Board takes action on 10-ton traffic limit
HUNTSVILLE — The Board of Mayor and Aldermen here approved on first reading Monday night an ordinance that would establish a 10-ton vehicle limit for the city streets.
The board adopted the measure by a 3-2 vote. It will become law following a public hearing and second reading of the ordinance.
As read at Monday’s meeting, the ordinance would prohibit all vehicle traffic in excess of 10 tons, but would include a number of exceptions related to commercial deliveries and other activites related to the conduct of business, school transportation, public utility operations and others. So numerous are the exemptions that it is apparent the new law will not stop most heavy vehicles on city streets. Mayor George Potter made that clear, commenting that the ordinance — which was apparently drafted by the University of Tennessee’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) — is meant to give the town a means of ensuring that streets damaged by heavy equipment are repaired by the owners of the vehicles responsible for the damage.
“If they tear it up, we can make them fix the street,” Potter said. “If we don’t have this [ordinance], we can’t.
“Most of our streets are not built to withstand these big loads over and over and over,” he added. “You can’t just let somebody go out and tear your streets up.”
At the request of Vice-Mayor Mark Love, the ordinance was amended to state a permit requirement for repeated travel on city streets with vehicles in excess of 10 tons.
Alderman Charles “Buster” Sexton objected to the ordinance, expressing concern that the board was “pushing it down people’s throat” and hindering truck drivers.
Casting dissenting votes were Sexton and alderwoman Sharra Crowley.
In a separate order of business, the board voted by a similar 3-2 margin to authorize Potter to present a revised urban growth boundary to Scott County’s urban growth committee.
State law requires towns to have an urban growth boundary for possible future annexations. The 20-year plan — which must be approved by the governing bodies in the towns of Oneida and Winfield, as well as Scott County Commission — makes it possible for properties to be annexed by action of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
However, both Potter and Huntsville’s operations manager, Dean King, stressed that the urban growth boundary does not equal annexation.
“I want to make this clear: This is not annexation,” Potter said.
The revised UGB would make changes on Huntsville’s east end, but would most notably include a large chunk of Helenwood along U.S. Hwy. 27 from the current municipal boundary near Helenwood Main Street north to near Galloway Drive, where it would meet Oneida’s planned UGB, which has also been submitted to the urban growth committee.
“You can’t annex anything without urban growth,” King said. “I’m not saying we ever will; there’s a lot of ground there. But it’s a 20-year plan.”
Love and Sexton cast dissenting votes to the measure. In voting no, Love expressed concern over the opinions of Helenwood residents.
“The community of Helenwood does not want to be taken into the Town of Huntsville, I assure you of that,” Love said. “For that reason, I can’t support it.”