More retail for Horizon Plaza
More retail units are in the plans for the second phase of Horizon Plaza, the new shopping center being built next to Admiral Drive.
Brad Sharp with Urban Engineering presented the Phase 2 site plans for three more units to the eastern segment of the development to the Town during a Staff-Planner meeting Tuesday, Aug. 5.
“Of course, the (western part) is already under construction,” Town Community Development director Mark Shipley said. “It’s about a 12,000-square-foot building, and now they’re wanting to move forward with this basically 5,500-square-foot building on the east.
“I don’t have a lot of comments,” he said. “The only comment I had, and this was on the original (Phase 1 plan), was the building’s architecturally is going to match the existing building that’s under construction, but it’s a smaller footprint.
But, “we need to coordinate with (neighboring business owner) with a cross access, which is something we require on most developments,” Shipley said. “In this case, I think it’s possible.”
However, “It’s hard to tell,” he said. “It’s real dense tree cover right now … The access would come in to the north (of an existing billboard).
“It’s always good to have a cross access, especially on this section of Kingston Pike,” Shipley said. “Most of it predates the Town, and access control is non-existent.
“It’s challenging to get in and out,” he added.
“Does that property we’d be tying into, does it have a red light on the other side?” Sharp asked.
“No,” Shipley answered. “Have we looked at any locations for a signal between Costco and Farlow and Concord (roads)? It obviously doesn’t meet the (Tennessee Department of Transportation) warrants (to allow a traffic signal).”
“I don’t think any place would meet warrants in there,” Town engineer Darryl Smith replied. “You know, we’ve looked at Admiral Road.”
“We just could never meet the warrants for TDOT,” Shipley said.
“We thought about trying to line up Thornton Drive with Newport (Road) for a signal,” Smith said. “That would have taken out property that was owned by Weigel’s that’s now O’Reilley’s.”
“That would have been a good project if they’d have gotten it worked out,” Shipley added.
