A developer asking for a special district requiring millions of Hamilton County dollars to build infrastructure was met with questions and skepticism.
The development, which would include 300 homes on a 460-acre parcel south of Birchwood, has been stymied in the past by a lack of infrastructure — most significantly, the quality of Eldridge Road, where the houses would be built. Establishing an “infrastructure development district,” a new mechanism through a 2024 state law, would put the county on the hook for about $2.6 million in bonds to widen the road and also extend a water main line.
In return, the county would levy special taxes on the homes built until the debt is paid, recouping the millions in bond debt from those who purchase them.
As far as County Attorney Janie Varnell knows, Hamilton County would be the first to grant a district like that in Tennessee after the law’s passage, she said Wednesday during a public hearing. Lee Brouner, the county’s chief financial officer, said that if the commission were to vote on creating the special district, he couldn’t recommend approval just yet.
Knox County has created a set of policies for the type of district being proposed south of Birchwood but has not yet granted a petition from a developer to create one, Brouner said, leaving him with little to go off of to understand the mechanism’s full impact from other examples.