The town’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen has voted to rezone a 12-lot subdivision on two jigsaw shaped parcels of land on the east side of Mount Pleasant Road between Natchez and Washington streets.
The Homewood Place subdivision will add 11 additional lots to the parcels while maintaining the existing historic residence at 243 Natchez Street.
The lot will be zoned “traditional neighborhood” instead of “low density residential.”
In February, the Historic District Commission voted to demolish two “accessory structures” near the existing residence in the process. The structures, a garage and a “garden shack,” do not have any historic relevance.
Private alleys will be added for rear access to the new lots.
“The district,” said Nancy Boatwright, the primary project planner for the project, “with its irregular lot patterns and home sizes, rural roadways, southern architectural styles and lush lawns, represents a microcosm of small town life in the nineteenth and twentieth century’s in Western Tennessee.”
Applicant John McCarty with McCarty Granberry Engineering said the intent of the development is to “create a traditional neighborhood with rear load garages and/or carriage houses.”
He said four lots would front Washington Street, with three more lots on Mount Pleasant and four new lots, along with the existing structure, on Natchez Street.
Project architect Carson Looney with Looney Ricks Kiss said the 5-acre parcel is bordered by “iconic” streets.
“Everybody has had their eye on this property for a long time,” he said.
He said the “unique character” of each of the three streets fronting the property was taken into consideration when designing the homes, which are on lots that vary in size from 7,262 to 13,698 square feet. The historic home is on a 26,705-square-foot lot.
“They are three very different streets,” he said, “and we want to honor each of the them. We want to do what’s right on each street.”
He noted that the developers considered putting 15 lots on the land but that they ultimately “didn’t want to maximize the lots.”
Looney said that he didn’t envision “cookie cutter” houses for the lots.
“We didn’t want a military look,” he said, noting that the diverse streets have their own “spirit…more like jazz.”
The application if consistent with the New Rooftops Initiative, which aims at increasing the number of residences near the Town Square.
The addition of 11 new homes will create around 114 average daily car trips.
A sidewalk will be installed on Mount Pleasant Road and storm drain pipes will be installed along the frontage.
