Steve Picketts speaking at the Planning Commission
photo by Claire Henley Miller
Some McKenzie Farms residents spoke Monday in opposition of the proposed subdivision on Snowy Owl Road in Ooltewah.
Bell Development is over the subdivision, which is set to reside on 57 acres and include 224 lots of single-family homes and townhomes.
The design calls for 3.9 dwelling units per acre. Nearly half of the proposed subdivision would be used as open space.
Opposition arose at Monday’s Planning Commission meeting from some residents of McKenzie Farms, the development adjacent to the Snowy Owl Road property.
Resident Jeff Tindal, a certified planner, stated the subdivision lays almost two miles outside city limits and has much more density than anything in the neighboring area.
Mr. Tindal said the projected townhomes would set a precedent for future developments in the area.
He said he was not against the development of the property, but against taking the nature of the area and community, and making it twice as dense as the existing subdivision at McKenzie Farms.
Planning Commissioner Barry Payne made the point that there were subdivisions considerably further outside the city limits that were just as dense as what Bell Development plans to do.
While McKenzie Farms resident Ben Campbell commended Jay Bell, owner of Bell Development, for holding neighborhood meetings, he said his chief concern revolved around access on Peppertree Drive, which runs along the McKenzie Farms development and will be limited to emergency access only with the new subdivision.
In reply to the residents’ opposition, Mr. Bell said, “I do take the concerns of the neighbors at heart.”
He said he was working with what the market seemed to want right now, the goal being to enhance the property value of McKenzie Farms.
Mr. Bell asked planning commissioners to remove the first condition on the application, which called for a pedestrian pathway connecting his proposed development and the adjacent neighborhood, because he preferred for neighbors to use sidewalks instead of a path in the woods.
Mr. Bell also asked that planning commissioners alter the second condition in order to make Peppertree Drive an emergency exit only, instead of extending it to be a public road. It was stated Peppertree Drive would dead-end, and there would be another road in the planned unit development that connected to it by gate.
Planning Commissioner Eric Meyers said he normally thinks subdivisions of high density so far outside city limits are not good. But, in this case, he saw the need to support public infrastructure. Because of this, Mr. Meyers said having a high-density neighborhood next to the public school, Ooltewah Elementary, where kids could walk to school from their home was a good plan.
Yusuf Hakeem, city councilman and planning commissioner, acknowledged that Mr. Bell was attempting to work with the surrounding neighborhood. Councilman Hakeem made a motion to approve the application with the first condition lifted and second condition altered. The motion was seconded, and planning commissioners cast a unanimous vote to send the recommendation for the project on to the Hamilton County Commission.
On a different topic, opposition arose from Steve Pickett’s request to subdivide and build a new home on a 100-foot lot in St. Elmo.
Mr. Pickett’s construction company, Pickett Homes, owns the lot on 5100 Tennessee Ave. At the meeting Monday, Mr. Pickett presented his plans to subdivide the lot, which currently has a house built on one side, in order to build another house on the other side of the lot.
Tim McDonald, owner of personal property on Sunnyside Ave., stated there was an approved plan in St. Elmo in 2011 that called for moderate density. Mr. McDonald said building a home next to the one that already exists on the 5100 lot would make that area very dense.
Furthermore, he said he had a concern of safety because the existing house on the proposed lot caught fire in the 1970s. Mr. McDonald said he lived near the house that caught fire, and that the fire department feared the fire would spread from 5100 to 5102.
He thought the 5100 house could catch fire again because the chimney was not properly constructed, he said.
Daryl Stuart said he had lived across the street from the 5100 lot for 30 years, and his concern was one of parking access and storm water runoff. According to Mr. Stuart, he has plenty of water already coming down in front of his house, and the proposed house would only make that worse.
He said the new neighbor who recently moved in to the 5100 property has been parking down on 51st Street because of the steep parking.
“We don’t need another driveway right there across from the house. It’s not safe,” Mr. Stuart said.
In response to the opposition, Mr. Pickett stated the density of the lot in question would have five-foot offsets, which was the same as other homes in St. Elmo.
The Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve Mr. Pickett’s request to build a second home on the 5100 lot.
The request will go to the City Council for final determination.