Washington County approves resolution to take back planning, zoning jurisdiction in unincorporated areas

The Washington County Commission approved a resolution to regain planning and zoning jurisdiction in unincorporated areas of the county at its Monday meeting. The commission also approved up to $800,000 in spending to replace the Washington County Sheriff's Office data center. Planning and zoning The commission's approval of the resolution — in support of a bill passed by both the senate and house during the 114th General Assembly — gives Washington County jurisdiction regarding zoning, land use and development regulations in all unincorporated areas within county limits. The bill has not been signed by Gov. Bill Lee and will not go into effect without his signature. If the bill becomes state law, the county will gain jurisdiction of all planning and zoning decisions in unincorporated areas including within Johnson City's and Jonesborough's urban growth boundaries. Washington County's Planning Director Angie Charles said the resolution does not do away with the municipality's urban growth boundaries, rather it returns "zoning and subdivision development authority to the county in those areas, but the boundaries themselves will still exist." The bill does not give the county planning and zoning jurisdiction within city limits of Jonesborough and Johnson City. Additionally, it would not change any planning and zoning regulations the municipalities already have in place. Additionally, the bill authorizes the county and the municipality to enter an interlocal agreement to complete or slowly cease any development, infrastructure or land use obligations for projects approved before the passing of the resolution. WCSO data center replacement The commission approved a resolution allowing the WCSO to spend up to $800,000 of capital project funds to replace its data center. The onsite data center runs 12 major servers used daily. These servers contain record management, agency file storage, domain controls, network access, case files and more. The server system upgrade was originally included in the WCSO's upcoming fiscal year budget, but with costs increasing rapidly the need needs to be met sooner. Within the WCSO upcoming fiscal year budget, the department budgeted $420,000 to replace the system based on a quote received in February. A quote received this month showed an increase of almost double what the office budgeted for due to scarcity of parts needed to upgrade the system because of the growth of artificial intelligence. Washington County Sheriff Keith Sexton came to the budget committee earlier this month to request the replacement be made during the current fiscal year with pricing increasing rapidly. Other agenda items The commission approved 17 out of the 18 resolutions on the meeting's agenda. Other resolutions approved by the committee include, but is not limited to, a memorandum of understanding with the county and Families Free to provide additional services under WCSO's behavioral health program and the spending of up to $57,488 to purchase new lock box systems for county volunteer fire departments. The commission deferred a resolution back to the county owned property committee which would have allocated a portion of the county farm to be used by the highway department. Washington County Commissioners Jodi Jones and Josh Edens are a part of the committee. They said during its last meeting there was no discussion held on the resolution due to limited time and they both feel the time was needed. The resolution will be put on the agenda for the committee's upcoming meeting on June 4 at 4 p.m. in the Washington County Courthouse. The commission will hold a public hearing for the upcoming fiscal year budget on June 18 at 9 a.m. as well as a special called meeting to discuss the FY27 budget further at 5 p.m. in the George P. Jaynes Justice Center.