Anti-Ivey connector, Anti-Center apts. voices
E-mails, 28, against Town Center apartments read at FMPC meeting
Twenty-eight Farragut residents opposed to apartments being part of the Biddle Farms/Town Center project submitted e-mails for Farragut Municipal Planning Commission’s Citizens Forum segment of its Sept. 17 meeting.
“NO-NO-NO!” Joe and Brenda King of Crown Point Drive stated in their e-mail. “I’m in favor of developing the old Kroger property as an up-scale business community. But to add 291 apartments to the already overcrowded Concord Road area opposite Concord Hills is insane.”
During the meeting itself, the Board voted unanimously to recommend several changes to its updated ordinance, which Farragut Vice Mayor/Commissioner Louise Povlin made to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan and related ordinance for the Town Center.
She suggested changing the name of the zone from Mixed-Use Town Center to “unique Town Center District.” She also recommended:
• “To provide for a built environment that prioritizes pedestrian activity but accommodates vehicular activity;
• Under uses, “residential density in the Town Center should transition internally;”
• Change language to read “High-density residential should only be permitted as part of a mixed-use Town Center development plan, deleting language about vertical mixed-use buildings.”
• Change language to read: “A Mixed-Use Town Center development plan, which includes high-density residential, would be included only in the area encompassed by Campbell Station Road, Concord Road and Kingston Pike … this is where our main Mixed-Use Town Center … should be located.
“It makes sense to have high-density residential there,” she added. “It’s encompassed by three arterial areas. If we open ourselves up to having more high-density residential elsewhere, we are compromising this particular development. We’ll end up cannibalizing a bit.”
Out of 29 e-mails concerning the project, 28 were against the apartments, while one resident was in favor of the project as a whole.
“I support the changes proposed by this agenda item, which maintain the pieces central to a mixed-use residential/commercial Town Center area,” Farragut Hills Boulevard resident Crompton said. “Thank you for continuing to take resident feedback into consideration to update the CLUP.”
However, many residents’ e-mails stated the proposed project would decrease property values, increase traffic on Concord Road and create overcrowding of Farragut’s schools.
“We are not against progress,” the Sayerses stated. “But our progress must be reasonable and consistent with maintaining the value and beauty of our community.
“Concord Hills has always been an upscale area, and the addition of 291 apartments (not condos) with at least 500 parking spaces would worsen the already overcrowded traffic on Concord Road … even with the addition of a traffic light at our entrance,” they added. “To bring in rentals into our area will not only decrease our property values but add to the worsening overcrowding of students at Farragut High.”
“We are deeply concerned about the proposed high-density housing on Concord Road in the old Kroger area,” Crown Point Drive resident Kate Surine stated.
“This will absolutely change Farragut and make it an undesirable place for those of us that worked hard to afford this area.
We moved to the community for a reason,” she added. “It’s quiet, family friendly, low crime and high quality of life.”
Much of that is due to the fact that it is a largely single family home community.
“I know there is an argument that shouldn’t everyone get to enjoy living in Farragut?” Surine stated. “… Why not build apartments in the middle of Sequoyah Hills so everyone can live that lifestyle? “The bottom line here is that you get to live in Farragut if you can afford to purchase a single-family home. Then you get the benefits of the community as it is now; quiet, peaceful, low crime, great schools, etc.”
Tim Sayers stated the height of the grading for one of the lots of Ivey Farms, which is adjacent to a lot at 12805 Pecos Road, “contributes to the storm water runoff issues and is an eyesore due to its height.
“This lot is at least 10 feet higher than the original grading of the land prior to the Ivey Farms development,” Sayers said. “It will be even more of an eye sore when a two-story house is built on it.
“The Town of Farragut and Goodall Homes still has the chance to be good neighbors and listen to the voice of the people who are residents of the Town of Farragut and are neighbors to the new development on the Ivey Farm Property,” Sayers stated.
