Over at School Matters, I did a post on how urban sprawl negatively impacts our schools in Knox County and why unplanned development is one of the main reasons why we had to go through the controversial rezoning of high schools last year. Now the school board is getting ready to face middle and elementary school rezonings.

From the post:

"Why is rezoning necessary? Historically, there have been a number of reasons: school overcrowding, economic disparities between school populations, attempt to achieve racial balances, etc."

"However, one of the main reasons why our current school rezoning is happening is because of the lack of thoughtful planning and management by our Knox County government. Developers are allowed to create new housing stock anywhere in the county without regard to the impacts it has on our school system. We are constantly playing 'catchup' with our schools, trying to place educational facilities wherever the whims (or the cheap land) of the development community takes us."

Indya Kincannon responded with a question about the power of MPC and Commission to limit development based on school capacity. She says that she has been told in the past that "the legal options for rejecting a proposed development are very narrow."

I think I have answered her correctly that the only test I've ever heard is the "arbitrary or capricious" test - in other words, a local legislative body can pretty much do anything with regard to zoning and development as long as it follows its own rules and applies them to everyone.

Anybody know something about this that I don't know? Feel free to jump in here or there with an opinion, legal or otherwise!