Cookeville City Council will consider a rezoning request Thursday for a 3.86 acre property on Bill Smith Road.
The request would change the zoning from RS-20 single-family residential to an RS-10 single-family residential zone. If the rezoning is approved, it would double the number of houses that can be built on the property from six to 12.
Cookeville Community Development Director Jon Ward said there was an error on the public notices, which was made well-known by residents at the previous Cookeville Planning Commission meeting.
“When we do a notice, we identify the tract, and we do a script, a GIS script, to pull addresses to send out the notification,” Ward said. “The wrong parcel was identified. The notification was sent out east of this property.
Ward said the rezoning request does have considerable opposition.
City Manager James Mills asked Ward if all the public notice requirements had been met ahead of Thursday’s council meeting, to which Ward responded that all requirements have been met.
“We go above and beyond notifying the public of any changes in zoning by taking an extra step to hold a public hearing at the planning commission, and we sent out letters to the property owners and put signs on properties, right, and our agenda was published correctly, right, it was jus tthe notice was sent out incorrectly. So we corrected all of that, and we did send out notice of corrections.”
Ward said that in June of 2024, the city approved a cost-share agreement to extend sewer along Bill Smith Road that would serve 34 parcels. The property in question is part of that cost-share agreement.
The council wanted clarification that RS-10 is considered low-density. Ward said that he believes it is.
“We’ve interpreted the single-family districts as compliant with lower density because they only allow single-family detached development on individual lots,” Ward said. “For the city of Cookeville now, this is not, you know, RS-10 is definitely a low-density development.”
Thursday will be the council’s first reading of the rezoning request. The council must approve the request on two separate readings for the rezoning to take place. The council will also host a public hearing on Thursday to hear from residents who are for or against the request.
