City of Alcoa v. Blount County
| Decision Date | 02 June 1983 |
| Citation | 658 S.W.2d 116 |
| Parties | CITY OF ALCOA, Alcoa Regional Planning Commission, City of Maryville and City of Maryville Regional Planning Commission, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. BLOUNT COUNTY and Blount County Regional Planning Commission, Defendants-Appellants. 658 S.W.2d 116 |
| Court | Tennessee Court of Appeals |
William B. Felknor, Jerry G. Cunningham and Michael L. Flynn, Maryville, for defendants-appellants.
M.H. Gamble, Jr., Robert N. Goddard, Roy D. Crawford and Duncan V. Crawford, Maryville, for plaintiffs-appellees.
This action was instituted by the Cities of Alcoa and Maryville and their Regional Planning Commissions challenging the constitutionality of Chapter 181, Private Acts of Tennessee for 1980. The chancellor declared the Act unconstitutional on the ground that it violated Article 11, Section 8 of the Constitution of Tennessee, 1 requiring the enactment of general laws and forbidding invidious or discriminatory class legislation. We affirm.
The private act in dispute authorized the Board of County Commissioners of Blount County to create a county planning commission and vested the proposed commission with all of the "authority, duties and responsibilities granted to a regional planning commission by the various sections of the Tennessee Code Annotated" and with "sole and exclusive planning and platting authority within a region, including the whole of Blount County excepting the territory within the municipal limits of incorporated municipalities."
On June 8, 1956, the Tennessee State Planning Commission, pursuant to the authority vested in it by Tennessee Public Acts, created a Blount County Regional Planning Commission composed of the territories of Blount County outside the corporate limits of Maryville. On May 1, 1959, at the request of the Blount County Court, the state planning commission abolished the commission by resolution. On May 19, 1959, the Tennessee State Planning Commission, acting under the authority of then Tennessee Code, Sec. 13-107, established by resolutions the Alcoa Planning Region and City of Maryville Planning Region and designated the respective municipalities' planning commissions as regional planning commissions for the municipalities "with territory adjoining but outside said municipality no part of which is more than five (5) miles beyond the corporate limits". On October 30, 1967, Tennessee State Planning Commission, pursuant to authority of then T.C.A., Secs. 13-107 and 13-201, re-established a Blount County Region "comprising all of the unincorporated territory of Blount County except that presently under the jurisdiction of the Maryville Regional Planning Commission and Alcoa Regional Planning Commission, it being provided that in the event of the retraction of the boundaries of the Maryville or Alcoa Regions, any territory relinquished shall immediately and without further action become part of the Blount County Planning Region," and created by resolution a Blount County Regional Planning Commission with the described jurisdiction.
The chancellor, after an evidentiary hearing, said:
It is clear from the foregoing that the legislature, by the provisions of Title 13, Chapters 1, 2 and 3 of Tennessee Code Annotated, has provided for a general scheme or plan for the creation and operation of regional planning commissions and, as such, is applicable to all counties and municipalities alike who elect to come within its terms.
While the statutes do not mandate the appointment of municipal planning commissions as regional planning commissions, nevertheless, the opening therefor is granted to the State Planning Commission upon the request by the local municipalities and, once exercised, furthers the general scheme and plan of the general law uniformly throughout the State.
There can be no doubt that Chapter 181 of the Private Acts of 1980 is clearly in conflict with the general law as said act purports to vest in Blount County Board of Commissioners the authority to create a County Planning Commission coextensive with the area of the County, except for the municipalities, and grant to it all rights, duties and authority granted to regional planning commissions by the general law. The effect of this act, as applicable to the City of Alcoa and the City of Maryville Regional Planning Commissions, is to summarily remove their, quote "regional jurisdictions," from them and vest the same in the newly created Blount County Planning Commission.
This must be viewed purely and simply as an attempt by the legislature to suspend the general law, with respect to Blount County, by private act, and which cannot be done constitutionally unless there can be demonstrated a rational basis for treating Blount County differently from all other counties in Tennessee.
On appeal, defendants concede the private act is literally in conflict with the general law but charge the chancellor ignored the gloss placed upon the constitutional provision for "general laws" that it be "mandatorily applicable" before a conflicting law will offend the Constitution, and insist the enabling legislation for the creation of planning regions and regional planning commissions is not mandatorily applicable to all counties.
Article 11, Section 8 of the Tennessee Constitution has been construed to apply to special legislation which affects a municipality or county acting in its governmental capacity. Brentwood Liquors Corp. of Williamson Cty. v. Fox, 496 S.W.2d 454 (Tenn.1973); Blackwell v. Miller, 493 S.W.2d 88 (Tenn.1973). While it is difficult to reconcile the myriad decisions on the issue, the Supreme Court has held that where there is no general state law which is mandatorily applicable, the General Assembly has almost unlimited discretion to enact private legislation affecting structure and organization of local governmental units. Rector v. Griffith, 563 S.W.2d 899 (Tenn.1978).
The test enunciated by the Rector court is whether the legislation offends any general law which is obligatory or violates any uniform state policy. The Rector court upheld a private act altering the number of commissioners and changing the selection process of the commissioners of a utility district which had been created in 1958 pursuant to the Utility District Law of 1937. The court concluded the general act was not mandatorily applicable state law since there were numerous methods for selecting utility district commissioners around the state. The court observed:
"It is apparent that almost every conceivable method of selection of boards of commissioners of...
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