Clarksville City Council denies rezoning request for MLK Parkway apartments
The Clarksville City Council voted against a rezoning request Thursday that the property owner said would have allowed for about 210 new "upscale" apartment units off of Martin Luther King Jr., Parkway.
Outweighing the ongoing community chorus about a need for more housing inventory in rapidly-growing Clarksville-Montgomery County were concerns about traffic flows in the vicinity of the proposed rezoning.
There were fears of increased traffic potentially overwhelming a dead-end street, Jones Road. It was estimated that the three-story apartment buildings being considered would have added well over 400 vehicles to the daily traffic mix in that vicinity.
In the end, the majority of the council said "no" to Richard Tucker's application for a zone change from C-5 Highway & Arterial Commercial District to R-4 Multiple-Family Residential District.
The site approaching 20 acres would have been on the south frontage of MLK Parkway, near the Memorial Drive intersection, and also along the west frontage of Jones Road.
Tucker had said he had a buyer for the property who wanted to develop "nicer apartments," and he was seeking to provide a "transition zone between commercial and single-family and provide multi-family development."
Despite the council's no vote, the Regional Planning Commission staff and RPC voting body had recommended approval.
Neighbors in the vicinity had concerns about the rezoning, including County Commissioner David Harper, who successfully appealed to the council, noting that Jones Road is a "dead-end, two-lane road."
It had been suggested that motorists needing to turn left out of the property could make intersection U-turns on the Parkway, to which Mayor Joe Pitts responded, "U-turns are illegal in the city of Clarksville.
"I just don't see it damaging the neighbors," Tucker told the council before the vote.
"Change is never easy, but this is change for the good," he said, adding as part of the project, plans with the city Street Department were in the works to improve Jones Road enabling it to handle more traffic.
With the "no" vote, by RPC rule, Tucker would now have to wait a full year before seeking another rezoning of the property. But his argument that Clarksville desperately needs the variety of housing inventory may be well taken.
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According to the Clarksville Regional Multiple Listing Service, there were 767 residential real estate closings in March, far outdistancing the same month a year ago when the total was 572.
Through the first three months of 2022, the total number of residential real estate closings within the Clarksville MLS area is 1,778.
For the same three months of 2021, that number was considerably less, at 1,465.
Average residential square footage sold so far this year in the Clarksville area is 1,940, which is just slightly above a year ago.
And prices are now soaring in the region.
The current average price of a home at closing in and around Montgomery County is $312,893, compared to $249,050 at this time last year.
Homes are still selling fast in Clarksville. The average number of days it takes to sell a home now, from listing to closing, is 23. That's up slightly from just 17 days at this time a year ago.
There are currently 275 active residential real estate listings in the Clarksville market.
There are growing concerns surrounding all of this, and in part, it is what is driving more apartment, and "affordable housing" development all over the county, officials said.
Reach Jimmy Settle at jimmysettle@theleafchronicle.com or 931-245-0247. To support his work, sign up for a digital subscription to TheLeafChronicle.com.
This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: Clarksville City Council denies rezoning request for MLK Parkway apartments
