Stop EZ Stop in Old Concord, dozens say
CONCORD — Almost unanimously expressing opposition to locating a 7,000 square-foot EZ Stop Food Mart and restaurant on the edge of Historic Concord District along Concord Road near Northshore Drive, about 60 residents met with third- and fourth-generation owners and their attorney to exchange thoughts and plans.
Not one of a few dozen residents who expressed their opinions during a roughly two-hour gathering in Old Concord’s Chota Lodge No. 253 F&AM Fellowship Fall Thursday evening, June 20, spoke in support of the EZ Stop plan: 5,000 square feet for the convenience store, and a 14-pump gas station (seven two-sided boxes), plus 2,000 square feet for an adjoining restaurant, Calloway’s Tennessee Kitchen.
“The property that we’re looking at is about 4.7 acres,” said attorney Benjamin C. Mullins of the Frantz McConnell & Seymour, LLC firm in downtown Knoxville. “… We’re also there (alongside) Second Street.”
Also on hand was Tommy Hunt, a third-generation part owner/president of EZ Stop-Calloway Oil Company, who was alongside his daughter, vice president Julia Langston, a fourth-generation company part-owner, and her husband, vice president Trenton Langston.
A number of concerns were expressed: traffic, noise, aesthetics, lighting, restaurant drive-thru, property values, possible sinkholes, possible unmarked graves with historical significance on the property and security were chief among them.
Traffic, access issues
“Concord Road is 15,000 vehicles averaging per day,” Mullins said, adding the company’s goal is not to increase traffic, “but to intercept” existing motorists regularly traveling this route and make them regular customers.
Mullins and the family officials said the convenience store and restaurant would have a right-in, right-out access to and from Concord Road going northbound. Southbound Concord Road traffic, both coming in and exiting the store, would need to use Second Street, which borders the property to the south.
“We’ve got to improve the entrance to Second (Street) onto Concord (Road)… We’ll make it easier to make those turns,” Hunt said.
However, one resident pointed out Second Street is basically “one-lane wide … I fairly regularly meet somebody head-on. … But now we know each other and are courteous to each other and pull over to the side and let each other pass. But a stranger that doesn’t live in this neighborhood may just start honking their horn.
“… And you can’t do anything about this because it’s private property. … And they’re not going to widen it because it’s in the (Concord) Historical (District) that they don’t even allow culverts to be put in,” he added.
To sum up, “How are we going to get in and out of here with extra (business) traffic?” the resident asked.
“Sir, I don’t anticipate extra traffic,” Mullins said. “… We are not trying to bring traffic here. ... We’re not looking to change your community and the people who are coming to your community any more than it already exists.”
Noise, lighting issues
Company officials propose to leave a vegetation/tree barrier 25-feet deep behind the proposed facility and add more trees as a noise, light and aesthetics buffer next to a cemetery bordering the Masonic Lodge to the west.
“The areas that we need to disturb (during construction), we will see that we will replace it with a very dense landscaping buffer there. And the landscaping that they designed is greater than what planning staff … would normally require for this type of development.”
One resident expressed concern about the restaurant drive-through intercom being a noise issue to nearby residents. “The speakers will be directional, so only the car (occupants) can hear them,” Hunt said.
Some residents still concerned about noise asked the EZ Stop officials to add various sound barriers if they come to Concord, which they said would be considered.
As for lighting possibly bleeding over into the adjacent neighborhoods, “We are aware of light intrusion, so all of the fixtures will be horizontal …,” Hunt said. “And I’m pretty sure the vegetation is tall enough” on the back side of the proposed business next to the cemetery. “They’ll never see any light.”
Unmarked historic graves?
J.K. Yoder, a member of Chota Lodge No. 253, pointed out possible unmarked historic gravesites under the property in question.
“The fact that unmarked graves do exist alongside the west access road within our current cemetery, and there are long-standing tales of other unmarked graves to the west of the access road (in the proposed development area), begs the question as to why this concern has not been further studied and put to rest?” Yoder stated in an e-mail to farragutpress.
“… As indicated in the Tennessee code, there are strict guidelines as to how historic cemetery preservation is to be addressed ... and laws related to this,” he further stated.
“ ... Knox County planning guidelines related to the Old Concord Village Historic Area includes the following clause: “Every reasonable effort shall be made to protect and preserve archeological resources affected by, or adjacent to, any project.”
Development, but not this
“We want something to serve the community, and we don’t believe this is it,” one resident said. “What we think would serve the community is something that doesn’t have the in-and-out of thru traffic, constant, constant people. … Something like a bistro or a cafe … something that serves the community with emissions vacant; we’d love that.
“Not bringing in trucks and gas trucks and quick stops, and all the in-and-out …. It’s a very dangerous to our young kids that do ride bikes around here … because there’s going to be so much thru traffic that it’s going to be impossible for this to be still a neighborhood,” she added to applause from the gathering.
Another resident said, “I took friends fishing recently right over there (pointing toward Fort Loudoun Lake). And if I knew there was a plain little restaurant or multiple restaurants that I felt like, ‘hey, we could walk over there,’ we 100 percent would. And that would be something more appropriate for this area.”
One resident asked near the end of the meeting: “how many of you four have been down here at 4 o’clock and watched people push the kids around? … Been down here to check that out?”
Other concerns
When one resident expressed fears that an EZ Stop would lower area resident property values,” Mullins responded, “I can tell you nobody’s property values go down when something like this comes in.”
They also assured residents that product deliveries would not happen at night, overnight or before morning daylight.
The next vital step finds the EZ Stop team meeting with Knox County Planning Commission Thursday, July 11.
