Coming to life: Farragut Town Center at Biddle Farms
Capping more than a year of meetings, discussions and hundreds of e-mail commentary, Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen passed on second reading three ordinances during its Thursday, Jan. 28, meeting allowing the proposed Farragut Town Center at Biddle Farms project to proceed.
Ordinance 21-01 amended the future Land Use Map in the Comprehensive Land Use Plan from Medium Density Residential to Town Center; Ordinance 21-02 rezoned the property from General Commercial (C-1) and General Single-Family Residential (R-2) to Planned Commercial Development; and Ordinance 21-03 amended some text in the Farragut Zoning Ordinance pertaining to the Mixed Use Town Center, most notably allowing residential ground-floor apartments.
The vote took place after a nearly six-hour meeting, which included more than four hours of citizen’s comments being read by Town recorder Allison Myers and Town administrator David Smoak, with 244 opposing the project and 19 in support of it. (See separate story starting on this page).
Developer Budd Cullom of CHM Development has worked with the Town since November 2019 on the development, which has been discussed during 19 public and numerous staff-involved meetings.
Plans include approximately 60,000 square feet of retail/commercial, including a 20,000-square foot grocery store and additional buildings along what would be a “Main Street,” consisting of restaurants/shops/professional offices with many areas for walking, gathering, and dining outdoors along it, and the planned Town Square/Great Lawn.
The project also will provide a new bridge leading to Concord Road, which, along with two water retention basins, will help mitigate ongoing flooding issues the property has experienced over the years.
Cullom addressed many of the e-mail charges last week, as he has done since September when those e-mails began in earnest and became upset at charges that somehow Concord Road’s Pleasant Forest Cemetery would be negatively impacted by the development.
