The November planning meeting started at 7pm on Tuesday night.
The agenda and minutes were approved. There were changes made to the order of the agenda. Online, Settlers Ridge was item #11, it was moved to item #1. Burrus Ridge was originally item #2, it was moved to item #11.
Item #1 (Public Hearing) Settlers Ridge/RCB Properties, LLC: Requests Recommendation to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen for street acceptance of Settlers Ridge Subdivision. This is an older neighborhood on the Sumner County side of town. The developer had not finished the curbs and some road repairs were needed. Their bond had been extended over 2-3 years. The question was asked if the buffer was also completed. Yes, everything has now been completed. Approved
Item #2- Fields at Oakwood Phase 5, Item #3 Copes Crossing Phase 1B, Item #4 Copes Crossing Phase 2, Item #5The Parks Phase 4. All of these items were final plat approvals. A couple of questions were asked about numbers. The Parks has four phases, but included is 3A and 3B, and 4A and 4B. There are no increases to the number of homes. Approved
Item #6 White House Shops/G. B. White House, LLC: Requests Site Plan Approval for construction of approximately 78,000 sq ft of total retail space including a grocery and shopping space. Property is referenced as Robertson County Tax Map 107I, Group B, Parcel 054.00. Property is zoned C-2, General Commercial and is located at the SE quadrant of Raymond Hirsch Parkway and Highway 76. Authorized Agent: G. B. White House, LLC This is for an unnamed large grocery store. They have the TDEC and TDOT approvals. The traffic study has been approved by TDOT. There will be a new signal, a full turn lane on 76 and extra turn lanes by the Dollar Tree. The city is satisfied with the site plan. Besides the grocery store, there will be three out buildings with commercial space. There is plenty of parking for the store and the commercial space in the other buildings. Approved
Item # 7 (Public Hearing) Core5 Industrial Partners, LLC-Lisa Ward: Requests Recommendation to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to rezone 37.09 acres from C-2, General Commercial to I-1, Light Industrial. Property is referenced as Robertson County Tax Map 106, Parcel 175.00 and is located at Love’s Lane and Union Road. Owner: Brian W. Harper and Lindsey Harper Authorized Agent: Lisa Ward, Core5 Industrial Partners, LLC The owner of this property is asking for 21 of the 37 acres to be rezoned from C-2 to I-1 (light industrial). John Michael from Core5 spoke to the project. This is specialized industrial warehousing. Mr. Michael has spoken with both the planning director and the city attorney and has concluded that their project meets the requirements for rezoning. Nicole Williams of Core5 also spoke about the project. This build fits the innovation character area in the city’s comprehensive plan. I-1 is an appropriate in this area, in fact it is the “most appropriate” according to the comprehensive plan. Given that the project has conformity of the letter and the spirit of the plan, it fits neatly. The parcels around it are already I-1 as well. Lisa Ward, senior vice president of capital deployment, spoke next. Core5 is a national commercial builder. They build class A light industrial projects. This will be a 300k square foot building with rear loading. They have projects in Atlanta, Memphis, and Nashville. They just built a 900k square foot building in Lebanon TN. They leased the building to Walmart. It added 800 jobs, robotics, and it will be a prototype for Walmart. When asked what percentage is leased before the build is complete, Ward answered almost 100%. Nashville currently only has a vacancy rate of 2.4%. No one else spoke to this project. Approved
Items 8-10 are all part of the same industrial area in White House. All three items were public hearings.
(Public Hearing)Item # 8 Cornfield Properties: Requests Recommendation to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to rezone 48.24 acres from R-20, Low Density Residential to I-1, Light Industrial. Property is referenced as Robertson County Tax Map 117, Parcel 058.05. Property is located at Union Road Owner: Cathy D. Wright
(Public Hearing) Item # 9 Sherry L. Eden: Requests Recommendation to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to rezone 36.09 acres from R-20, Low Density Residential to I-1, Light Industrial. Property is referenced as Robertson County Tax Map 117, Parcel 058.04. Property is located at Melton Road/Union Road. Owner: Sherry L. Eden
(Public Hearing) Item # 10 Hutson & Lempicki Property: Requests Recommendation to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to rezone 59.6 acres from R-20, Low Density Residential to I-1, Light Industrial. Property is referenced as Robertson County Tax Map 117, Parcel 058.06. Property is located at Union Road. Owner: Clif Hutson Phillip Kelly of Kelly Dairy got up to speak first. He has no objections top people selling their land. However, there are already traffic issues on Union. What are the plans to handle the traffic? How are the roads going to be addressed prior to the developments? Will truck traffic be on Union, or will there be another entrance into the industrial area?
