A proposal to allow subdividing commercial property from the Planning Commission raised questions among Cookeville City Council members Monday.
One concern was how the city would ensure subdivided properties would meet parking requirements if the use were to be changed. Community Development Director Jon Ward said it would essentially be an HOA-like model, where owners would have to sign an owner agreement and meet requirements before being approved by the city’s planning commission. Consulting Attorney Danny Rader said an issue with the model is that an individual owner would not be able to control what other owners do, and essentially would be giving power to a private group of owners.
“They wouldn’t be able to go out and say okay, now I’m gonna change these four non-handicap spots to handicap spots or create that accessibility, cause they wouldn’t control it,” Rader said. “It would now be in an HOA that you give the other property owners the veto as to what comes in as their neighbor.”
Council Member Eric Walker said whomever is over the HOA-like agreement would have a lot of power over the neighboring development. Walker also said he is unsure how the proposed changes would work for existing facilities in Cookeville.
“I can understand how for new development, this can be advantageous, where you can plan for this design, but at the same time, when you look at a lot of what we have in town, are strip centers,” Walker said. “You look at the Big Lots center, the Office Max center, now the Bend Church, but Tractor Supply, those larger centers, you know if they can come in and start splitting up their units and selling them off individually, how are we gonna regulate the parking requirements for each of those units and how are we gonna regulate the parking requirements for each of those units and how are we gonna regulate some of those things in the zoning code?”
Walker asked if there was any worry that owners would not keep up with their respective units. Ward said the HOA-like agreement would cover that.
“When townhomes are divided up, you know, we don’t ensure that the unit is maintained,” Ward said. “The HOA agreements ensure it’s maintained outside what city codes would require for your property maintenance.”
City Manager James Mills asked the council if they should send the proposal back for further review.
“What you can do on this is cause it sounds like there is some debate, we have already scheduled a public hearing,” Mills said. “Go ahead and hold the public hearing, and then you can consider it on first reading, but before you do the second and final reading, have Danny and Jon get together, and if it’s a substantial change then you just deny it and send it back for more study and then come back if you can work it out then you can consider it on second reading.”
The council will hold a public hearing regarding the proposed changes to the zoning code Thursday. The council meeting will start at 5:30pm at City Hall.
