CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A design overlay that would require stronger building materials and sign restrictions along Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway was rejected by the Clarksville-Montgomery County Regional Planning Commission this week. Instead, plans for a citywide design overlay will be considered.

The MLK Parkway overlay would have required high-quality materials such as brick, stone and metal for new buildings. And it would have required 20-foot-tall, backlit signs to have a dark exterior and reduced signage size, excluding signage on C-4 properties within 100 feet of the interstate.

Five years on back burner

The overlay plans started in December 2019, when the City Council approved a resolution creating the MLK Parkway design overlay district. That resolution was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was revisited in August this year, when it was determined that the best way forward was to create an ordinance that would extend the existing Madison Street Corridor overlay up through MLK Parkway.

But the Land Advisory Committee and RPC staff opposed extending the overlay because it would apply only to new construction, would stretch resources and labor, and would have minimal impact on the land that was already developed.

At Tuesday’s RPC meeting, commission member and Councilperson Stacey Streetman, who originally sponsored the resolution, questioned why it took so long to revisit it. “We can get a public meeting for the sign ordinance in two to three weeks, and here we are; it took us another six months for us to be looking at this,” Streetman said. With how long it took for them to address the overlay, she said, they should implement it while waiting for the citywide plan.

Planning Director Jeffrey Tyndall said that although overlays are helpful in providing additional regulations when needed – such as height requirements for buildings near the airport – they slow down development time by “requiring two sets of rules instead of one set of rules.” Tyndall supported waiting to extend the Madison Street Corridor overlay requirements citywide, rather than implementing a smaller overlay that might be scrapped. The Madison Street overlay would be generous to builders while still keeping a high-quality community. He estimated it would take 18 months to implement, but others were skeptical.

During the public hearing, former City Councilperson Bill Summers spoke in favor of expansion. He said the city would take “closer to two to three years to complete a citywide overlay.” He spoke on the benefits of overlays in the past, saying the Madison Street Publix and adjoining strip mall look acceptable today because there were building requirements in the overlay.

“Anything that’s not in code and writing is a suggestion, and a suggestion can be thrown out the window easily,” Summers said. He oversaw the Madison Street Corridor overlay, and though it was heavily developed at the time, there’s still constant construction and demolition. He says the same would be true for this extension.

Despite Summers’ and Streetman’s arguments, the board voted to disapprove the extension, citing the cost to implement and later change the overlay. The motion for disapproval passed with the chairman casting the tie-breaking vote.

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Gold Landing construction

In another matter, a plan to approve a plat for Gold Landing, located west of Bell Road and north of Needmore Road, brought controversy in regard to storm water drainage. The plat would allow for construction of three-person homes rather than one-person homes.

The first opposition speaker, John Christiano, said there was inadequate storm water management, and the designers failed to address the water displacement the plat will cause. He also cited increased traffic as a major concern.

The second speaker, Brad Morrow, said the plat should have never gone through because the City Council rezoned the area despite a recommendation against it from the RPC. He said promises were made to expand Bell Road, but there’s nothing in writing that guarantees that.

The engineer for the plat, Cal Burchett of McKay-Burchett & Co., said they’ll work with the Street Department to make sure not to raise the 100-year flood plain. He also said the plan to expand Bell Road is in writing, awaiting signatures from the Planning and Street Departments.

Though the staff and Planning Commission were against the original rezoning, the City Council had the ultimate authority and passed it. Though the RPC didn’t expect this outcome, they’ve come to an agreement that satisfies the Fire and Street Departments. The board approved the motion, with Commissioner Micheal Long abstaining.

Clarification: The RPC staff has said it would rather have citywide regulations than one corridor at a time. There is not yet a plan to present that to the City Council.

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