Cookeville To Consider Rezoning Request For West 9th And North Franklin

A controversial rezoning will be considered by the Cookeville City Council when they meet Thursday.

The rezoning request for the 11 acres on West 9th and North Franklin would allow for about 160 apartment units containing 412 bedrooms.

However, property owners in single-family residential homes living nearby the property have opposed the rezoning request, including Richard Barnes.

“When we looked at purchasing our home 20-years ago, we were concerned about the zoning on the vacant land on the North side of 9th Street,” Barnes said during a November Planning Commission meeting. “It was zoned RS-10, single-family residential and the comprehensive plan for that area was then, and still is low-density residential. An Apartment building dormitory is not low-density residential and is not a single-family development.”

The request calls for rezoning the property just West of Tennessee Tech from single-family residential to Planned Residential Development.

The city council will meet at 5:30 p.m. inside city hall.