Working out Echo Suites’ Outlet plans
Cox Universal Group, one of the two developers planning to build a hotel along Outlet Drive, got feedback on its site plan for Echo Suites Hotel from the Town of Farragut during a Staff/Planners meeting Tuesday, Oct. 1.
Cox Universal Group developers expect to build on Parcel 154.02, a 3.1-acre lot just west of Cotton-Eyed Joe. A the Oct. 1 meeting, they went over Town staff’s comments regarding its site plan, among which were questions about drainage and a sidewalk.
“All the shaded area (of the lot) is permeable pavers (that allows water to seep through the surface and into the ground instead of flowing into storm drains), which can satisfy the low-impact development requirement,” Town Community Development director Mark Shipley said. “They also have to have stormwater detention to meet our stormwater ordinance.
“They can use the permeable pavers toward that as well,” he added.
However, Grant Berry, engineering manager with SITE, Incorporated, and Philip Cox, CEO and co-founder of Cox Universal Group, questioned the need for more detention.
“Why do we need stormwater detention?” Berry asked. “It’s 99 percent paved as it is, and we’re actually going to be putting less (pavement) in areas than what’s there now.”
Cox said his company already is planning on improving the property.
Berry added, in City of Knoxville, 96 (percent) is its ruling.
“Not in the Town of Farragut,” Mayor Ron Williams said.
“I can appreciate your point, but the fact that it’s been done incorrectly without detention for 60 years does not mean that we should continue doing it incorrectly,” Town engineer Darryl Smith told Berry.
In regard to drainage, Ben Dutton, president of construction and development for Cox Universal Group in Johnson City, said the company is going to comply with the post-development flows, which are flows of water after a development has taken place.
“This is a typical engineering approach,” he said. “It’s slightly more complicated approach … we’re saying (the detention requirements) normally apply to sites that previously haven’t been developed and the water hits grass and sinks into the ground.
“When you pave something or you stick a building on it with a roof, water hits the impervious surface and then it flows more quickly to the storm system,” Dutton added. “In our case, because this whole site was already paved. When we develop this, there’s going to be less paving than now.”
Additionally, Town staff wants a sidewalk connecting to the adjacent property, which also will be a new hotel, Studio Res at Mariott, being developed by Land Development Solutions. Shipley recommended Cox Universal Group collaborate with Land Development Solutions on an agreement about connecting the sidewalk.
Shipley said Cox Universal Group’s property has been rezoned from Commercial (C-2) to the Outlet Drive Entertainment District so it would have more flexible requirements regarding masonry.
“It’s currently a big slab of concrete,” he said about the property.
“… The roach coach motel,” Williams added.
“Yeah,” Shipley said. “They’re proposing to use the existing access. One of the staff’s comments was to see if they could move it to the west and spread it out so it meets the 400 feet (requirement).
“Outlet Drive is an arterial road, so the distance between driveways is 400 feet,” he added. “But they are using the existing access and making improvements to it, so it does, kind of, have an offset with (an access to another property), which is actually a county street that goes into county property.
“They’re demo’ing all this concrete. The parking is going to be wrapped around the hotel. They do have some compact car parking spaces, which they can do up to 20 percent. “
About opportunity, “They are capitalizing on that because it’s kind of a tight space,” the Community Development director said.
