News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville’s Planning Commission denied a request to rezone a North Jefferson Avenue property near Tennessee Tech from residential to commercial Monday night.
The .53 acre property, located near 7th Avenue, is currently zoned RS-15, a low-density residential zoning. The property owner wants to use the location for a full-service hair salon.
Resident Susan Vandergriff said rezoning this plot of land would only lead to a domino effect of commercialization in a historic area of town.
“Let us work, you all and the neighborhood, to keep this area free of commercialization,” Vandergriff said. “And protect the residential areas to preserve the integrity of these older special neighborhoods.”
Debbie Fletcher proposed the redevelopment, said she did not plan to change the building. She said she was asking for the relocation because her salon is outgrowing its current location at 848 North Jefferson Avenue, in the University Zoning District. Salons are permissible in that zoning district.
“If this request does not pass we are still going to continue to search for another area in the very general vicinity,” Fletcher said. “So we can grow our square footage, so we can own our own building as well.”
Fletcher said she wants the commission to consider efforts to make the process smoother in the future to better support local small businesses.
Cookeville Citizen David Dickerson said his entire neighborhood is against the relocation, but that does not mean he does not support the business.
“No one is against this business, they are fine people,” Dickerson said. “If you change this neighborhood, it is broken, it can never go back.”
Community Development Director Jon Ward said the requested rezoning would be an encroachment of an higher intensity use into a residentially-zoned area.
The commission voted unanimously to deny the request.
