Martin's request to build the 5 unit apartment building on the small lot had to go before the Lenoir City Planning Commission for approval. Martin serves as vice chairman of the planning commission. Martin's request was approved unanimously with Martin himself abstaining on the vote.

Nothing wrong with all this unless you oppose building a 5 unit apartment building on a postage stamp lot in a community of single family homes.

After gaining all approvals for the apartments with the intent to build, Mr. Martin now has the property listed for sale with the advertisement that the property is "approved 5 unit apartment building" but could be a single family home also.

In August 2021, Martin paid $22,000.00 for the property now asking $44,900.00 for the property.  

Moral of the story, just because a  realtor/developer says they're going to do something, doesn't necessarily mean they will.

Total Disaster 8

I've reported on many of the big residential developments being allowed in Lenoir City. However, there are a lot of much smaller developments that don't get the same press as the big ones but still impact the communities they're allowed to locate in.

On Tuesday's Lenoir City Planning Commission meeting agenda is a request for a "5 unit apartment structure" at 701 North F Street.  Local realtor, David Martin, is requesting to build the apartments. In order to build the apartments, Martin will also have to be given set back variances for the building to fit on the .16th of an acre lot.

It appears that most of the homes in that area are single family residences. My guess is, most of the home owners in that area have no idea that a 5 unit apartment structure is coming to their neighborhood.

Whether it's a development of hundreds of homes or apartments or smaller developments, they all have the same effect in overwhelming the local infrastructure and apparently, city officials do not care.