CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The Killebrew, a proposed 307-acre, 1,378-unit, mixed-use development in the Rossview area, received a recommendation for zoning approval by the Regional Planning Commission Tuesday afternoon.

The development was originally announced in March by marketing group Tiberon Services on behalf of local developer Rossview Farms. The property is on Rossview Road, just south of Kirkwood Road and next to the under-construction Kirkwood school campus.

The project has been presented as a fully walkable, live-work-play community with housing, retail, education, entertainment and extensive greenspace.

According to the master plan submitted to the RPC by Rossview Farms, the project will include six districts: two high-density residential districts, two single-family residential districts, a “Main Street District” and a riverfront camp and recreation preserve.

The total number of residential units is projected at 1,378, including a combination of apartments, townhomes and single-family homes.

On Tuesday, Clarksville Christian School announced plans to build a new campus within the development.

Killebrew gets RPC greenlight

Rezoning for the Killebrew went before the Clarksville-Montgomery County Regional Planning Commission on Tuesday. Commissioners voted 6-1 to recommend approval with Michael Long voting no.

“Our company is grateful for the professionalism of the Planning Commission staff and for the vote of recommendation for our project by the commissioners,” Rossview Farms director Ronnie Moore told Clarksville Now. “Killebrew will create jobs, new public amenities, and more space for education in our county. We are excited to see the project take this major step.”

RPC Director Jefferey Tyndall presented the master plan, including street and district layouts, traffic predictions, housing and street elevations and project objectives.

Tyndall also noted the project is not connected to the widening of Rossview Road, which is in the planning stage and would run directly along the side of the development.

“I think it’s important to pause here. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about the current Rossview widening that is being discussed with TDOT and the county engineer. It has nothing to do with this plan. It is not being done to accommodate this plan. That road was being done to accommodate the CMCSS school system,” Tyndall said at the meeting.

He also noted that, should the rezoning be approved by the Montgomery County Commission, it would have to undergo multiple site plan reviews in order to be built.

Agent James Bagwell spoke in support of the rezoning on Tuesday.

“What you see before you today is almost two years in the making,” Bagwell told commissioners. “The plan is a multi-use community, a community that is walkable and bikeable. … It’s also a community that focuses on education and the arts.”

When asked for examples of similar communities, Bagwell likened the Killebrew to Westhaven in Franklin.

‘Rossview Farms’ proposal is not the answer’

Three Rossview Road residents spoke in opposition to the Killebrew project, two of whom called it an example of inside baseball between local leaders and developers.

“Rossview Farms’ proposal to develop a mixed-use planned unit development is not the answer to the Rossview area’s local need for housing. It does not follow the precedent set by the areas surrounding the planned site,” said Walter M Silvey Jr., who owns property across the street. “Montgomery County does not need a utopian mixed-use community based on the crowded Atlanta suburbs or the areas around Disney World.”

Silvey also noted that Moore sold adjacent property to Montgomery County for the construction of a new school complex. That sale occurred in October 2019, according to a report by The Leaf Chronicle. Moore accepted an offer of $20,000 per acre with the condition that his company, Moore Construction, would serve as site contractor and civil engineer for the school’s construction.

“Rossview Farms LLC has operated in good faith and in full transparency with county government, selling the industrial development board land for the Kirkwood campus and performing engineering and construction tasks at a cost that reduced the burden on taxpayers. This is a matter of public record that has been thoroughly reported by local media, and to make statements to the contrary is simply misleading and untrue,” Moore told Clarksville Now. “Our companies have been in business in Montgomery County since 1965. We will continue to offer our time as volunteers to local non-profits like Clarksville Christian School and to work as partners in good faith with local government whenever asked like we always have in the past.”

One of the two roads into the school campus – the west entrance – would go through Killebrew.

Another resident, Billy McCraw, whose farm is across the street from the Killebrew property, spoke against the widening of Rossview Road, the current plan for which would take his house and a portion of his farm. McCraw was asked to return to his seat, as his comments did not concern the rezoning application at hand.

Rezoning for the Killebrew development will now go before the County Commission. The county requires one vote to approve a rezoning.

The County Commission will hold an informal meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, May 2, when they are expected to discuss matter. Residents will have a chance to voice support or opposition at that time.

The vote is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, May 9.

Correction: A previous version of this article should have said commissioners voted 6-1 to recommend approval with Michael Long voting no.