Mr. Herman responded. This is the area the economic development board and the TVA are involved with. Phase one is complete as far as the studies are concerned. The four owners involved need to get the zoning in place before they are able to sell to a company for industrial development. Several companies have come forward expressing interest. The city is looking at new ways to get into these properties. Sage Road is one. There will need to be multiple access points. The goal is to look for businesses that will have limited trucks and require less water than other industries. There isn’t much in the way of water in that area, and the natural gas is weak. The city is looking to bring in high skilled jobs. Ceagus Clark asked how far Hester Drive would been to be extended. Herman stated that the city has a grand from TDOT for the roads and these new industries will not be using Hester, they would be using Sage Road. Mike Honeycutt asked if there is talk of a new exit off of 65 at Union. Herman replied that Union is too close to exit#108. If they ever added another exit it would be at New Hall, but that is a $30 million project. Long term, Union will need to be improved from 76 to Melton Road. The new zoning will help the city secure funds and or grants for improvements. Annexation and rezoning make it easier for these companies coming in. They have less that needs to be done before they can start a new project. Mr. Kelly asked who will be responsible for purchasing right of ways in a Union Road upgrade since most of the road is county. Herman stated that the city has so many other areas of traffic that need to be fixed, he has no idea even when Union upgrades would begin. Ceagus Clark added that portions of Union will be widened as industrial development begins. He also added that he received a phone call from a woman that could not make it to the meeting but wanted to be added to the minutes that she was not happy about the idea of more traffic on Union. Mike Powers lives on Union and just found out about this project. Union is a Google reroute for I65 traffic. There are more than just a few people concerned about this industrial area. Tim Murphy then said, it’s going to get worse before it gets better people.Lastly, the conversation turned to Melton Road. There are no plans to use Melton for this project and the Melton property has removed the south most 10 acres from the annexation request. Approved
Item # 11 Burrus Ridge/Cesco.: Requests Preliminary Plat Approval for 653 single family lots. Property is referenced as Robertson County Tax Map 117, Parcel 008.00. Property is zoned R-20, Low Density Residential and is located at New Hall Road, bounded by I-65 and North Swift Road. Owner: Walton International Group, Inc. This request was deferred last month so that the city could talk with the county about traffic and road concerns. The county has the traffic study and agrees with the improvements that Lennar is promising. Jason Reynolds, city engineer, states that there are traffic issues now, and those will just increase with the new development. Dolly Peay asked what the plan for traffic was? Valerie Webb asked the board if they needed an executive session. The board was adjourned for roughly 10 minutes.
Mr. Herman came back with a statement. The full statement can be read here. The bottom line of what was said is in the traffic improvements. Lennar is only responsible for the INCREASE in the traffic, not the issues that already exist.
Herman asked that the improvements be made immediately and that if the board denies their request the city would be open to litigation since Lennar has by right zoning. Dolly Peay asked if Union Road access would take the traffic off of New Hall. Wendy from Lennar stated that traffic will go to Union but she has no idea at what phase of the build the light will be added to Union and 76. Most likely the light will be added during phase 2 of development. Phase one includes 152 homes that will be completed before the light is added. Union and New Hall both need lights at 76, but Lennar is not responsible for the light at new Hall. The city is going to have to look into getting that added. Peay stated that the timing is the issue for her. There will be an additional 152 homes before the light is installed. Robertson County has hired a traffic consultant stated Reynolds. They will be reviewing traffic on 76. Some of 76 is city, some is county, and the New Hall/76 intersection is out of city limits. Wendy from Lennar spoke again. The traffic engineer reviewed their study, and the methodology is sound. Lennar will work with the county and finalize with the county when they are in the phase two planning stage. Herman stated that Union Road will not be usable by the development until Swift Road is upgraded. All traffic will be on New Hall. Kevin from Lennar then stated they are not far enough in engineering for the traffic details. Herman asked what are the access points? New Hall Road will absorb all traffic. Peay asked if they have any authority to require the light first. Kevin from Lennar added that the county and state are involved with the signal so he has no idea, they may not be able to add the light first. Ceagus Clark added that the same issue is being dealt with on Tyree Springs. TDOT needs full construction information first before the sign off on lights. The turn lanes on New Hall however, are not tied to any phase. Kevin stated that more information would be added into the final plat. Adam McCormick stated that a smaller phase one would be helpful. A motion was made to approve by Mike Honeycutt and no one would second. The motion sat for a long while. McCormick asked if anyone needed more discussion. Tim Murphy asked Lennar if they would sue the city if they were denied. Once again, a motion was made by Honeycutt to approve. Dolly Peay gave the second. The voice vote was not working so they call for a raise of hands. Honeycutt, Peay, and McCormick voted to approve. Wilkinson, Hutson, and Murphy voted to deny. Mayor Bibb then asked if he was able to vote. McCormick told him he had to to break the tie. There was some confusion as to his vote. Finally he stated he was voting to approve the preliminary plat approval for Lennar Homes. Approved (4-3)
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Again, I believe Lennar’s comment regarding Tyree only includes changes by HB Williams, no one seems to be wanting to discuss the extra traffic already there as a result of the new neighborhood by the police station, the new one across the the greenway on Tyree (Cades Cove?), as well as Lennar’s new neighborhood at the Old Dorris property. It’s also a popular cut through from Portland to Hendersonville, as Portland and Orlinda continue to see growth, that is also impacting us living off of Tyree currently. Still no left turn signal at WHHS.
Still, no one is even discussing, they only extended the light timing so there aren’t as many running the light. But regardless, as we saw yesterday with the accident near Marlin Rd. On Tyree, it’s getting heavier and traffic is faster. I get passed near Dorris Farms on solid yellows weekly.
It’s mind boggling that these that are SERVING our community do not have email. They’d be hearing from quite a few community members if they had one. I suspect that may be why they do not. I think it needs to be a prerequisite of serving. Work schedules are crazy and family time limited, they need to have a way of reaching them accommodating those that can’t pick up the phone 9-5, 9-6, or even to 7 p.m. My day starts at 5:30 and ends about 8 p.m. most of my week. If I have something I need done, generally it’s on line.
Thanks Nikki. Great information!