News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville’s Planning Commission approved a proposal Monday splitting a hotel along South Jefferson Avenue into to separate parcels.
Planning Director James Mills explained a private roadway off Neal Street caused some issues when developing the plan.
“They’re wanting to split it so that the eastern building can be subdivided off. The problem with it is that portion of the property does not have frontage on a public street,” Mills said. “It does front a private drive that’s located on somebody else’s property. The proposal is to bring that section of the private drive up to city street standards and basically become a private street, which they can then subdivide off and have access to the eastern portion of the structures.”
The owner of the property, Neal Patel, made the proposal to split the facility into a Super 8 and Quality Inn hotels. The plan would add more parking along the edge of the roadway.
However, Mills said the proposal also created issues with the amount of traffic and the future development of the private drive.
“Some of the discussion tonight was the potential for this private drive ever becoming a public street and possibly extending all the way to Veterans (Drive), providing us with a parallel access street to Jefferson (Avenue) which would potentially alleviate some traffic off Jefferson,” Mills said. “There’s some issues there with topography and sinkholes, but it does line up where you could potentially do that.”
Mills said despite the possibility, the neighboring landowners have plans to develop their property in the future, thereby denying that possibility.
A traffic study by the city’s Public Works Department revealed nearly 900 cars utilize that roadway, although most of that traffic is caused by pizza delivery through a nearby Pizza Hut.
The Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the proposal.
