Most of Main Street Oak Ridge is pictured above in this proposed plan from Nov. 29, 2018.
The vote on the proposed revisions to the plan for Main Street Oak Ridge has been rescheduled to next week.
The Oak Ridge City Council had been scheduled to consider the proposed revisions to the plan during a regular meeting on Monday, December 10.
But there were apparently issues related to the weather in the mountains. The developer, RealtyLink, is based in Greenville, South Carolina, and the company had reportedly planned to attend the Monday night City Council meeting.
Council could now consider the proposed revisions to the Main Street plan during a special meeting on Tuesday, December 18.
Oak Ridge officials have discussed the revised plan in a half-dozen meetings since October, and in that time, the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission has had a split vote and City Council members have expressed divided opinions about the plan.
The Planning Commission, which has generally had concerns about the revisions and had postponed a vote, approved a version of the revised plan, subject to 10 conditions, in a 5-4 vote during a special meeting on Wednesday.
It’s not clear what will happen when the City Council considers that Planning Commission recommendation next Tuesday. Several Council members have had concerns, while others seemed ready to allow RealtyLink, the developer, to proceed with the 58-acre redevelopment.
The revisions have been proposed as RealtyLink prepares to welcome a second wave of tenants to the former mall site. The changes, which planning commissioners have called significant, would eliminate multifamily units and add retail uses, according to the city staff. The proposed revisions have included removing the access road from the roundabout to Rutgers Avenue, building four stores in that area (between PetSmart and JCPenney), eliminating the planned multi-family residential units near JCPenney, adding sidewalks and open space, and including mixed-use development in a later phase along Wilson Street.
See this story for more information.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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