"Our biggest concern is if we don't approve the variance, we have no zoning, so what keeps a campground and a mobile home park from going in there."
That was planning commissioner Dewayne Baird, explaining his yes vote at the Campbell County Regional Planning Commission's Nov. 2 meeting, as WLAF reported the next morning. The vote went the other way, 7 to 3 with two abstentions. The request in front of the board was not a zoning change or a site plan. It asked to narrow a road standard on Shanghai Road from a 50-foot right-of-way to 40 feet.
If you are looking at land or lake-area property around LaFollette and Norris Lake, that meeting tells you a lot about how this market works. In the unincorporated county, no zoning map sorts land into categories. The road leading to a tract, and how the commission rules on that road, comes much closer to deciding what the tract can become.
The County Map Has No Zoning Layer
Campbell County says so on its own website. Its business page notes that "our county does not have a county-wide zoning commission" and that "zoning ordinances are by municipality." Inside the city limits, LaFollette has its own planning commission, which shapes the city's zoning plan and reviews site plans and rezoning requests. Once you leave town toward the lake, that layer is gone.
Rural land still has rules. Dividing land runs through the county's subdivision review, and Tennessee law sets what counts as a subdivision. The state definition covers any division that requires new street or utility construction, and any division into parcels of less than five acres for sale or building development. In the county, lot splits and new roads are where the rules apply, and the planning commission's monthly agenda is where they are applied.
What a Road Standard Can Do to 525 Acres
The proposal behind the Nov. 2 vote is Crafted Milestone's Elkstone at Lake Norris, on roughly 525 acres in the Shanghai area. The plans changed over the year. One October version had 60 lakefront building lots plus 15 estate tracts of 20 to 40 acres. At the November meeting, developer Phillip Carlyle called 75 tracts "definitely considerable" and described the stakes in one line, as WLAF reported: "right now with zero variance, it's four."
So the difference between four tracts and several dozen came down to ten feet of right-of-way on a public road outside the property. Carlyle said the development "hinged on getting the variance granted." He also said it was his understanding that TVA restrictions on the land to either side limit it to recreational use, which is why the existing road could not simply be widened.
Here is how the request moved through the commission, based on WLAF's coverage:
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| October 2025 | Developers asked to proceed with a 40-foot right-of-way instead of 50 feet; the commission required a traffic study first |
| December 2025 | County planner Jordan Rockwell laid out the two-part variance test |
| May 2026 | A variance request was denied |
| Oct. 7, 2026 | A renewed concept plan and variance request was tabled |
| Nov. 2, 2026 | The variance was denied, 7 to 3, with two abstentions |
One large tract took more than a year of monthly hearings, and each time the question was the road.
Why "It Would Cost More" Does Not Win a Variance
Rockwell explained the standard in WLAF's December 2025 coverage. Two conditions must both be met:
The developer can show that strict adherence to these regulations would cause unnecessary hardship. Unnecessary hardship shall not include financial hardship or additional costs; and the planning commission decides there are topographical or other conditions peculiar to the site and departure from these regulations will not destroy their intent.
The test leaves out the strongest reason most landowners have for asking. Expense does not count. Rockwell also noted that a standard roadbed is 20 feet wide, which would fit inside 40 feet, but the right-of-way also has to hold utilities and stormwater infrastructure. That is why the remaining width matters. He called Elkstone "the biggest development I have ever seen."
For a buyer, this works in both directions. When you buy near a large rural tract, the rules on the road are the main thing between your land and a big subdivision next door. The Nov. 2 debate showed the other side too. Baird argued that a variance would keep the commission in control of what eventually gets built, and that without zoning the land could go to a use with fewer review points. Both arguments rest on the same fact. Without zoning, the road standard and the subdivision review are where the county has control.
Who Pays When a Road Has to Change
If a narrow road is the limit, the next question is who pays to fix it. At the Nov. 2 meeting, commissioner Lonnie Weldon said he had spoken with County Road Superintendent Ron Dilbeck, and that the county could not afford improvements to Shanghai Road. Carlyle replied that the developer was not asking the county to pay for any.
The road study the developer paid for shows how much work a lake subdivision can trigger miles from the water. As WLAF quoted it, the study recommended realigning Demory Road at Shanghai Road to remove an acute-angle intersection near the Demory Market. It also recommended a center two-way left-turn lane in front of the market and finishing the Demory Road changes together by 2030.
To pay for it, the developers raised REIDA financing. Under the 2025 state law, a host municipality can borrow and issue bonds for infrastructure. Special assessments on properties inside the district then cover the eligible costs and the debt payments. Creating a district requires a petition, public notice, a hearing and a resolution. In WLAF's preview of the meeting, the developer's position was that those payments would fall on the properties that benefit. WLAF also pointed out that the Shanghai Road improvements lie outside the proposed development.
A buyer in any future development financed this way would care about this directly, because the assessment comes with the lot. Road maintenance is a separate question. In the December 2025 coverage, Dilbeck said any Elkstone roads would be inspected before the county accepted them. Accepting a road takes votes from the planning commission, the road superintendent's office and the county commission.
The Small Splits Keep Moving Every Month
While one large proposal took a year, the routine work kept going. At its June 2026 meeting, the commission approved a major lot subdivision on Stone Mill Road, plus minor lot subdivisions on Cara Lane, Wolf Hollow Lane, Hardwood Circle and Twins Cove Circle, Oak Grove Road and Gail Lane. One item was tabled because it needed to show the septic drain field on the lot. At the same meeting, the commission let the county planner approve one-lot subdivisions administratively when all signatures are in place. Those approvals then appear as line items on the next agenda.
In October, the minor lot approvals included Ridenour Lane, The Point at Shanghai, John McGhee Lane and N. Two Rivers Lane, and an item on Stone Ridge Road was tabled.
Those agendas are mostly small splits on existing roads. The one proposal that would have added dozens of lakefront lots in a single approval ran into the road standard first.
Questions to Put to a Parcel Before You Write an Offer
These are due-diligence questions to raise with your agent, surveyor and attorney. They are not conclusions:
- Is the parcel inside LaFollette's city limits or in the unincorporated county? That decides whether a zoning ordinance applies at all.
- Which road gives access, and how wide is its right-of-way? The Elkstone case turned on ten feet of it.
- Is the road publicly accepted and maintained by the county? Acceptance takes formal votes. A private road or easement is a different arrangement.
- What large tracts share the same road? Without zoning, the road standards that limit your neighbor's land also shape what can go up beside you.
- What is on the planning commission's recent agendas? WLAF covers the Campbell County Regional Planning Commission's monthly meetings, including which roads have pending splits.
- Does the property or its neighbor carry TVA restrictions? In the Elkstone case, the developer said TVA restrictions limited the adjoining land to recreational use.
This post is general information about how Campbell County's planning process has worked in recent cases. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, so confirm the rules for any specific parcel with the county planning office and a Tennessee real estate attorney.
If you are weighing a piece of Norris Lake land outside LaFollette and want help checking the road, the right-of-way and the agenda history before you commit, Debra Gauthier will walk through that checklist with you and keep every answer organized as you go. Let's Connect.
