Ford Town Center Development 2007 - Not Market Square

 


Above is the site plan for the mixed use town center development planned for Mayor Ford’s property in 2007. According to a traffic study conducted for the project, this mixed use development included 

  • 250 multi-family units, 
  • 184,000 square feet of retail space, 
  • 140,400 square feet of office space 
  • buildings between two and four stories in height
  • approximately 3 acres total of open space
  • approximately 1200 parking spaces 
  • situated on 27 acres. 
The development is configured with some pedestrian oriented design elements but given that all streets have vehicular access and included several 4 story buildings, this is not a “market square” development.  

Also, with updated trip generation rates (Trip Generation, 10th edition published by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)), with internal trips reductions considered, the traffic that would have been generated by this development is more than 14,000 average daily trips. 

For background Michael Bates of Southern Home Development, a local developer, approached the Town of Farragut with his idea to bring a downtown to Farragut. His April 2, 2007 request to amend the text of the existing zoning ordinance was “to create a mixed use zoning district to allow for commercial, retail, office and residential within the same district.” This request was necessary because a mixed use zoning district did not exist in the Town of Farragut zoning ordinance at the time.  The planning commission worked with the developer over the course of several months to develop the Town Center District zoning district (TCD) ordinance.  The new zoning ordinance was recommended for approval by the planning commission on September 20, 2007 and passed on second reading by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen on October 25, 2007.  To date no development has been built under this zoning district.

After the establishment of the TCD zoning district, the property for this proposed plan was unanimously recommended to be rezoned to TCD by the planning commission (11/15/07) and unanimously approved by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen on first reading (12/13/07).  The request for rezoning never made it to a second reading (two readings are required for a rezoning request to be considered approved).

Even without rezoning approval, Mr. Bates continued to work on the project, filing a traffic impact study with the Town of Farragut around July, 2008 and filing a preliminary plat on October 6, 2008.  All work seemed to cease with the recession. 

After recovery, several efforts were made to market this property and this plan.  To my knowledge, no developer has indicated interest in revisiting this plan.


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