The Greene County Planning Commission will meet as scheduled on Tuesday.
However, the rezoning request from Vulcan Land Development has been formerly withdrawn and will not be discussed during the meeting.
Below is an email sent by Greene County Planning Coordinator Amy Tweed early Saturday afternoon to members of the commission and other parties.
Notwithstanding circulating rumors to the contrary, notice is hereby given that the planning commission meeting being scheduled for 1:00 pm June 9th has not been canceled and will convene as regularly scheduled
The rezoning application submitted by Vulcan Land Incorporated has been formally withdrawn.
Accordingly, neither the applicant nor planning commission staff will present or act upon the merits of the withdrawn application.
Notwithstanding the withdrawal of the application, public comment will be permitted during the scheduled meeting.
Due to time constraints, there has been insufficient opportunity to provide formal notice of the withdrawal to all affected property owners and interested parties.
Additionally, several individuals were previously scheduled to address the commission and further public attendance is anticipated.
The notice is provided for informational purposes to ensure transparency and to avoid any misunderstanding regarding the status of the meeting and agenda item.
In a statement provided to Radio Greeneville News, Vulcan said they pulled the request for additional time to “continue dialogue” and make their application “stronger.”
“We are pulling our application from its scheduled June vote before the Planning Commission. We have spent the last several months having discussions with the community and would like additional time to continue dialogue, answer questions, and consider ways to make our rezoning application stronger,” a statement from Vulcan said.
Since the item was pulled from the Planning Commission agenda, it will no longer appear on the July agenda of the Greene County Commission for consideration.
Request Pulled For Second Time
Vulcan, which has mined gravel and sand out of its roughly 500 acre property on Greystone, Tabor Lane, and Shelton Mission Road for decades, was looking to expand and rezone its mine and about 300 additional acres nearby from an A-1 General Agriculture designation to an M-1 Industrial designation. That includes eight parcels of land.
The withdrawal of the request marks the second time Vulcan has withdrawn a rezoning request dating back to late 2025.
In November 2025, the company was set to request about 680 acres for rezoning in the form of 15 parcels, however, Vulcan withdrew the request after facing fierce backlash in the community. Over 100 people attended a community meeting held at that time.
Staunch opposition to the rezoning request from those in the Greystone, Rock Batter, Bethany, and Camp Creek communities and from others in the wider Greene County community has persisted.
Concerns listed by citizens during a recent community meeting with over 60 people in attendance included safety hazards from increased heavy truck traffic, air pollution from dust generated at the current site, impacts to nearby wells, inadequate buffering, noise and light pollution issues, water quality issues, the impact to livestock and wildlife, the impact on tourism at the nearby Margarette Falls trailhead and views from the Appalachian Trail on Viking Mountain, permanent damage to the land, litigation involving other Vulcan sites across the country, and other concerns.
A large local industry, Premium Waters, also expressed concern about the possible expansion of Vulcan’s operation. Premium Waters draws water out of a spring in Camp Creek, and that local plant’s manager said at the most recent community meeting that the company was worried that Vulcan’s expansion would negatively impact the water quality of the spring, creek, and surrounding area,
