Planning Commission approves Grove, Stonemeade final plats
The Grove received approval for Phase 2, Unit 1, with conditions attached. Commissioner Noah Myers made the motion to approve the final plat, seconded by Mayor Ron Williams, who also serves on the Planning Commission. The subdivision encompasses 16.15 acres with 15 lots zoned Open Space Mixed Residential (OSMR).
“This is the next phase of The Grove at Boyd Station [located at McFee and Boyd Station roads, where a roundabout recently was constructed as part of a Town road improvement project],” Community Development director Mark Shipley said. “The road was just recently reopened.”
In addition to house lots, the development includes two open-space lots.
“This is a relatively small phase,” Shipley added.
Russ Rackley, engineer and owner of Rackley Engineering, said there are four plats total, but the project is in its final phase.
Shipley said conditions of approval include providing a two-year maintenance letter of credit for pedestrian facilities, stormwater detention and roadway; a completion letter of credit for pedestrian facilities and landscaping; a copy of covenants for Town attorney approval; required signatures; completion of remaining site-related punch list items; and correcting a note error.
“The staff did conduct a site inspection on April 6, and the site was definitely far enough along to be presented to the Planning Commission,” Shipley said.
“We have no objections to the conditions,” Rackley said. “Everything is complete. … We’re finishing gravel on the other 30-some-odd lots of what we initially wanted to do for this next unit.”
While Rackley said he was not “privy to the punch list,” he noted
“as far as I know, everything is complete … the surface course is down.”
“They still have some things to finish, like the walking trail, but that’s covered under the letters of credit,” Shipley said.
“Tomorrow (April 17), we’ll complete the base stone on the greenway trail along Boyd Station Road and around the roundabout. We hope to get it paved next week,” Rackley said. “Utility relocations delayed us and put us into winter, and it’s been a dogfight to get this far this fast.”
“The roundabout looks great, by the way,” Williams said. “Good job. I think the Choto folks are really happy that you got the road back open.”
“Yeah, not so much the Willow Cove residents,” Rackley said. “They were hoping it would stay closed.”
On a similar action, the commission unanimously approved the final plat for Stonemeade subdivision, located off Boring Road near the new Farragut Area Elementary School under construction.
Williams made the motion, seconded by Commissioner Jon Greene.
The development includes 39 lots zoned R-3, including 32 house lots and seven open-space lots.
“It does have a secondary access down into the Village Commons Boulevard to the south,” Shipley said. “There are also walking trail connections in two places — to the east of Baldwin Park and to the south to Village Commons Boulevard.”
Shipley said staff visited the site April 6 and found it in good condition, recommending approval with conditions. These include adding a note related to street name signs due to a recent ordinance amendment; labeling buffer strips; providing a maintenance letter of credit for roads, pedestrian facilities and stormwater; a completion letter of credit for the surface course, sidewalks and landscaping; and obtaining required signatures.
“The buffer strip will be added in the fall,” Shipley said. “There is a completion letter of credit for that.”
Rackley said there were no objections and the asphalt surface would be completed this week.
“On these two projects, we worked really well with Town staff,” said Brian Mohney, co-owner of Saddlebrook and developer of both subdivisions.
Expressing appreciation, Mohney said, “We had some meetings about how we wanted to walk through Farragut’s processes … I’m just really grateful.”
“I walked the property last week, and it looks really good,” Williams said of Stonemeade. “My concern was the stormwater, and they’ve got that pretty well taken care of.”
