When Nick Della Volpe wrote this story last week, he poked a hornet’s nest. Spare me the need to explain what was afoot. Just know that Knoxville City Council on an 8-1 vote April 2 rejected the proposed change.
Lauren Rider and Andrew Roberto teamed to amend the ordinance to strip out offending passages. Roberto, in particular, hit it like a proton beam, eradicating any mention of the proposed change that, as Nick wrote, conflated low and medium density in a most confusing way.
Seema Singh spoke as an “outlier” on the proposed change, suggesting it might give developers another tool to create affordable housing. She cast the lone vote against the amended ordinance.
Lynne Fugate railed that the proposal “came out of the blue” with no public input. She noted the planning staff had not recommended the change. It came on a simple motion and vote of planning commissioners. Next time, she suggested, bring something with a positive staff recommendation that’s been thoroughly vetted. “We’ve got to do better.”
Charles Thomas echoed Fugate’s comments, and Roberto summed up: “(Planners) should have given people an opportunity to discuss.”
Note: Instead of a joke about giving Della Volpe a raise, let me just note that Nick contributes to Knox TN Today for free, and we appreciate him.
