Council to discuss next steps for Main Street Oak Ridge on Tuesday

 

After they rejected a revised plan for the project on Monday, the Oak Ridge City Council will discuss next steps for Main Street Oak Ridge on Tuesday.

It wasn’t clear this week what might happen next.

The revised plan that City Council rejected in a 4-3 vote on Monday would have allowed four national retailers to build stores at Main Street Oak Ridge. It would have required the closure of the access road from Rutgers Avenue to the roundabout at Main Street, allowing the four stores to be built along a sidewalk between JCPenney and PetSmart. It would have removed the 230 or so multi-family residential units that had been proposed by Crosland Southeast, the original developer, in the area between JCPenney and Walmart. And it would have moved the proposed mixed-use development to a future phase along Wilson Street.

This past Tuesday, after Council rejected the revised plan, three people involved in the project, including RealtyLink, the current developer, said there is no other design, no “plan B.”

The revised plan for Main Street had been proposed as RealtyLink prepared to welcome a second wave of tenants to the 58-acre site after the first phase went well.

But it’s not clear now if that second phase will happen. The second phase was expected to be followed by a third phase, assuming the second phase went well, and the third phase could have included the multi-use development.

The City Council discussion at a non-voting work session this coming Tuesday is expected to include a review of the project and possibly provide direction to Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson.

Another topic to be discussed Tuesday, an apartment complex proposed on the former American Museum of Science and Energy site, is related to Main Street Oak Ridge. The AMSE property was transferred or is being transferred to a company affiliated with RealtyLink in an agreement that is associated with the Main Street Oak Ridge development.

The Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission unanimously approved a rezoning and plan for that apartment project in December, and the City Council approved them in a 5-1-1 vote on Monday.

The discussion about the apartments at Tuesday’s work session is scheduled to include contract changes with RealtyLink; a payment in lieu of taxes agreement, or PILOT; and involvement of the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board, which considers PILOTs.

Also on the agenda for Tuesday is a review and discussion of a proposed final draft and a schedule to adopt a City Blueprint.

The work session will start at 6 p.m. Tuesday, January 22 in the Central Services Complex Multipurpose Room on Woodbury Lane. You can see the agenda here.

Main Street Oak Ridge is the project to redevelop the former Oak Ridge Mall in the center of the city.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

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