Residents heard as Hy-Vee seeks FLUM amendment
With plans to develop a grocery store on the front end of the 68.31-acre former Eddy Ford property at 11500 Kingston Pike, Hy-Vee representatives presented a concept plan and a request to amend the Town’s Future Land Use Map for that property during a Farragut Staff/Developmer meeting Tuesday, Oct. 4.
The request will go before Farragut Municipal Planning Commission for discussion only at its meeting starting at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 20, in Farragut Town Hall.
However, a few residents questioned their plans — and one Planning Commissioner, Jon Greene, described the plan as “all smoke.”
“There’re a lot of questions that have to be answered,” resident Jeanne Brykalski said. “We need to hear all the pros and cons.”
Hy-Vee site planning director John Brehm and group vice president Phil Hoey explained their request, which would replace the current Mixed Use Town Center portion on the Land Use Map to Commercial, Parks and Recreation and Low Density Residential. The current Medium Density Residential part in the back of the property would be replaced with Very Low Density Residential.
Their concept plan shows a 156,000-square-foot grocery store, fronted by a parking lot. Behind it, Brehm said there could be a pocket park, which they could dedicate to the Town; then a 46-unit small-lot, single-family set of townhomes, backed by a 52-unit general single-family residential development.
Farragut Community Development director Mark Shipley said when the Future Land Use Plan was established in 2012, “we created and mapped, for the first time, the community’s vision of kind of what we thought it might want to look like in the future.
“One of those strategies, which has been a community goal … was to try to create a kind of a sense of identity for the Town, a downtown,” he added.
As part of that process, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen mapped from Kohl’s to Concord Road as a Town Center, including Mixed-Use Town Center and Medium Density Residential.
Hoey said his team held a public meeting in June to get feedback from Farragut residents to address buffer areas, connectivity, density and traffic concerns.
“We understand this plan creates some connectivity and the opportunity to create more connectivity to roadway structures,” he said.
Brykalski said placing a traffic light would increase traffic at the Jamestowne Boulevard-Kingston Pike intersection.
Other concerns expressed were the potential noise, safety, security, pollution and the view. “The Ford property is very long and skinny,” Brykalski said. “I currently have two neighbors who look out their back doors, literally, onto the Ford property, and where you are proposing to put the store … they would be looking at the back side of the loading docks.
“Mark made a comment of what kind of impact this would have on our existing grocery stores and shopping centers that have been here,” she added. “They’ve supported us, and we’ve supported them.”
“The existing zoning allows for commercial uses on this parcel, so whether it’s Hy-Vee or another commercial user, the issues of noise, safety, security, loading docks … will be present” said Hoey, adding while another development could be smaller, there could be more businesses involved.
“Who will be responsible for developing the residential areas to the south of the store?” resident John Holstrager asked. “Is that part of what Hy-Vee does or would another party come in and do that?”
Hoey said Hy-Vee is purchasing the entire parcel of land, but conceded it would sell the southern portion behind the grocery store for someone else to develop.
After the meeting, Greene noted his concerns about what would happen to the property south of the grocery store and who would develop, since HyVee most likely would sell it and the plan would not be viable. “(The plan) is all smoke,” he added.
Holstrager said there are residents who don’t want Hy-Vee. “We sat for 10 years with two carcasses (the old Ingles building and old Kroger),” he said. While the old Ingles building remains mostly empty, “We finally got rid of the old Kroger, and now Hy-Vee comes in and says, ‘Let’s build the 11th grocery store in Town. It just seems very, very inconsistent with what we said we wanted to do with the Town.”
