KNOXVILLE — City planners confirmed this week that the hill at the former Kerbela Shriners site fails the same seven requirements of the South Waterfront Form-Based Code that a neighborhood group says the proposed apartments fail, a finding that arrived as the group prepared an appeal to City Council.
The South Waterfront Advisory & Advocacy Group says the roughly 220-unit, 55-and-older plan approved by the Planning Commission on Aug. 13 falls short on seven counts, including block and lot size, footprint, setbacks, frontage and transparency. The group is lining up an appeal.
Dale Rimmer, a form-based code reviewer with the city planning office, said the hill was run through the same checklist after a caller asked whether it had been. “It was a fair question,” Rimmer said. “It has no frontage. It has no transparency, and people think that’s a window thing, but it’s really more of a hill thing. Setbacks, well, it’s set back from nothing. It’s just there. So, seven. Same seven.”
Rimmer said the hill predates the code by a considerable margin and that the code contains no provision for grandfathering topography. He said he had checked twice for one.
Margaret Teffeteller of the South Waterfront Heritage Council said the council has taken no position on the appeal. She noted only that the unbuilt Kerbela tunnel, marked on the site by a plaque reading “ON THIS SITE, A TUNNEL,” has never been cited for a setback violation, or for anything else.
No hearing date has been set. The hill remains on the site.