Getting more specific

Sep. 20—Cumberland University's student body continues to grow, with a record number of students enrolled this fall.

Those 3,072 students are why Cumberland University came before the Lebanon City Council on Sept. 5 with rezoning requests for nine properties in the area surrounding campus.

"We want to accommodate our students," Cumberland University President Paul Stumb said. "We don't have enough space today for our students for housing. We don't have enough parking. We don't have enough places to feed our students. We don't have enough classroom space. We want to make available all the places, the facilities, the properties that we own, to accommodate our growing student demand."

All of the rezoning requests were to change properties with residential zonings like mixed housing (RXH) and medium density residential zoning (RD9) to university campus zoning (UC). Of the nine properties, only two were denied rezoning from the Lebanon City Council.

"What we are really seeking to do with those two properties is to unite them with properties already owned by the same entity, so that they can be released from their island state that they are in now," Cumberland University associate provost and general counsel Mark Hanshaw said.

There is no concrete plan for what Cumberland intended to do with those properties.

"They don't have plans for this property," ward 3 city councilor Camille Burdine said. "I started getting phone calls and emails from residents in the area. My constituents stated that they didn't want this to happen, and the zoning was too broad, especially with (the university) not having a plan. It is sandwiched between two streets of residential homes. It's not Cumberland on one side (of the properties) and a few homes on the other side. It is residential on both sides."

Neighbors like Tracy Parks came to the Sept. 5 meeting to share their concerns about the potential rezoning of 219 Pennsylvania Ave. and an unaddressed property on South Tarver Lane.

"There's a big difference in medium density residential (RD9), where we have a limitation of three-story buildings, and university campus, which is intended for the uses of a university," Parks said. "(Buildings) can go all the way up to five stories, and (they can) put in parking lots."

One concern that Parks brought forward is the varied allowed uses of property classified as university campus zoning. This includes a use referred to as extensive impact, which the Lebanon zoning code defines as publicly owned activities that impact the surrounding land due to hazards or nuisance characteristics, traffic, and parking.

"You have the ability to put in dormitories, food and beverage, general personal service, general retail trade and more problematic extensive impact," Parks said. "That is a major change on the interior of a residential block that has always been residential."

While a specific intended use for the two properties is not known, the university had an idea of how it would like to utilize the land.

"For those undeveloped properties, we would like to have the option to build additional student housing that would comport with the character of the neighborhood," Stumb said. "We'd like to have the capability to put some parking back there."

The properties had previously been purchased by Cumberland University and connect to properties zoned as university campus.

"All of these properties are contiguous to properties Cumberland University already owns," Hanshaw said. "If you look at those properties that are already zoned UC, the changes that are being requested here, against the current zoning of those additional properties, are changes that seems to be in keeping with the character of zoning decisions that have already been made for immediately-contiguous properties."

When the rezoning of the two properties were voted on, a tie had to be broken by Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell.

"That's councilor Burdine's ward, and the neighbors spoke out," Bell said. "When it it was a tie, I felt that I should support the councilor in that ward."

While Bell voted to deny the rezoning of the two properties, he still supported the idea of Cumberland University growing.

"Cumberland has owned the property for a while," Bell said. "They are expanding. As a former faculty member at Cumberland, I want Cumberland to grow. They're a vital part of our community and a big part of our economic engine, and so, Cumberland's success means Lebanon's success. It's really tied together."

Because the council voted to deny the rezoning, the properties are zoned the same as the surrounding neighborhood.

"Cumberland could do something with that property that fits the zoning that's already there," Bell said. "Apparently, that doesn't fit what they're thinking they might do with it. Maybe they want to open up their options (through rezoning). That (area) is part of the historic district, and I just believe that we needed more information before a rezone could take place."

If the university were to return before the city council with a plan for the property, Burdine stated that she would want it to be a specific plan and not a university campus zoning plan.