Differences arise concerning hotel’s future Outlet Drive plans
Farragut Municipal Planning Commissioners asked developers for Eco Suites Hotel by Marriot to meet them halfway with their site plan during their meeting Thursday, Oct. 17.
After about an hour’s discussion, the Commission voted unanimously for Cox Universal Group to move the hotel’s entrance west and improve the stormwater detention by 50 percent, not just the 25 percent shown in the site plan.
For now, though, Philip Cox, CEO/founder of Cox Universal Group, said his group is looking into how that will affect his development.
“We are running the math to see,” he said in a separate interview. “The detention issue is a Pandora’s box that the city may want to revisit. It applies to all redeveloped real estate including their own, and is a big burden for all property owners now.”
The site plan is for a new hotel on the property at 11244 Outlet Drive, where West Park Inn formerly was located, just to the west of Cotton Eyed Joes, according to Community Development director Mark Shipley.
“Currently, the concrete foundation and asphalt parking lot for the former West Park Inn are situated across much of the property (3 acres),” Shipley said. “This foundation and asphalt will be removed in the portion of the property where the hotel and parking lot are proposed.
“The applicant is requesting to use the existing access along Outlet Drive,” he added. “The applicant will be submitting a re-subdivision plat to separate the eastern portion of the property from the lot that will be created for the hotel.
The existing access “would serve both lots, and an access easement will be platted on the re-subdivision plat,” Shipley said. “As proposed, the hotel is four stories and will have 124 rooms.
“It includes some compact car spaces that will be properly designated as required in the zoning ordinance,” he added. “A large area of permeable pavers is proposed in a portion of the parking lot on the north side of the building.”
The remaining 1-acre lot will be developed at a future time.
However, the Town staff had two main concerns in other comments: access and stormwater detention.
After meeting with Town staff during a Staff/Developer meeting Tuesday, Oct. 1, Cox recalled discussions on their entrance differently. The property’s current entrance is east of the center from the lot, according to Shipley.
“It has an offset to the existing access on the north side of Outlet Drive, which actually is a county (Corporate Point) Lane,” he said. “That offset does not meet the Town’s distance (requirement) for an arterial street between access points.”
Currently, Shipley said the distance between the hotel’s existing entrance and Corporate Point Lane is 110 feet, while the ordinance requires 400 feet.
“They’re proposing to keep it in this location because they are subdividing the (3-acre) lot,” he said. By keeping the access, both lots can use it.
Moving it 400 feet west would not be as centralized for both lots, Shipley added. Additionally, the western frontage of the property is steep and drops off.
Staff wise, “we understand where they’re coming from, as far as topography and trying to use the existing access,” Shipley said. “The concern is you have a center lane turn conflict because (the two accesses) are so close.”
Still, “We want to utilize the existing location,” said Grant Berry, engineering manager with SITE, Inc. “Where the existing driveway is is where the proposed property division will be between the hotel parcel and the excess 1 acre, so it lines up there and makes it an even split, so whichever parcel your coming to, you’re not driving across one or the other.”
Also, “every bit you move west, you are starting to hit more and more slope,” he added.
“Part of the logic is, when we subdivide the property, there’s going to be another user (on the 1-acre parcel),” Cox said. “So if you’re coming through the hotel, you’ve got to cut across the whole hotel traffic” if the entrance is moved west.
“Are you OK to have two entrances on the site (for each parcel)?” he asked.
Commissioner Noah Myers agreed two entrances would be allowable.
Still, the request for a 290-foot variance for the distance requirement was denied, but FMPC agreed to only require the developers to move the entrance 200 feet to the west instead of 400 feet.
“I don’t want anything less than 200 feet,” vice chair Ed St. Clair said.
