Fight for new subdivision continues
Parker Wright news-herald.net
A proposed housing development has sparked controversy with Loudon City Council, the Loudon Regional Planning Commission and residents of a neighboring subdivision. The property on Queener Road is currently a soybean field and a rezoning request to make the property an R-3 residential zone was recently brought before council. A vote failed because no council member would second the motion by Councilman Tim Dixon.
The
rezoning request had been approved unanimously by the planning
commission.
Bryan Petett, a commercial broker who wants to develop the land into a neighborhood, went before the commission May 6 in hopes of clearing up concerns or questions.
Residents of neighboring
Hampton Place put together a petition listing concerns such
as additional traffic, decrease in home values, water
runoff, ruining their view and noise and pollution.
“I believe that our entire
subdivision is still on board with not wanting that
subdivision,” Dameon Splawn, Hampton Place Homeowners
Association president, said. “We know for one Queener Road
definitely couldn’t handle extra traffic. I know one of my
other neighbors has also been hit just turning onto Queener
Road because there’s not a turning lane to turn onto Queener
Road.”
Ty Ross, Loudon city manager,
said new construction projects are planned for Queener Road
in the coming year.
Petett told the commission he
wants to meet with residents of Hampton Place to get input.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, he asked commissioners for an
extra 30 days before any decisions are made so the meeting
can happen.
“We’ve got a strong interest
in that property,” he said. “We want to develop that
property to the extent where we feel like it’s going to
benefit the citizens of Loudon County and Loudon city the
most. If these folks truly don’t want that, then we’ve got
maybe another opportunity for a different type of product as
well, and they may like that. I just ask the board to give
me that time to visit with these folks because I think their
concerns are important, and I want to make sure they have
accurate information.”
The commission granted Petett
the additional 30 days to meet with Hampton Place residents.
Petett said the proposed
subdivision, as well as another residential project he’s
working on, can help Loudon.
“Folks, we’ve got 200
homes that we’ve got planned for Loudon,” Petett said.
“Of those 200 homes, that’s $47 million in construction
costs. That’s an average price of $235,000 per home.
That’s a tax, property tax base alone of $375,000 to
Loudon and the city of Loudon. That’s not counting the
roughly 100 to 150 construction workers building the
homes. That’s not counting the sales taxes and the other
things that are involved when you build homes and you
move families in.
“These homes are for
families with household incomes of $70,000 to $80,000 a
year,” he added. “That’s your core population of Loudon.
… When you’ve got housing needs that you can’t fulfill,
then you don’t have a workforce. If you don’t have a
workforce, you’re not going to be able to increase your
industry to have better jobs.”
Petett was disappointed
council wouldn’t even motion to discuss the zoning
change.
“It’s unbelievable to me
that the city council with the exception of Tim Dixon,
the rest of the three — Tammi Bivens, Tim Brewster and
Johnny James — when this thing was brought up to them,
we couldn’t even get a second to discuss it,” he said.
“How many thousands and thousands of dollars is this
city going to throw away? What was more astonishing to
me than anything I heard in the last city council
meeting that they had, the very next item on the agenda
was, ‘Folks, I hate to tell you, we’re going to have to
borrow some money to pave some of these streets in the
town’.”
Loudon Mayor Jeff Harris
said he was disappointed with the way council handled
the request.
“Because there was no
discussion on it, the planning commission doesn’t
know what the problems were,” he said. “What didn’t
council like about it this time? I feel like we owe
them some sort of explanation. If the concerns truly
are traffic or whatever, then we need to get a
second on the motion so we can discuss the issues,
but that never happened, because it just never got a
second. It really wasn’t handled appropriately I
don’t think. That’s why it’s going to come back up
for discussion, and I expect it to get a vote up or
down.”
At Monday’s council
workshop, the matter was on the agenda again and
discussed briefly before being set aside for May’s
regular meeting.
Councilman Johnny
James has been vocally opposed to the rezoning. He
has been leasing and farming the property since the
1990s.
Harris said Loudon
needs affordable housing to support jobs and
strengthen the economy.
“The rooftops we have
in Loudon knock us out every time because we don’t
have the density commercial businesses are looking
for,” he said. “This is what we need — more housing.
This is affordable housing where it fits the niche
of a couple that’s in the $40,000-$45,000 a year
range. And this is a $200,000-$250,000 home that
fits their budget, and that’s the kind of people
we’re trying to attract. So I’m going to continue
pushing for it. So if there’s something we need to
change, something we need to do different, we need
council to share what those things are and see if we
can’t come to some sort of agreement on it.
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5/20/20