An inspection before the permit
Smyrna’s Public Works Department runs the town’s Storm Water Management Program, and it inspects a site on the ground before it issues a grading permit. The town also publishes land disturbance guidelines for sites under one acre, so small jobs have rules of their own here.
The inspection happens before approval, so the town sees the lot as it is, creek banks and low spots included. The checklist it works from was last revised in 2007, and it still sets the order of work.
Floodplain, stream bank, sinkhole
The town’s site inspection requirements name three conditions that change the order of work. If a project affects a floodplain, a stream bank, or a sinkhole or open fracture, FEMA and TDEC have to be contacted first. A sinkhole needs remediation or protection as TDEC directs. Which of the two applies is TDEC’s call, not the owner’s or the contractor’s.
Smyrna’s guidelines also hold a 60-foot natural riparian buffer along impaired or high-quality waters. Clearing to the edge of such a creek is off the table, and the grade has to stop where the buffer starts. Stewarts Creek and the Stones River are the first waters to ask the town about.
Stones River, Stewarts Creek and an old air base
The Stones River and Stewarts Creek run through Smyrna, and part of Percy Priest Lake lies inside the town’s 23.0 square miles. Population went from 25,569 in 2000 to 39,974 in 2010, more than 14,000 new residents in a decade. Sewart Air Force Base, opened in 1941, is the site of today’s Smyrna Airport.
With that much water in town, we map creeks, low ground and any sinkhole on a lot before we plan clearing or grade. The permit side is something we cover at the free estimate.