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Blount County Planning Director John Lamb held the first of three public hearings Tuesday to determine how the public thinks the county should deal with growth. At least 24 people attended the session.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to revise the county's 1999 Policies Plan and other guidance documents later this year. Lamb is gathering public comment on how the county should address development issues.

Audience member Sonny Day advocates setting specific goals, such as a maximum desirable county population, for long-range planning.

"How do we know if we're passing or failing in Blount County?" he asked.

The idea of a county population cap stirred some discussion among the audience members.

"Would you want 5 million here?" Day asked.

"I'd like to see 150,000 max," Brad Ansley said. "They all should live within the urban growth boundary."

Ansley said the county should find some way to encourage redevelopment within the urban areas of the county.

"Sprawl is a horrible thing for me," he said. "I hate it. The county should do its best to minimize sprawl. We need some kind of incentive to make sure they use (vacant property) before they go dig up some beautiful farm."

Another member of the audience asked whether impact fees should be levied against developers to help pay for expanding the infrastructure.

"The Hunter Growth Study does recommend some impact fees," Lamb said.

Linda King, another audience member, said that retail establishments should be required to fund road improvements needed because of the traffic they generate.

"The retail businesses should have to pay for (improvements)," she said. "They are the ones who are going to be making the money."

Other audience members emphasized the importance of community involvement in the planning process.

"Development pressures here are greater than ever," said Kathleen Skinner, chair of the Raven Society. "We must either take steps now to determine Blount County's future or allow it to be determined for us."

"We want to see the county developed along the lines of the Hunter Growth Study," Joe Gallagher said. "It's up to us citizens to have a say in what kind of county we have ... We don't want it to look like West Knoxville or Pigeon Forge."

Audience member Don Headrick said that property owners have a right to develop their property.

"Don't take that man's property rights away," he said.

Skinner said the Policies Plan has been useful but needs to be enforceable.

"The Policies Plan has been a valuable guide, but only a guide, for land use planning," she said. "The problem is that it does not have the force of law. The plan and its guiding principles should be incorporated into the (county) subdivision regulations and be included in the criteria for subdivision approval."

The five guiding principles of the Policies Plan are:

The rural, small town and natural character of the county should be preserved.

Land use and development should be managed and regulated in order to preserve the quality of our growing county.

The guiding policy in any government actions in relation to the use and development of land should be to limit regulations to specific public health, safety and welfare objectives balanced with responsible freedom in the use of land.

County roads should be improved and maintained to a level consistent with present development and expected future development.

Growth and development should be appropriately matched with provision of adequate infrastructure such as utilities, roads and schools.

The next public input session will be held in August.