The issue of a planned 40-home development on 13 acres near the Smithville Airport was a main focus at the DeKalb County Commission meeting last Monday night, with many concerned residents voicing their opposition to the plan beforehand.
A local developer who owns the property, Larry Hasty, is asking permission from the county to turn over control of portions of county roads that surround his 13-acre property to the City of Smithville, so that the city can annex the property. Hasty is asking the city to annex the property in order to tap into the city sewer system before the development can take place. The roadways in question are portions of Allen Street, Shady Drive, Second Street, and Parkway Drive.
Hasty had already been before the Smithville Board of Mayor and Aldermen with his request, who kicked the ball into the county’s court by okaying the annexation plan with stipulations, one being that DeKalb County hand over ownership to the surrounding roadways of the property.
The road issue had already gone before the DeKalb County Regional Planning Commission during their meeting on November 8, which voted five to two to recommend approval to the full county commission, despite the concerns of many local residents in attendance. A petition with 104 signatures was even presented to the Planning Commission in opposition to the plan.
Among the issue raised about the development by area residents are increased traffic and speeding in residential neighborhoods, water runoff, and the destruction of a designated wetland on a portion of the property.
“We have a number of concerns ranging from safety,” said local resident Charles Wonder at a November 18, County Commission “Meeting of the Whole” meeting. “There is going to be a lot more traffic in that area, and with traffic will be safety issues such as speeding and accidents. These are not wide roads. You can’t put 40 homes in this parcel.”
“My concerns are like Charlie’s,” another resident said. Ronnie Garrison addressed the meeting saying, “It’s the safety and the traffic. I also own a hobby farm, about 15 acres and my pasture is about 100 yards from this swamp. Whenever you develop this and get the water out of there it is going to go somewhere.”
But Hasty seems to be facing an uphill battle for the development in more ways than one.
In a letter to Smithville Mayor Josh Miller, the city’s consulting engineer, CHA Consulting, Incorporated of Louisville, TN, said that the proposed subdivision is not a good idea for the city or the airport. “With regards to your airport, in my opinion, the proposed subdivision off the end of Runway 24 is not in the airport’s best interest,” wrote Lawson S. Bordley of CHA.
“An airport’s Runway Protection Zone (RPZ) is a trapezoidal area found off the ends of all runways. An RPZ’s dimensions are determined from the largest aircraft that typically use your airfield and is to be kept clear of all development. The RPZ’s purpose is to protect people on the ground in the event of an airplane crash. The Hasty tract contains a 0.22 acre portion of the RPZ.”
“While it is true that there are RPZ violations at other airports, these are always cases where the violations date back for many years and are effectively grandfathered in. The FAA and TAD continuously work to remove non-acceptable uses from RPZs. As a case in point, in coordination with TAD, the Smithville Municipal Airport is working towards the fee simple purchase of nearly all of the RPZ off the end of Runway 6 so that you can control it. Also, a city park was removed several years ago so that your RPZ would be clear. Presently, the FAA and TAD considers new, non-acceptable RPZ uses, as a violation of an airport’s Grant Assurances.”
“The runway is presently 4,257 feet long. Unfortunately, this length is just under what most jet operators desire as a minimum length for operations. There is a clear line for a community between jet aircraft traffic and Industry. Many industries will bypass communities with runways that are too short. I have seen this over and over again in my career. While a 5,000 foot long runway would be ideal, even an increase to 4,500 would likely increase your jet traffic. Because of the topographic constraints found off the end of Runway 6, you could only ever expect to extend the runway to the northeast and are in fact, reasonable well positioned to do so. The ground is relatively flat, you own much of the property, and there are only a handful of houses that would need to be mitigated. A new subdivision would create new barriers to a runway extension. Not only would there be more houses in the path of an extension, but these new homes would likely be more valuable since they would be new and mitigating them would cost significantly more. For example, five new $200,000 homes would increase the cost to extend the runway by $1 million.”
“The airport currently has decent GPS instrument approach procedures with visibility minimums of one mile. The proposed subdivision, however; would restrict any ability to lower the approach minimums. This is due to the fact that to obtain lower minimums you would need to increase the size of the RPZ.”
“Subdivisions off the end of a runway inevitably lead to airport and aircraft noise complaints. I have seen this repeatedly in my decades of being involved with general aviation. One would think when someone bought a home near an airport that they would anticipate some airplane noise, but that is often not the case. It is likely that a new sub-division will lead to disgruntled homeowners.”
“As Middle Tennessee continues to see explosive growth, it is obvious to me that Smithville will, sooner than later, experience more development. Given Smithville’s idyllic scenery and proximity to Center Hill Lake it is a desirable place to be. With this increase in development and population, will come an increase in activity at your airport. My recommendation is to do everything you can to make sure you do not impede the growth of the airport,” the letter concluded.
Larry Hasty tried to answer some of the concerns local residents had raised at the County Meeting of the Whole. “Some of the objections are that septic problems exist in the area. I won’t have any septic tanks on this piece of property.”
“On the flooding issue,” Hasty continued. “Part of this 13-acre property, maybe two and a half acres, is wetland. The pond that is in place will remain as a retention area for runoff water. If I develop this property properly like I would with an engineer we won’t be dumping any water on anybody. We will control our property within the project and let it flow out the natural way it flows now,” Hasty continued.
“As far as the airport is concerned, I have worked with the City of Smithville. I have signed an overhead easement for the aircraft, and I would be limited on the height that I could build the houses on the development.”
“As far as traffic, that is always going to be with us but Big Hurricane Road and Allen’s Chapel Road have their own entrances out to Cookeville Highway and going down Parkway Drive through that neighborhood there is another outlet to Cookeville Highway. There will not be 80 cars a year traveling up and down through there,” said Hasty.
At the County Commission meeting on Monday, Commissioner Jerry Adcock made a motion to table the issue saying that the City of Smithville hasn’t officially asked for the roads to be turned over to their control, but Commissioner Bruce Adcock said that in affect the city had asked for it, noting the stipulations made over the annexation of the property. Adcock’s motion failed with no second.
Bruce Malone then made a motion that the commission reject the Planning Commission’s recommendation at that the roads not be turned over to Smithville. Jerry Adcock then seconded that motion.
The commission voted unanimously to reject turning over the roads to Smithville, 10-0, with Myron Rhody, Jenny Trapp, Anita Puckett, and Shae Flatt absent.
While still not technically dead, the issue will be raised again at the Smithville Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting, where a public hearing on the proposal is scheduled. The meeting will be held Monday, December 6, at 5:30 p.m. at city hall.
