well over, probably Cookeville in Cumberland County and Putnam County, as it approaches the airport,” said Rep. Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville).
Garrett sponsored the legislation when it was a bill in the last legislative session.
The news comes about a week after the Tennessee Journal broke a story showing that the airport authority board sent a similar letter to the Davidson County Codes Department, saying its say in the area had increased significantly (see video below).
“This law was designed to punish Nashville for past political activity,” said state Rep. Caleb Hemmer (D-Nashville). “It was not designed to help the Nashville airport or the Nashville economy in any way.”
Democrats point to two specific clauses that they say give the new board excessive power.
The first says that just about anything related to the airport – including things like “acquisition of any land,” “development,” “construction” and “acquisition or removal of airport hazards” – “are declared to be public and governmental functions, exercised for a public purpose, and matters of public necessity.
The second says the authority can “regulate aircraft hazards, compatible land use, or other factors affecting the safe and efficient operation of the airport”, as long as it submits a map to a county it’s affected by.
“It’s a very poorly written bill, and those guardrails aren’t in there,” Hemmer said. “The truth of the matter is, we could have a court decision where it applies statewide.”
But Republicans point to another clause near the end that says, “This chapter does not limit the authority of a municipality to regulate airport hazards through zoning.
“They just have to make sure they look at the Nashville airport overlay to make sure they’re not interfering with a flight plan that already exists under that overlay,” Garrett said.
Democrats hit back, saying the language was incredibly vague.
“This could have a very chilling effect on economic development,” Hemmer said. “If I’m a major real estate developer and I’m doing due diligence, just the fact that the state could have this unintended effect on my business outside of the normal process, that could be very chilling.”