Grundy County, TN Zoning: The 2026 Quarry Ruling Explained

Grundy County has never adopted a countywide zoning ordinance -- and in February 2026, the Tennessee Supreme Court confirmed the county's one real attempt at controlling where a quarry can operate was itself an illegal, unadopted zoning ordinance. Here's the case, what it means, and what a land buyer near an extraction operation should actually check.

This page covers what's specific to Grundy County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.

No zoning, and one attempt to regulate land use anyway

Grundy County has not adopted a countywide zoning ordinance under Tennessee's County Zoning Enabling Act (Title 13, Chapter 7, Part 1) -- see the county hub for the general implications of that. In 2019, though, the county passed Resolution No. 19-5-20c, which did not call itself zoning but functioned like a narrow, single-purpose version of it: it prohibited quarries, and similar sand, gravel, and mineral-extraction operations, from locating within 5,000 feet of residences, schools, churches, parks, and several other listed land uses. The resolution was adopted the ordinary way a county commission passes a resolution -- without the public hearing or the referral to the county's regional planning commission that the County Zoning Act specifically requires before a county can restrict where a land use is allowed to locate.

That procedural shortcut became the entire legal issue when Tinsley Properties, LLC and Tinsley Sand & Gravel, LLC -- which own and operate the Clouse Hill Sand Quarry, a roughly 138-acre, state-permitted site on Clouse Hill Road in unincorporated Grundy County -- challenged the resolution's application to their operation. The case worked its way up through the Court of Appeals and, ultimately, the Tennessee Supreme Court, with Tennessee's Attorney General filing in support of the county's position along the way.

The Supreme Court's ruling, and why it matters beyond one quarry

On February 25, 2026, the Tennessee Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Tinsley Properties, LLC et al. v. Grundy County, Tennessee holding that Resolution 19-5-20c was, in substance, a zoning ordinance -- because it divided the county into effective zones by prohibiting a specific land use based on proximity to other designated uses, which is squarely what the County Zoning Act governs -- and that the county's own admission that it skipped the Act's public-hearing and planning-commission-referral requirements meant the resolution was invalid from the start. The Court reversed the Court of Appeals and vacated the trial court's judgment in the county's favor, siding with Tinsley.

The practical result for Grundy County: it has no valid, currently enforceable ordinance restricting where a quarry, gravel pit, or similar extraction operation can locate relative to homes, schools, or parks. If the county commission wants that kind of protection back, it would have to start over and adopt it as an actual zoning ordinance under the County Zoning Act's full procedure -- public hearing, planning commission referral, and the rest -- something the county has never done countywide for any purpose. Local reporting on the case (WJLE Radio) also noted the ruling's reach beyond Grundy alone: at least one neighboring county, DeKalb, had a similar quarry-location rule that the same ruling rendered unenforceable, on the same reasoning.

What this actually means if you're buying land here

If your interest in Grundy County land has nothing to do with quarrying or living near one, this ruling mostly confirms what the county hub already tells you: Grundy has no countywide zoning, full stop, and there's currently no distance-based rule -- for quarries or anything else -- limiting what an industrial or extraction operator can put next to a residential parcel. If you're evaluating land near an existing or potential quarry site (including land near Clouse Hill Road, or anywhere else in the county with known sand, gravel, or mineral deposits), understand that the county's own attempt to create a buffer has been struck down and there is, as of this writing, no substitute ordinance in place. A parcel that looked protected by the old 5,000-foot buffer no longer is.

Also worth checking directly with the county: whether the commission has taken, or is considering, any follow-up action -- either a properly adopted zoning ordinance covering quarry siting, or some narrower fix that complies with the County Zoning Act this time. Given that Grundy has never adopted zoning for any other purpose, and given the county's real coal-mining and quarrying history (see the county hub's mineral-rights discussion), a buyer with either concern -- operating an extraction use, or living near one -- should ask the County Mayor's office directly what, if anything, currently governs quarry or mineral-operation siting, rather than relying on the now-void 2019 resolution or assuming nothing has changed since this ruling.

Grundy County, Tennessee Zoning: The 2026 Quarry-Location Ruling

No zoning, and one attempt to regulate land use anyway

The Supreme Court's ruling, and why it matters beyond one quarry

What this actually means if you're buying land here

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