Disposition Summary

Approve the preliminary plan for the Historic Giffin Square planned development, including approval of the requested exceptions to the underlying zoning's dimensional and use standards, subject to 4 conditions:

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Staff Recommendation

Approve the preliminary plan for the Historic Giffin Square planned development, including approval of the requested exceptions to the underlying zoning's dimensional and use standards, subject to 4 conditions:

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1) Upon approval of the preliminary plan by City Council, a final plan shall be submitted for review and approval by the Planning Commission. The final plan shall be in substantial compliance with the approved preliminary plan.
2) The development shall be compliant with all aspects of the City of Knoxville Zoning Ordinance unless an exception has approved through the planned development process outlined in Article 16.7.
3) Landscaping plans (Article 12) and a lighting plan (Article 10.2) shall be submitted with the final planned development application per their respective articles in the zoning ordinance.
4) Submitting a revised transportation impact letter with the Final Plan application to evaluate the sight distance at the final driveway locations.

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This preliminary plan application for the Planned Development process is to allow multi-family dwellings on this site, which is prohibited in the current RN-2 (Single-Family Residential Neighborhood) zoning. To allow multi-family as proposed, the applicant can request a rezoning to a higher intensity residential zone, like RN-5 (General Residential Neighborhood), or go through the Planned Development process outlined in Article 16.7. of the City of Knoxville Zoning Ordinance. The Planned Development process allows consideration of exemptions to the base zoning district but requires that the applicant demonstrate superior design and enhanced amenities, and there must be a substantial benefit to the City.

This proposal includes the following three exemptions, which are described in more detail on pages 10-13 in the Historic Giffin Square preliminary plan document (revised 6/1/2022):
1) Add "Dwelling - Multi-Family" as a permitted use in the RN-2 zone (Article 9.2, Table 9-1)
2) Allow 1 dwelling unit per 3,500 sqft of land area (Article 4.3, Table 4-1 - Minimum Lot Area)
3) Remove/delete RN-2 from Article 10.1.A (Number of Structures on a Lot)

If approved, the exemptions listed above will allow multi-family development within multiple building buildings with a maximum of 77 dwelling units on this parcel. The plan includes renovating the historic Giffin School, two new low-rise apartment structures, and a community "commons space" in the new structure closest to Beech Street (page 24). The proposed use and community benefits are provided on pages 6-9 of the preliminary plan.

A transportation impact letter (Fulgham MacIndoe, rev. 3/28/2022) was submitted to evaluate the driveway locations on Beech Street. If the Preliminary Plan is approved and a Final Plan is submitted, the TIL will be updated with the final driveway locations to certify that sight distance can be obtained.