Brookmere, Kingsgate to connect
Homestead Landholders, developer for Brookmere subdivision along Virtue Road, received the go-ahead on building a road that would connect that subdivision with West Kingsgate Road.
Farragut Municipal Planning Commission granted the approval during its meeting Thursday,
Feb. 21.
FMPC already discussed the road connection at its meeting in January, Farragut Community Development director Mark Shipley said.
“There is a stub out from Kingsgate into the Brookmere property, but it’s in a location that’s not topographically favorable,” he said. “The developer is trying to find a place to get a more favorable approach into Kingsgate.”
They will be constructing the street on the west end of a house lot, mirroring an existing driveway, Shipley said.
“We decided to go with an easement, rather than a right-of-way, for a number of reasons,” he added, noting a right-of-way would create setback and lot size issues.
Also, he said a right-of-way would create issues for the adjacent property owner on Lot 24.
“So, we felt like an easement would be a better option,” Shipley added.
To achieve the easement, the developers needed a variance on subdivision regulations, which FMPC approved, to reduce the street width from 26 to 20 feet.
“It will be a public street connection, but we’re trying to make it as discrete as possible because it wasn’t planned for a public street,” Shipley said. “We want it, basically, to look like a nice driveway.
“It will be built to public street standards,” he added.
“(The developers) will construct a section of the street that would go near the existing garage of this house lot they’ve purchased. They will bring that part of the street over to the western property line as far as they can to get it further away from that home.”
Russ Rackley, engineer on the project, said the road will be bollarded off until that phase of the development is started.
Since the easement would be narrow, Shipley said the Town could require “No Parking” signs on the easement street.
“If it becomes a problem, we can post it,” FMPC member Noah Myers said.
West Kingsgate resident Richard Anderson, who lives two houses up from the proposed road, questioned the road construction.
“I don’t understand how you can buy a house and then put a road next to it,” he said. “They said there is another street 10 houses down but it doesn’t fit their criteria.”
“It doesn’t fit our criteria,” Myers responded. “It’s too steep. This (connection) is a hybrid. It’s trying to find a compromise that seems to be a good way to have some connectivity.”
In other business, FMPC:
• approved the final plat, subject to the developer’s addressing staff conditions, for Brass Lantern 31-lot subdivision on 20.22 acres at 801 McFee Road and located between McFee Manor and McFee Park. It calls for 30 house lots and one open-space lot.
• approved a request from Knoxville Utilities Board to extend a gas main along a portion of Everett Road from Split Rail subdivision to Town boundaries.
• approved a request for TDS Telecom to extend a 24-strand fiber optic cable along roughly 50 feet of the west side of North Campbell Station Road and then about 350 feet on the north side of Jamestowne Boulevard to service the Farragut Community Center/Knox County Senior Center project at 239 Jamestowne Blvd.
