New townhomes: Council gives first OK to rezone land
Oak Ridge City Council gave its first approval to rezoning land for a new housing development in Oak Ridge called Poplar Creek Townhomes.
The homes will be between Weigel's and Big Turtle Park on Oak Ridge Turnpike, developer Matt Varney told The Oak Ridger in an interview.
The property to be rezoned is 20.56 acres. Previously the property was zoned for a business development, but the new zoning is residential, a memo included in City Council's May 9 meeting agenda stated.
In order for the rezoning to go ahead, City Council will have to give the development's rezoning a second approval at a future meeting.
The first phase of the development would start with 20 attached townhomes. A second phase would include 26 attached townhomes, the memo stated.
Varney said he did not know the dates for construction due to the pending approvals, but he likely could not start construction until July. He said he planned to start this summer and have the first phase completed by spring 2023.
He said he would like the price of the townhomes to be between $279,000 and $289,000, but overall he wants them to stay affordable at under $300,000. However, he said he could not give a precise price because of the "volatility" of building material costs.
Each townhome would have three bedrooms and two and one-half bathrooms with a one-car garage.
"It's a pretty site," Varney told The Oak Ridger. He said the ones on the outer perimeter will look out onto the forest.
"I would have loved to have one of these when I was 25 to 30 years old," he said.
A 1.15 acre recreation area includes a trail, wildlife viewing platform and light exercise area as stated on the memo and shown on the plans included in the agenda.
Streets and sidewalks to serve the development total about 1.41 acres, the memo stated.
The measure passed unanimously. City Council member Jim Dodson made the motion, while City Council members Rick Chinn and Ellen Smith seconded.
Council members at the meeting discussed fears of East Fork Poplar Creek flooding.
"We can expect the flooding to get worse in the future. That's the way it tends to work," Smith said.
Developer Danny Kirby told City Council he "obviously" did not want to build homes in the flood plain. He said much of the flood plain would be part of the common area with trails.
Ben Pounds is a staff reporter for The Oak Ridger. Call him at (865) 441-2317, email him at bpounds@oakridger.com and follow him on Twitter @Bpoundsjournal.
This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Council gives first approval for rezoning for new development
