Braxton Park subdivision residents are livid with a Henderson-Henderson County Joint Planning Commission recommendation to allow single family houses to be built on smaller lots than what had previously been approved for a planned section of the neighborhood.
The joint planning commission voted 7-2, with one commissioner abstaining, in favor of the recommendation, which now will go to the Henderson Board of Commissioners for final approval or denial.
Residents can appeal the planning commission’s recommendation. An appeal by the residents would trigger a public hearing on the zoning amendment in front of the City Commission before that body could vote on the matter.
Outside the Municipal Center assembly room after the vote, neighborhood residents were adamant that they would appeal. They also expressed frustration that the joint planning commission was biased toward builders and developers as several commissioners work or used to work in that field.
“So really we don’t have a fair vote,” said Holly Billiter, a resident of Culpepper Court in the subdivision.
That wasn’t the case, though, according to Kevin Richard, joint planning commission vice-chair, who said this vote for approval was based on the facts of the case. Richard said the vote essentially boiled down to amending the allowable lot sizes while keeping the same zoning classification. The plan to build 34 new single-family residences at Harpeth Gleen Trace and Sand Castle Drive is in compliance with the medium-density zoning the section is currently designated, and it is appropriate, he said.
In fact, joint planning commission staff—minus Executive Director Brian Bishop, who lives in the neighborhood and recused himself from involvement in the request—submitted a memo to joint planning commissioners recommending approval, said Jennifer Marks, assistant director of the planning commission.
Resident objections centered around two main points throughout the meeting. First, many in the neighborhood wanted a vote to be put off until a traffic study could be conducted about the feasibility of adding a second entrance/exit to the neighborhood, especially considering a future addition of 34 new homes.
Residents were also concerned—probably more so—about a neighborhood covenant that requires homes to be built with at least a 1,600-square-foot floor plan and a 2-car garage.
The medium density zoning (R-2) for the section requires 80-foot lot widths, which is plenty space to fit the size of houses required in the covenant, according to several residents and to Dane Shields, an attorney representing the neighborhood residents.
The reduced size of the lots if the measure is approved by the City Commission—60 feet width—won’t allow the required size house because of setback requirements and could only fit shotgun homes, Billiter said after the meeting.
“Can these houses be placed on these shrunken lots?” asked Shields.
Chris Hopgood, an attorney representing developer, H. Properties, LLC, headed by John Hodge, argued the validity of both issues. Hopgood said there were no covenants on the sections where the new residences are planned. He also said that a traffic study was conducted in 2001, and furthermore is unneeded now because the study then was for a development that was planned to be larger than what the new residences will make the neighborhood.
Residents said after the meeting that they possess documentation that all new sections require the same covenants.
But the joint planning commission has no authority to base votes on neighborhood covenants, said Tommy Joe Fridy, joint planning commission attorney.
The plan to build 30 homes in these sections of the neighborhood was adopted in 2001 and then re-zoned in 2003, Marks said. The amendment with its smaller lot sizes, and if it passes city council, would allow Hodge to build four more homes.
After the meeting, residents wondered how much more money that would bring in for him, and at the same time, they wondered what effect the construction would have on their own property values.
“How much is our property going to drop in value?” said Braxton Park resident Charles Nunley.
