The 45 acres along Shackleford Ridge Road that used to belong to local doctor Wellington Ford now belong to a local developer.
Although all the details of the sale cannot yet be announced, the property's future will definitely include a subdivision, said Prudential agent Barry Hamilton, who sold the property last week.
"The person developing it has obtained funds, so it's going to happen," he said. "It's an approved subdivision with the town of Signal Mountain. I would say that by spring there will be houses going up in there."
Citizens should start seeing work on the property next month as the single entry road for what will house about 30 single-family homes is cleared and built, he said. Due to the sewer moratorium, the houses will be served by septic tanks.
"We certainly wish it was going on sewer, but at this time [Tennessee Department of Energy and Conservation] is not going to let a whole subdivision on," said Town Manager Honna Rogers. "I think they would have the option to apply and see if TDEC would let them go on sewer. The problem is the sewer line is not in front of them; it would have to be run down Shackleford Ridge Road."
When previously asked about the possibility of extending the sewer line in that direction, Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority representatives, which is responsible for all sewer activity on the mountain, were not in a hurry to do so.
"There's nothing in the works right now," said Executive Director Cleveland Grimes, even with the 200 homes in Fox Run and Windtree already set to come into town limits at the end of this year. "When we develop trunk lines to undeveloped areas, we have to know it's a project that's going to pay for itself. I think it takes a combination of both people there and studies."
Unless plans for the property are changed radically, no further approval is needed for the development following the Planning Commission's recent go-ahead, said Rogers, who called what was presented "a nice design."
Due to Health Department regulations about septic tanks and the geography of the land, lot sizes will mainly be at least an acre, said Hamilton. Some will be at least two acres, he said.
"It'll probably be on the market in about a year," he said. Although no plans for the houses themselves have been drawn up yet, he added that "my guess on price range, and this is just me, is that it will be minimum $320,000 and up to the low, low, low $400,000s probably."
All parties involved with the property's development will be local, according to him.