Growth in East Hamilton has continued to be a topic of concern for residents, and with another developer requesting a rezoning, locals once again filled the seats of Shelter Church Aug. 29 with questions and concerns.
The rezoning, requested by builder Collier Construction, is for the East Haven property on Ooltewah-Georgetown Road. The 15.97-acre subdivision, which was approved in 2014, already holds 60 buildable lots and is currently zoned as R1, for single-family homes. If approved by the Hamilton County Planning Commission Sept. 12, the site will be rezoned as RTZ, which is intended for single-family zero-lot-line homes.
The change will give the builder some flexibility to vary the width of each house, Ethan Collier, founder of Collier Construction, told meeting attendees. With the R1 zoning, the closest each home can be to the edge of its 65-foot lot is 10 feet, meaning the builder can only construct homes up to 45 feet wide, Collier explained. With the RTZ zoning, however, the builder will have the freedom to place each home within 5 feet of the lot’s edge, making the largest possible house 55 feet wide.
“That’s what our customers are asking for,” Collier said. “They’re asking for a bigger house they’re asking for a bigger front yard and a bigger backyard.”
Collier said many people have problems with RTZ zonings because they indicate the installation of townhouses, but promised he would make single-family detached homes a condition of the rezoning. That means each house will stand alone, and with the 5-foot buffer between each home and its lot line, the closest two homes could ever be to each other is 10 feet.
Though the subdivision’s zoning may change if approved, Collier stressed that the number of lots would stay the same. The property already has 60 water taps and 60 power hookups installed, and he said the builder is unable to do more than place houses.
“We can’t change that at this point and have no desire to change that,” he said.
Attendees addressed concerns about traffic and questioned whether larger homes would mean more people and more drivers. Collier reminded residents that the property’s traffic study and its concerns had been addressed when the development was approved two years ago, and said larger homes would not change the average number of people in each family.
Residents also voiced concerns about the subdivision’s property prices, which some attendees said was too low compared to the houses in surrounding neighborhoods at $325,000. Collier said the $325,000 base would most likely increase as homeowners asked for larger houses to be built.
“We wouldn’t be going through all this trouble if we wanted to build a smaller, less expensive house,” Collier said.
Whether the rezoning is approved or not, Collier said 60 houses will still need to be placed in the waiting lots, but he hopes those homes will be zoned RTZ to fulfill customer demand.
“We know without a shadow of a doubt that this is what people want,” he said. “We wouldn’t build these houses if we didn’t believe that it was what people wanted.”
Email Myron Madden at mmadden@timesfreepress.com.