Chapter 7
Zoning

13-7-101. Grant of zoning power. —

(a)  (1)  The county legislative body of any county is empowered, in accordance with the conditions and the procedure specified in this part, to regulate, in the portions of such county which lie outside of municipal corporations, the location, height and size of buildings and other structures, the percentage of lot which may be occupied, the sizes of yards, courts, and other open spaces, the density and distribution of population, the uses of buildings and structures for trade, industry, residence, recreation or other purposes, and the uses of land for trade, industry, residence, recreation, agriculture, forestry, soil conservation, water supply conservation or other purposes, and identify areas where there are inadequate or nonexistent publicly or privately owned and maintained services and facilities when the planning commission has determined the services are necessary in order for development to occur. Special districts or zones may be established in those areas deemed subject to seasonal or periodic flooding, and such regulations may be applied therein as will minimize danger to life and property, and as will secure to the citizens of Tennessee the eligibility for flood insurance under Public Law 1016, 84th Congress, or subsequent related laws or regulations promulgated under such provisions. Protection and encouragement of access to sunlight for solar energy systems may be considered in promulgating zoning regulations pursuant to this section.

(2)  (A)  (i)  The transfer of development rights may be provided for in the promulgation of zoning regulations pursuant to this section. The creation, amendment or repeal of regulations, districts or maps providing for the transfer of development rights shall be in compliance with §§ 13-7-104 and 13-7-105. The transfer of development rights shall not be subject to taxation pursuant to title 67, chapter 4 or 6; provided, that any instruments recorded in the county register's office as the result of the transfer of development rights shall be subject to the fees set out in § 8-21-1001. Any regulations authorizing the transfer of development rights shall provide that conveyances of development rights shall be in writing and shall be recorded in the office of the register of deeds and that whenever transferred development rights are allocated to any property, such allocation shall not become effective until the transferred development rights are noted in an instrument or on a plat and recorded in the office of the register of deeds.

(ii)  A town, city, county, a county with a metropolitan form of government, the state of Tennessee, or a not-for-profit conservation or preservation organization may be the receiving entity of a development right without allocating or designating the transferred development right to any receiving property under its ownership or control. A town, city, county, a county with a metropolitan form of government, the state of Tennessee, or a not-for-profit conservation or preservation organization shall be allowed to receive all or part of the donating property's development rights notwithstanding any local zoning regulations pertaining to any required ratio or amount of land area a receiving property must contain in relation to the land area of the donating property or of the total amount of density that a receiving property may obtain from the donating property.

(B)  This subdivision (a)(2) shall be strictly construed with the specific intent to allow a local government to establish its own plan whereby the owners of property in a restrictive area (historical, agricultural, rural area as designated in the county's growth plan, or environmental) can sell the development rights to a developer or another individual and only with the consent of the property owner and through negotiations of development rights in the free marketplace. A property owner may donate, through gift or through testamentary disposition, all or part of the development rights of the owner's property to a town, city, county, a county with a metropolitan form of government, the state of Tennessee, or a not-for-profit conservation or preservation organization.

(C)  It is the legislative intent that the provisions of this section relative to the transfer of development rights are permissive and not mandatory. Such rights shall only be transferred by contract and not by operation of law.

(D)  [Deleted by 2001 amendment.]

(b)  The chief legislative body of any county having a population of not less than two hundred eighty-seven thousand seven hundred (287,700) nor greater than two hundred eighty-seven thousand eight hundred (287,800), according to the 1980 federal census or any subsequent federal census is further authorized and empowered to rezone properties conditionally or based upon contract, where the agreed conditions are designed to ameliorate injuries created by the rezoning to surrounding property interests or to county interests.

[Acts 1935, ch. 33, § 1; C. Supp. 1950, § 10268.1; Acts 1957, ch. 306, § 1; impl. am. Acts 1978, ch. 934, §§ 7, 36; Acts 1979, ch. 259, § 7; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 13-401; Acts 1985, ch. 44, § 1; 1987, ch. 361, §§ 1, 4; 2001, ch. 265, §§ 1-4; 2008, ch. 1150, § 11.]