A few St. John Court residents look to ‘bump’ traffic
St. John Court residents soon may get its turn to have traffic-calming speed bumps installed near St. John Neumann School and Church at St. John Court.
Farragut Municipal Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen that three speed bumps be installed along St. John Court in Prestwick Place subdivision during its meeting Thursday, Oct. 19.
After the Board voted Thursday, Oct. 12, to install speed bumps along Sonja Drive and Admiral Road, St. John Court resident Kim Frasch asked the Board to revisit installing speed bumps at St. John Court. Frasch was told it was on the Oct. 19 FMPC agenda.
“In accordance with the Town’s traffic-calming policy … the Town’s Engineering Department conducted a series of speed tests within in the speed zone (the portion of street where the speeding is occurring),” assistant Town engineer Eric Schindler said Oct. 19. “The study results indicated excessive speeding in one of the three locations where traffic speed data was collected.”
He explained excessive speeding is defined “by an 85th percentile greater that 10 mph over the posted speed limit” of 25 mph.
Schindler said the study at 638 St. John Court showed speeds of 39.9 mph. Additionally, speeds were tested at 710 St. John Court at 32.5 mph and at St. John Court at Oconnell, which were 27.6 mph.
The Town held a public meeting Aug. 9 to gauge resident feedback.
“The support from the residents in attendance was overwhelmingly positive,” Schindler said.
Likewise, of the 13 ballots mailed to residents, 11 votes were returned and all 11 voted in favor of the speed bumps, he added.
In other business, FMPC revisited a novel development consisting of a mixture of a variety of multi-family rental buildings being proposed along Snyder Road, across the street from The Tapestry apartments and Lazydays RV of Knoxville at Turkey Creek.
Tony Sorace, director of development for Novu, said he sees a demand for this type of development.
While many FMPC members favored the plan, Vice Mayor Louise Povlin, also an FMPC member, pointed out residents have voiced objections to any more multi-family developments.
On a separate matter, FMPC heard from developers for Kingston Pike Villages along Kingston Pike near Dixie Lee junction regarding Phase II of the project, who wanted to allow people to move into a multi-family building that is separated from the construction still under way.
With work on the soil nail wall in the back of the property still under construction, there still were safety concerns.
“I’m not comfortable with that,” Povlin said. “…Mostly because we can’t out-engineer what people are going to do.”
“They said it would take four months to finish it,” FMPC member Ron Pinchok said. “I think we ought to wait until it’s finished … we said they wouldn’t be able to lease until the wall is finished.”
“They’re not going to get a (Certificate of Occupation) until they have the wall finished,” said Mayor Ron Williams, an FMPC member.
Regardless, “(the buildings near the wall) would be barricaded off, like The Overlook (off Campbell Station Road, near Snyder Road, when it was under construction),” Community Development director Mark Shipley said.
