News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville Board of Zoning Appeals approved a variance for parking lots at Highlands Residential Services’ old Claude Darwin property at Boatman and Darwin Streets.
Community Development Director Jon Ward said the property is in the process of redevelopment by a third party. He said the current zoning code requires 1.25 parking spaces per bedroom for the first 50 units, and after that requires two parking spaces per unit regardless of the number of bedrooms
“In this redevelopment plan they are going to have a considerable amount, a majority of the units are planned to be 1 bedroom units,” Ward said. “So they asked to provide 1.25 parking spaces per bedroom for the whole redevelopment plan of the property.”
Ward said because of this, the current parking ordinance could be seen as excessive for what the developer is trying to achieve. The proposed redevelopment will increase the unit county from 59 units with 134 bedrooms to 102 units and 156 bedrooms.
“The way our parking ordinance is written we get a cushion in the parking, we require more parking on the first 50 units,” Ward said. “In this redevelopment plan, they are proposing to use the same building footprint, possibly add a second story to modernize those.”
The developer agreed to purchase the 11.5 acres for $3 million in cash. Highlands Residential Services approved the letter of intent in June.
