FBC access to old Belleaire a hot topic for BOMA
With Aldermen Scott Meyer and Drew Burnette absent, backing White, a Belleaire subdivision resident, were Mayor Ron Williams and Vice Mayor Louise Povlin. They agreed after Mark Stooksbury, FBC director of business administration, and church attorney Taylor Forrester asked for more time while presenting a solution that is expected to start in 2025.
“I’m terribly frustrated that this (access) was approved in 2008, and now it’s in my lap,” Povlin said. “I’m tired. It’s been a very controversial couple of years. A lot of emotion. A lot of misinformation.”
Regarding the plan and costs estimates, Williams said to the representatives, “I think you probably need to look at that differently to where this can be sped up to the point of getting started on it.”
“I know we’ve had several discussions the last few months with (Farragut Municipal) Planning Commission
“I know we’ve had several discussions the last few months with (Farragut Municipal) Planning Commission over some additions and things the church has been working on,” Town administrator David Smoak said.
The issue regarding the access began in 2008, when the new Belleaire Drive project first started. At that time, the access was designated as temporary, so a new access to the Belleare neighborhood subsequently was created that is directly south of First Baptist Concord property.
“The access (into FBC) does not meet the current 400-foot regulations that we have between access ways onto a major arterial road,” Smoak said.
He noted there were prior letters and Farragut Municipal Planning Commission motions for approval to re-align the access way at the church to be directly across the street from Russgate Boulevard.
The Board was asked to give staff feedback on how it would like to proceed: give the church time to realign the access to Russgate Boulevard or close the access and give a time frame to do so.
“As we had been made aware of this particular issue — none of us were around back in 2008, 2009, when a lot of this had begun — we started working on some possible solutions,” Stooksbury said.
“We currently have an A-frame building that would have to be destructed in order to re-align this entrance to Russgate Boulevard,” Stooksbury said. He presented a plan “we felt was a feasible plan.
“It would be something we would be committed to starting in July 2025,” he added. “That gives us a little bit of time because the building that would need to come down is currently occupied.”
“We’ve dealt with this all these years,” White said. “You weren’t legal then, you’re not legal now. Now you want to make your new entrance three years from now legal.
“My position is this (current) entrance is totally illegal,” he added. “It never should have been there.
“You don’t have a (Tennessee Department of Transportation) permit. You don’t have a Town of Farragut permit.
Adding more details, “You were supposed to prepare a quit-claim deed, recorded at the courthouse that gives the property right-of-way back to the church,” White said. “You don’t have it. It still belongs to the Town.
“The biggest thing is it’s terribly unsafe,” the Alderman added. ”We not only have the right but we have the responsibility to protect the citizens of the Town.”
“There should have been a time frame on this when this (2008) agreement (on the access) was put in place,” Povlin said. “It’s unfortunate that there wasn’t.
“I’m sympathetic to the church’s position, but I’m also very sympathetic to the residents of the Town of Farragut … frankly Belleaire’s entire entrance was obliterated when all this came about,” she added. “They were given some promises about relocating that (access), and now their new entrance is unsafe.”
During a prior staff development meeting with the church and Town engineer (Darryl Smith), the mayor said, “We drew this (solution) up a different way.
“(The church) evidently does not agree,” he added. “The costs would be less, which would put you into a position where, time-wise, you could actually start working on this as soon as possible. If it’s drawn at a 70-degree, you don’t have to tear (the A-frame building) down.”
