Townhomes a new element for Biddle Farms Town Center
“I like the concept,” Commissioner Noah Myers said, describing the townhomes as “unique” and “innovative.
“I like what I’m seeing,” he added.
“We like our plan … and we feel like we have a product that would be $600(,000) to $800,000, depending on what an individual buyer may add to it.”
“When the initial concept plan associated with the rezoning for the Town Center at Biddle Farms was approved, the area to the southeast of the multi-family portion of the project was shown as ‘future development,’” Town Community Development director Mark Shipley said.
As Town officials reviewed the overall project during the early stages, South Ward Alderman Ron Pinchok asked developer Budd Cullom to consider adding townhomes because he wanted more than just apartments.
“I absolutely love it,” Pinchok said of the townhomes plan.
On 42.84 acres, Cullom plans to build 49 two-and three-story units.
“Essentially, the goal is not to be condominiums but to be actual, individual plotted lots, so each buyer would actually own their lot, just like you would own in a subdivision,” Cullom said. “(Bob Koch, architect) has quite a bit of experience with this type of townhome development.
“These buildings would be about 60 feet deep and from 130 to 154 feet long,” Shipley said. “They’re situated just to the southeast of the multi-family portion of the project.”
Similar to the retail buildings, he said the developer would build out spaces based on demand.
“Since the original concept plan didn’t include any development here, this would obviously be a major change to the original concept,” Shipley said. “It would ultimately have to be approved by the Planning Commission and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen since it is associated with the PCD zoning district and rezoning.”
Farragut resident Michael Wilson asked for another traffic study. It would include the townhomes, thus updating the development’s original plan.
Cullom said he already had asked traffic engineer Jeff Myers about the townhome addition and was told, “looking at the basic trip generation of this many homes would result in an expected 51 additional trips, entering and exiting, during the evening peak, and 39 additional trips during the morning peak. Reading from the engineer’s report, “These trips would be distributed between four different access points to the development,” Cullom said. “We would expect the impact of these added trips to be negligible.”
