Controversial Franklin Apartment Complex Beat Back With Rezoning Denied

FRANKLIN, TN — Plans for an apartment project near South Royal Oaks Boulevard will be shelved after the Franklin Board of Mayor and Aldermen rejected the necessary rezoning.

The board voted unanimously to deny rezoning for 30.39 acres at 840 and 880 Oak Meadow Drive where a 302-unit apartment complex was planned. Property owner Warner Bass and a Florida-based development company said the complex would ease the city's housing shortage; Franklin's apartment vacancy rate is a paltry 4.5 percent.

Concerns of nearby homeowners were not assuaged, even with the project scaled back from the original plans for 352 units and with the addition of more greenspace than is required by Franklin's zoning ordinance. South Royal Oaks is already over-burdened with traffic, according to area residents, because it is frequently used as a bypass from Mack Hatcher Parkway to Murfreesboro Road and then on to Interstate 65. A 221-page study from Franklin's notoriously-fastidious planning department said the project would have "minimal impact" on the traffic on South Royal Oaks and Oak Meadow.

According to the Williamson Herald, there were also worries that the project was not "appropriate" for the area, even as commercial growth in Cool Springs has jumped the interstate.

“This is just not the right project for this place,” Alderman Mike Skinner said.

Representatives for the developer said that eventually the site will be developed in one way or the other and Bass said his family held on to the property for years, but there's been no "first-class commercial interest" in the property and that even though he has no great desire to build apartments specifically, except that it would be the best use for his family's property. Bass and his family were even lauded by the free-market Heritage Foundation for paying for the construction of South Royal Oaks; he told the Herald he now feels like he is being penalized for building a high-quality road.

Homeowners from several nearby subdivisions began voicing concerns about the project when it was first presented to the Planning Commission in February and crowded the council chambers Tuesday, often vocally sighing and scoffing at reassurances from the development company.