Another section of the Johnson Farm Residential Development received approval from the Greeneville Planning Commission Tuesday, six months after the commission had granted preliminary and final approval in October subject to required improvements.
The Planning Commission had approved Phase 2D of the Subdivision on Rufe Taylor Road in October, marking another step forward in one of Greeneville’s largest ongoing residential developments. The project is being developed by Land Star Development, LLC in partnership with D.R. Horton, Inc.
Phase 2D includes 36 additional single-family residential lots, extending the existing neighborhood and continuing the project’s planned multi-phase buildout.
Each phase undergoes detailed review by the Town of Greeneville’s Development Services staff to ensure compliance with subdivision, stormwater, and utility standards for safe, sustainable growth. Several items related to that compliance have been addressed, according to Andy Broyles, Justin Schooley and Bert Seay, who discussed the matter with the Planning Commission on Tuesday. Items on the improvement list included addressing on street parking which could cause access issues for emergency vehicles, particularly fire. Completion of outstanding infrastructure items, submission of the final plat revisions, posting of $150,000 performance bond for phase 2D, installation of no parking, fire lane signs in phase 2D, and restrictions on Lot 141 that houses the cemetery that can never be built on it and be maintained for public access.
Broyles reported to the commission Tuesday “there was quite a bit of improvement and repairs that needed to be done on that stretch of road and contractors have complied. They have completed everything there. They’ve done a really good job. They been easy to work with. And I’m satisfied with the work they’ve done. And they’ve posted no parking, fire lane signs as the Fire Marshal had requested. So all that has been done in the hopes that we can get this next phase released, and then we can continue this work on the other phases to get the repairs done. So they have completed all of those, and the outstanding infrastructure items as they were related to this phase, everything’s been completed but a little bit of paving that still needs to be done, and we would not release the bond on that until that paving was done and that street was presented to be adopted for city maintenance. I just wanted you all to be able to weigh in and see if you feel like all the conditions were met, because this had a unique challenge in that it’s a phase of this development where we’ve had some other problems with some of the infrastructure construction. And so now that’s being addressed, and we also have the fire safety issue, and the Fire Marshal and Fire Chief feel like that that’s been addressed, and they feel confident in that. But we just wanted to bring that back and present that information to you guys to see if you felt it was adequate to be able to release that plan.”
Broyles said City Attorney Ron Woods had suggested this is a decision that needed to be voted on by the board and not necessarily by staff in order to release the plat.
Broyles added “we had a path to get those issues remediated and they (Landstar) were showing good faith by going forward and they even probably invested a considerable amount of money in doing the repairs. My initial assessment for a performance bond for this section they were going to fix was around $60,000 that they’ve probably spent close to that remediating that one street, and they’ve done everything we’ve asked. And D.R. Horton has been involved as well. The sidewalks in that section were actually constructed by D.R. Horton. So we brought that to their attention and there were multiple spots that the sidewalks had cracks or problems, and Horton addressed those within a week and they had replaced them all. So they did their part also. D.R. Horton is ready. So as soon as this plat is released, it’s ready to be transferred ownership. So the sales going to take place between Landstar to Horton, but Horton is ready to proceed with construction in this phase as soon as it is released. They’re almost finished construction within the rest of the development. They’re running out of lots to build on. They would like just an answer of, is this going to be soon or later? So I’m just trying to give them an answer, but I feel from the city engineer perspective, I feel like that we are in a much better place than we were previously, and we’ve got a lot better communication and a lot better response from them on repairing the items that we needed repaired. And I think public works feels the same way. The relationships improved considerably since we’ve started having these discussions and we had this on site meeting. We’ve inspected all the infrastructure out there already. Everything meets the town standards.”
“Any future phases or plats that would be presented would not be presented to the Planning Commission until these other items are addressed. So, they are understanding of that. So, and I feel like that section Justin just highlighted will be the, they’ve already roughed in all the plumbing and water lines and some of the electrical in that face. So it’s pending but it is going to happen.”
Planning Commission member Trey Ricker asked Seay and Broyles if they had any concerns with the project moving forward.
Seay – “I do not. I suspect Phase 3 will be in here for our review and approval in the next couple of months. And they will move on that. So we have the exact same leverage with Phase 3 that we exercised in this situation. Things have been going very well with a lot of work from Mr. Broyles and Mr. Schooley. I’ve got to commend those guys. They’ve put a lot of time into this. And there were some meetings initially that were less than desirable, but we were able to communicate things and come to a consensus and understanding. And I feel like we’re in very good shape. I would certainly recommend approving this plat, because we’ve got ourselves in a situation and they understand it and we’re all clear that these remaining items, as Andy previously stated, need to be clarified, taken care of and resolved before the next phase is presented to the commission.”
Broyles – “I don’t have any reservations going forward. I think now things have changed there. I don’t know how or what’s happened with Landstar, but the relationship between them and our departments in the town has improved, and we’ve been working well together. Part of this as we work through this was, once we get through this section of this particular plat that we’re going to have another onsite meeting, specifically for these other phases that are out there and do the same thing and go through everybody on the ground, walking through and identifying everything so there’s no discrepancy on what needs to be fixed and how. That’s what we did this one, and we’re going to do the same thing on those.”
