A plumbers and steamfitters union wants to use a former hardware store for a trade school.
A rezoning for the project was recommended in a voice vote by the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission on Thursday. There was no opposition.
Commercial horse stables and horse-based therapy programs have been proposed near Big Turtle Park in west Oak Ridge.
The Oak Ridge Board of Zoning Appeals will consider a special exception to allow the commercial facility in a residential/open space district on Tuesday, May 11.
The request has been sought by Sean and Sara Pennington, who could buy roughly 31 acres at the end of Hermitage Boulevard for the project. The property is currently owned by the owner of an adjacent single-family lot, Joseph and Tanya Tuminello.
“The stables are intended to board horses and provide people with horse-based therapy programs,” according to a staff report for the zoning appeals board.
[Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission will study a potential zoning text amendment for self storage facilities this evening (Thursday, May 23).
The text amendment is being considered after a developer, RealtyLink, proposed a climate-controlled self storage facility at Main Street Oak Ridge, the 58-acre redevelopment of the former Oak Ridge Mall.
The self storage facility, which is not currently allowed under the type of zoning in place at the site, could be along Rutgers Avenue. It could be three stories, with a maximum height of 35 feet. It could have about the same “footprint” as Dick’s Sporting Goods.
[Read more…]
Parker Hardy
By Parker Hardy and Chris Johnson
At the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, we have been surprised by the debate that has surfaced after we established Progress PAC last month.
Why? Because political activity by this Chamber and others is nothing new. And political action committees, or PACs, are quite common tools for chambers and for other organizations that wish to exercise their rights to participate in the political process. Progress PAC was established to build transparency for the Chamber’s political engagement. It is not funded by Chamber membership investments or dues. Furthermore, city economic development marketing funds, which cannot be used for Chamber operations, certainly cannot and will not be applied to Progress PAC. Reporting requirements for all PACs will demonstrate that financial transparency.
Good chambers have been politically engaged for decades. And our chamber has been engaged in pro-business political activity since our founding in 1949—even before the City of Oak Ridge was incorporated. [Read more…]
Information from WYSH Radio
Last week, the Tennessee Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the dismissal of a lawsuit filed against the city of Clinton and a road-paving company, effectively ending a nearly 20-year-old legal battle.
A grassroots organization called Citizens for Safety and Clean Air made up of Norris residents formed to fight plans by the Rogers Group to reopen a rock quarry and build an asphalt plant on land in the Bethel community annexed several years ago by the city of Clinton. The group filed a lawsuit in Anderson County Chancery Court to stop those plans from going forward, alleging that the city’s rezoning of the property for heavy industrial use constituted illegal spot zoning and that the project would cause increases in heavy truck traffic and air and noise pollution.
Chancellor William Lantrip dismissed the suit, saying that zoning is essentially a legislative matter and not the domain of the courts. An appeals court agreed last fall, and last week, the state’s high court declined to hear the case, essentially clearing the way for the project to move forward.
