News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Putnam Planning Commission deferred a decision on the preliminary plat for a proposed 54-lot subdivision on a 63-acre tract off of Medlin Road.
Several community members attended the meeting in opposition of the development. Planning Director Kevin Rush said the road going into the development does not currently meets width standards for that development size. However, he said recent legislature prohibits planning commissions from requiring developers to make improvements on existing right of way.
“The safest course for the planning commission and the county in my opinion, because I don’t think this portion of road will handle 50 lots of traffic,” Rush said. “Is deny the plat preliminarily, and once the road is brought up to whatever standard the rest of Medlin Road is, then the developer can resubmit it at that point.”
Rush said that based on the new law, the plat meets certain requirements but does not meet others based on the difficulty of defining those requirements. Engineer Patrick Rienks said he had concerns about the traffic of 54-units going on a 16-foot road regardless of if the improvements are made.
Developer Matt Sliger said the road improvements would have been part of his development plans. He said if he were to extend the road as far back as needed, it would no longer be profitable for him to develop. Sliger said he would likely not bring the plat back after the 30-day deferral.
“I’ve done my due diligence on my water line and now I’m being asked to spend, I don’t know, probably $35,000, $45,000 on a road that I can just tear up when I’m putting in the rest of the development on hopes that at that point this board may say, ‘Yeah we’ll approve this,'” Sliger said. “I mean that don’t make sense.”
Rush said he had an additional concern of extending the water line some 9,500 feet using the Cookeville Boat Dock Utility District. Sliger said
