Tonight, Commission denied rezoning for a development of 80 condos (LDR) to 250 apartments (MDR) in South Knoxville. The developer argued that the 3500 new employees in the area needed housing, so the development would be "traffic neutral." This statement, of course, was totally at odds with his stated plan that the apartments would be "luxury."
Anybody knows how to swing a $1600/month apartment on $6/hour?
With some 60+ homeowners in attendance, Commission voted down the rezoing. Earlier in the evening, West Knox homeowners negotiated a developer down from 5 unis/acre to 4.
In both cases, the issue of the Sector Plan were brought to light and debated. Is the sector plan just a "suggestion" document, to be amended whenever we wish? Or is it something we only need to amend in dire circumstances?
If the Sector Plan is amended willy-nilly, then it needs to be reviewed and revised much more often than 7 years. Knox County *must* be able to plan the schedule for building infrastructure (roads and schools especially) so we don't always have to operate in "crisis mode."
Amazingly, the school zone for the 250 proposed apartments is already overcrowded and adding portable buildings. That issue alone should have killed the rezoing proposal in under 10 seconds. You can't add potentially 300-500 kids into a school zone that can't seat all the kids they have today.
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