St. Elmo residents came out in numbers on Thursday to complain about proposed new housing on vacant, hill-side tracts where size, appearance, steep slope and other worries were raised.
A plan to put up single-family houses on the three Tennessee Avenue parcels by Watchtower Investments drew fire from more than a half dozen speakers along with several residents via emails.
“I’ve been here a couple of years and I’ve never seen as much opposition as I have to this,” said Skip Pond, vice chairman of the Chattanooga Historic Zoning Commission.
A representative of Watchtower Investments sought a deferral of the proposal from the panel as he planned to talk more with residents and allay their concerns.
“We’re going to sit down and talk and look at concerns and address them,” said Jason Craven, who is overseeing the project for Watchtower.
Still, he said, most of the concerns were over land disturbing and erosion controls governed by the city and best practices.
“You have to do it,” Craven said about meeting city regulations, adding there’s not a rush to gain approval before a new steep slope ordinance goes into effect this summer. “We do care about the community and care about the design. We’ll keep moving forward and keep collaborating.”
But St. Elmo resident Tim McDonald said after the meeting that he’d have favored an outright denial of the proposal for the parcels at 4182, 4186 and 4190 Tennessee Avenue, rather than a deferral.
McDonald said the height and width of the proposed four bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom residences are out of scale with surrounding homes.
“We have guidelines that have been published,” he said. “We need to follow them.”
Sally Krebs, another resident, said there are some larger residences in the neighborhood, but those sit on bigger lots. She added that there are “a lot of unknowns” about the proposed project.
“We love [St. Elmo’s] character and the historic nature,” Krebs said, telling the panel that “you’re making history here.”
Krebs said she and others who expressed worries “are not irrational or fear-based. We want plans that make sense and protect the slopes.”
Another resident said the way the proposed residences sit on the hill give them “essentially three stories. It doesn’t fit in.”
However, Craven said there are large homes throughout the neighborhood. He said the group is “trying to be thoughtful in engineering” of the planned residences, which were put at up to 2,300 square feet in size and 2,900 square feet with a bonus room over the garage.
Design plans call for tucking the homes into the existing topography and to maintain trees on the property, Craven said.
Also, he said, the group is trying to not develop the front part of the lots.
“We’re trying to move the houses as far back as we can to have the least impact on the Tennessee Avenue side,” Craven said.
Thomas Palmer, a panel member, said he had an issue that all three residences were designed alike.
“We need to try a little harder,” he said, adding that he agreed the scale of houses are large. “I think you need to listen to the neighbors, listen to our community and come back to this board.”
Craven said he planned to meet with the Community Association of Historic St. Elmo next month.
Earlier this year, the Chattanooga City Council passed a steep slopes measure aimed at protecting construction sites and homeowners, even though the ordinance drew fire from builder and development groups.
The new rules identify a steep slope as anything above 30%. The measure also allows for a vegetation program for ground covering, helps preserve existing established trees, and encourages native species, according to the city.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.