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Murfreesboro Planning Commission approves Mercury Court and Parkside redevelopment





Mercury Court / ParksideSUBMITTED

Mercury Court / ParksideSUBMITTED

The Murfreesboro Planning Commission approved the zoning application for the 17.48-acre redevelopment of the Mercury and Parkside Apartments after fielding a long list of questions from a concerned neighbor.

Some design concerns were expressed about the units about their ability to match the existing architecture in the neighborhood.

The commission heard from Margaret Butler of McCarty Holsaple McCarty Architects, who also worked on the Oakland Court redevelopment, at its meeting on July 21.

Butler and the city’s planning department went back to address those concerns and chose to move away from the gabled-roofs that were presented as shown in an updated 3-D-rendered video.

Michael Nelson, who lives near the existing units on South Highland Avenue, said he wasn’t in favor of or opposed to the redevelopment but was interested to know how the construction would affect homeowners like himself and the residents living within the Murfreesboro Housing Authority’s property.

MHA Executive Director Thomas Rowe said the construction would likely begin in August or September of next year and is estimated to be completed by December of 2023.

The residents living on the property have been made aware of the changes to take place in the coming months with three public meetings that have been hosted via Zoom.

Rowe said the MHA would be covering all of the costs associated with moving. The Mercury Court residents will be temporarily relocated to the second phase units in Oakland Court. Parkside residents will then be housed in the Mercury Court units as their homes are redeveloped. When Parkside is complete, they can return to their homes as Mercury Court construction begins.

“Whoever lives there now will have the same opportunity to come back,” said Rowe.

Nelson also asked if traffic or home utilities would be impacted at the time of construction for residents living on or near the property.

Councilman Rick LaLance cleared up Nelson’s traffic congestion concerns by stating that the number of units to be replaced would match the number of current units on the property: 46 in Parkside and 127 in Mercury Court.

As far as utility interruptions, Bill Huddleston of Huddleston-Steele Engineering, Inc. said an effort is always made to minimize that from happening. He views the utility redesign taking place is a “great benefit to the city of Murfreesboro.”

“We’ve got a lot of old sewers in these areas. Some of it’s vitrified clay. We’ve got water lines that aren’t big enough,” said Huddleston. “We do a lot of reconstructing of sewer and water lines, so we’re bringing good infrastructure to this area that’s lacking it right now.”

Commissioner Jennifer Garland, who participated in her final meeting with the planning commission, asked about the request to reduce the required number of parking spaces at Parkside to 83. There are currently 69 spaces for approximately 58 vehicles on site.

Butler said the developers had used parking history data provided by MHA and felt that the numbers they came up with would satisfy the number of vehicle owners living there.

Vice-Chair Ken Halliburton made the motion to approve the zoning application with a note to work out the property setbacks, which was seconded by LaLance. The motion was carried with a unanimous vote.

Councilman Shawn Wright asked if there had been consideration in exploring other name options for the Mercury Court units given the fact that Mercury Boulevard will soon become Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Rowe said that because the redevelopment plans had begun before the street name change discussions took place, it had not.

The planning commission also voted to approve a right-of-way on Florence Road as well as an amended plan of services for a proposed annexation study on a strip of land along the East Fork of Stones River currently leased to the city by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A portion of the property is also owned by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

Green asked that the original plan of services be amended to “shrink” the annexation down to the south side of the river.

One of the goals is to provide Emergency Services with clarity in who should respond to incidents on the city-managed property.

Project Planner Margaret Ann Green said the planning department had received documentation from TDOT stating that they are not opposed to the study. They’ve yet to receive documentation from the Corps.

The commission decided to workshop the proposed changes to its zoning ordinance.

City council’s public hearing on the study will take place on Aug. 19.

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