Planning commission rejects office rezoning proposal
Jeffrey Marzolf’s plans to establish an office at 11830 Kingston Pike, behind the new Turner Homes development, were denied when Farragut Municipal Planning Commission unanimously voted against recommending his request to the Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen during FMPC’s meeting Thursday, April 16.
Marzolf, owner and financial planner with Marzolf Investment, asked FMPC to amend the Future Land Use Map designation for the 1.1-acre parcel from Very Low Density Residential to Office/Light Industrial and to rezone the property from General Single-Family Residential (R-2) to Office (O-1).
However, the request faced objections from Farragut Crossing Homeowners Association and hesitation from commissioners.
“I’m super sympathetic with the concept of it being a buffer zone,” Commissioner Jeff
Devlin said. “I’m not particularly worried about future use of it.”
He said he voted against the request because of the precedent set when the property was zoned residential.
“For me, I’m going to
stick with the decision
that was made years ago,” Devlin added.
Commissioner Shannon Preston asked Community Development director Mark Shipley if a buffer could be added to the property.
Shipley said office zoning would require a 25-foot buffer.
“You really wouldn’t need a buffer zoning district,” he added.
“Could we limit the usable space more?” Preston asked.
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Shipley said. “You need to vote up or down.”
Although Commissioner Jon Greene made a motion, seconded by Preston for the sake of discussion, to approve the requests, the motion failed.
Commissioners Noah Myers and Vice Mayor Scott Meyer both recused themselves from the vote.
“The current owner is a
broker with my real estate company,” Myers said. Meyer said Marzolf is his financial planner.
Speaking on behalf of Marzolf, property owner Troy Stavros supported the request.
While acknowledging concerns “regarding the unknown future of the parcel,” Stavros said the proposal would help protect nearby properties.
“Our property looks out on this property,” Stavros said. “By rezoning it to a boutique office now, we secure a predictable neighbor with professional Monday-through-Friday hours that end at 6 o’clock.
“With the office staying in its current location, where the existing house is … we don’t have to worry about something
big being built behind us,” he said. “[Marzolf] is going to be using the existing building for his office.
“Also, opposing the change leaves the property’s future to chance, potentially allowing for residential uses that could create more of a 24/7 nuisance rather than a proposed low-impact office.”
Marzolf said his effort to use the property as an office has been a “walk of faith.
“Honestly, what I saw as an eyesore on a piece of ground, I saw a beautiful little
office there I could fix up,” he said. “I had no idea it was going to go in all these different directions.”
“If you go out there, what you really have is, yes, you do have residential on one side and you basically have a commercial parking lot and road on the other,” Marzolf said. “It’s not residential, and it’s really not office. What it is, it’s a buffer.”
However, Jim Gwyn of Farragut Crossing HOA urged the commission to deny the request.
While Gwyn said Marzolf had spoken with residents and “was open, transparent and willing to answer questions,” he said the HOA’s position is based on long-term planning considerations.
“In 2020, this Commission made a deliberate decision to update the land use plan and rezone this property from office to residential as part of a 1-acre tract,” he said. “This decision was made with community input and with support of our HOA. The intent was clear: to create a residential buffer between Kingston Pike, the Farragut Crossing neighborhood and the adjacent homes of Linda Heights.
“Nothing about the surrounding residential neighborhood has changed since 2020,” Gwyn said. “The conditions that justify that buffer still exist today.
“Our second concern is consistency with the Town zoning ordinance,” he added.
Shipley reminded Commissioners the item had been discussed during a workshop at last month’s meeting.
“This area has been used as both residential and office historically,” he said. “This is a separate lot that was originally part of a larger tract zoned office before it was rezoned to R-2, which matches Farragut Crossing and Linda Heights subdivisions, in 2020.
“In 2022, a plat was created dividing the tract into three lots,” Shipley said. “This northernmost lot is the only one being considered for these map revisions.”
