Residents had big turnout in opposition to grocery store project
photo by Gail Perry
The Signal Mountain Town Council voted Wednesday night to deny a controversial zoning change request from Low Density Residential to Highway Commercial in order to build a Food City supermarket.
The public hearing drew an overflow crowd of interested residents - most of them in opposition and wearing T-shirts to show it.
Town Attorney Phil Noblett laid out the council’s responsibility and said he was there to make sure that the town’s actions were fair. The council’s responsibility was to decide if the rezoning would be good for the community and to consider the rights of the owners of the property in question as well as the rights of the community. The procedure for rezoning is that a recommendation is made by the planning commission, but it is the responsibility of the council to make the actual decision.
At their April meeting, the planning commission outlined some conditions for rezoning the property that would be compatible with the land use plan created in 2006 and revised in 2008. Because the recommendation was decided on a vote of six to one to deny the request, the reasons for denial were never sent to the town council. After the meeting when this issue was discussed for the first time, City Manager Boyd Veal was asked to add conditions to the ordinance before the council voted.
Conditions that were put on the ordinance included maintaining 4.59 acres of conservation area and having a tree survey done for this space with requirements for replacing any trees that might be damaged during construction. No additional access would be allowed if TDOT did not approve another access point from Taft Highway. A landscape buffer of 40 feet would be required between all adjacent homes, and all equipment would need to be screened from any viewpoint. There could only be four parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of building and tree islands would be in the lots. There were also requirements dealing with stormwater run-off, lighting, noise, deliveries and hours of operation. All conditions were agreed to by the Keith Corporation.
“The Keith Corporation are neighbors and we appreciate their interest in investing in our community,” said Mayor Chris Howley. And, he said he liked the drawing of the development very much, but he could not support the project because of the number of people that he had heard from in opposition.
Councilman Dan Landrum, who is also a member of the planning commission, said his vote was against because the land use plan identifies that property as “of the step-down variety, and this is not that,” he said. Step-down, he said would be transitional use such as residential or office in nature.
Vice Mayor Dick Gee said that the reasons for denial from the planning commission were needed to base a decision on. "We can deny this and hope that the perfect development comes along," he said, but it might never come, and an opportunity would be missed. He said the town had been given “a reasonable and worthy proposal.” However, it seems to be contrary to what the people want, he said. In large part this development could determine what the town would become, he stated.
Council member Amy Speek said she liked the plan and considered it a good proposal, but that the number of calls and emails against it were overwhelming. Only five people had told her they were for it, she said. It is the council’s duty to vote for what the people want, she said.
Councilman Robert Spalding said that people’s opinions need to be considered, but this is an excellent opportunity for the town. He said he believes that ultimately a large store will be on Signal Mountain, in Walden or in the county and that trucks will still come through the town. He said he had a problem with the planning commission, since its members previously did not seem to have a problem expanding the commercial district at Albert Road for a large medical office.
Mr. Landrum’s motion to deny the rezoning request passed on a vote of four to one to deny, with Councilman Spalding abstaining. With the failed vote, there will be no further action on this matter.
An update to the water system proposal was given by City Manager Boyd Veal. He and the mayor have had a first meeting for negotiating the sale of the town’s water system with both Tennessee American Water and Walden Ridge Utility. Follow-up meetings are scheduled for Thursday. It is hoped that a draft contract will be ready from one or both companies by the town’s next agenda meeting on June 28. Those draft contracts will then be sent to the planning commission, which meets on July 5, with a possible first vote by the council at the regular meeting on July 9.
Overflow crowd
photo by Gail Perry