News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
An ordinance to rezone a property near Virginia Street and Second Avenue from low-density residential to high-density residential failed to move forward at the Algood City Council meeting Tuesday night.
The ordinance would change an 11,600-square-foot property from R-1 density to R-3 density to accommodate a proposed duplex.
Residents voiced concern about the potential to change the neighborhood should a duplex replace a dilapidated house and garage. Developer Andy Hammock said he felt it would be an improvement to the neighborhood and the community as a whole.
“Right now the property is valued at $37,000, and this would be a lot more property tax for the City of Algood,” Hammock said.”You got new businesses coming into town, you got a new pizza place, you got a new coffee shop there in downtown, I just figure this would benefit all that. Utilize the property, you know the lot’s big enough to do this.”
Council Member Ron Graves and Vice Mayor Luke Hill said they were concerned that allowing a rezoning would open the door for other uses in the future within the R-3 designation.
City Attorney Danny Rader suggested sending the ordinance back to the planning commission for further study.
“If there are other properties around this property that are duplexes that Miss Brown talked about, then those are probably existing non-conforming uses in R-1,” Rader said. “What might be better would be to send this back to the planning commission to look at all of the properties in the area (…) and consider or not rezoning all of those existing duplexes to R-3 with this so those are no longer non-conforming use.”
The motion failed for lack of a second.
“This does not mean Mr. Hammock that you can not refile the motion,” Mayor Lisa Chapman-Fowler said.
