LaCroix sworn in, residents address zoning

Evans Road resident Greg Wiberley addressed proposed plans affecting Evans Road.
He related a situation when “Emerald Youth Foundation began meeting with community leaders to explore ways to serve more young people and families” by using Chilhowee Park, pointing out the amount of public and city participation.
“Now, contrast that process to the Town of Farragut’s efforts starting in 2022 to take property from residents for a greenway,” Wiberley said. “In the years since that initial effort, no notices have been sent to the affected residents, no efforts were made to engage the affected neighborhoods, and any references to the Town’s plans were buried in the back of the newspaper under non-descriptive agenda items.
“I think that Emerald and the city conducted themselves with both transparency and sincerity and that mode of engagement with the residents should serve as a valuable teaching moment for the Town of Farragut,” he added.
On another note, Louise Povlin, a Farragut Municipal Planning Commissioner, talked about the zoning of estate-sized lots.
“In December 2012, under the leadership of Mayor Ralph McGill, a founding member of the Town of Farragut, the Farragut Municipal Planning Commission adopted an updated Comprehensive Land Use Plan,” she said.
“One of the goals in that plan was to encourage greater housing choices,” Povlin said. “Since December 2012, the Town’s addressed this goal. We’ve checked many boxes and provided a variety of residential choices with one exception.
“There is one glaring missed opportunity that needs to be addressed in the Town’s zoning ordinance, and that is estate-sized lots,” she said. “Currently, if a property owner wants to subdivide his property into estate-sized lots less than 5 acres, his only option is to request rezoning his property to R-1, rural residential, and request numerous variances.
“R-1 is intended for a typical residential subdivision with half-acre lots and requires conditions that aren’t necessary or realistic for property subdivided for estate-sized lots,” Povlin said. “In the past few years, there have been three instances where property owners’ efforts to subdivide their respective properties for estate-sized lots were complicated by the lack of a zoning district that accommodated their respective visions.
“We should be encouraging this opportunity, not making it very difficult and confusing for both property owners and the planning commissioners to sort through,” she said.
“That’s food for thought,” Mayor Ron Williams replied.
“How big are you talking when you say estate-sized lots?” Alderman Alex Cain asked.
“That will ultimately be a discussion with the Planning Commission and ultimately the Board of Mayor and Alderman,” Povlin answered. “I think it’s 2 acres. (Community Development director) Mark Shipley would tell you its 1 ½.
“We just approved a (plan) for the individual who needed a second house on his property,” she said. “We restricted that to a certain sized lot — ½ (acres) — so you could probably lean toward 1 ½ (acres), but I think that’s a discussion for the community to have.”