Three-lot plan wins conditional Farragut approval
Mayor Alex Cain and Vice Mayor Greg Wiberley, both Planning Commissioners, voted against approval, while Commissioners Angel Ray, Shannon Preston, Jeff Devlin, Chairman Noah Myers, John Tague and Michael Wilson voted in favor. Derek Wright was absent.
Community Development director Mark Shipley said the Town rezoned the property to Rural Single-Family Residential in August.
Prior to that, “it had been three different zoning districts, so that [rezoning] helped clean up the property,” Shipley said. “It was with the intent of subdividing this property into three lots, and that’s what’s been requested for your approval this evening.”
“All of the lots are well over 20,000 square feet on the west side of Virtue Road,” he said.
One concern is the property will be affected by the future second phase of the Virtue Road improvement project.
“The applicant [Benjamin “Benny” Moorman, president of Benchmark Associates Inc.] has
met with the Town engineering staff to make sure that what he’s doing with this plat is being coordinated with our road improvement project,” Shipley said.
Another issue is a disagreement over the location of the right-of-way between the Town’s consulting firm working on the Virtue Road improvement project and the applicant, Shipley said.
As such, “one of the conditions for any approval of this plat would be that the right-of-way needs to be clear as to where that actually is as a condition of the approval of the plat,” he said.
“Another condition of the approval would be, obviously, obtaining the required signatures, of which the Town engineer is one of those, and he obviously wouldn’t sign the plat until the right-of-way is clear.”
Another issue involves a sanitary sewer easement that needs to be shown on the plat, which Shipley said is being addressed.
Regarding a note on the survey, Wiberley asked Moorman whether issues involving neighboring property owners had been resolved.
“No sir, they have not because they have not chosen to respond,” Moorman answered.
Regarding the right-of-way issue, Wiberley asked whether the Town had only a prescriptive right-of-way for road maintenance.
“Well, they have a prescriptive right-of-way because of the history of road maintenance,” Moorman said. “This property’s never been platted, so there was never a dedication.”
“Part of this plat is that the owner is willing to dedicate — on his own without the Town asking him — every bit of what amounts to the prescriptive right-of-way that the Town has,” he added.
Wiberley also raised another issue involving Lot 1, which encroaches on the Virtue Church driveway.
“Yes, into their access drive,” Moorman said.
“So, is that a conflict that also needs to be resolved?” Wiberley asked.
“It could be, but it’s not necessary,” Moorman answered. “It happens all the time.”
“Well, my concern is there seems to be a cascading series of events here where a lot of things are unresolved,” Wiberley said.
He requested postponement of the item because of the unresolved issues. However, Devlin had already made a motion, seconded by Tague, to approve the plat with the stated conditions.
“We don’t typically get those signatures until this board has acted,” Moorman said.
Myers confirmed that the Planning Commission’s approval typically comes before other required signatures.
“Historically, when we have a plat before the Commission, the very first signature that the applicant wants to attain because, quite frankly, it’s the most difficult signature, is the Planning Commission signature,” he explained. “I do think, chronologically, Mr. Moorman is doing it correctly.”
But Myers also acknowledged Wiberley’s concerns.
“Alderman Wiberley is right,” Myers said. “There is some unresolved issues; however, we’ve acted on plats with subject to’s before and the applicant knows that there’s T’s that must be crossed and I’s that must be dotted before he can ultimately go down to the courthouse and record the plat to actually have a lot to be able to sell.
“So, it behooves the applicant to resolve these items,” the chairman said. “And until the items are resolved, the Planning Commission, even though we’ve ratified it on this board, it’s actually not been memorialized with a signature.”
In other business, Town administrator David Smoak announced that November will mark Community Development Director Mark Shipley’s 30th anniversary with the Town.
“I just wanted to recognize that,” Smoak said. “Mark has done a fantastic job over those 30 years, and most people know he will be retiring next spring.”
Smoak also announced Shipley received the Tennessee chapter of the American Planning Association’s Planner of the Year Award on Monday, Oct. 12.
The commission also approved TDS Telecom’s request to install copper lines to serve businesses between 11305 and 11320 Station West Drive.
