Maryville BZA approves two duplex developments

More and more, developers are looking up, rather than out, in an effort to maximize the quickly dwindling open parcels available within Maryville’s corporate boundaries.

Nowhere was that fact clearer than at the Maryville Board of Zoning Appeals meeting Thursday, where two duplex-style developments got the special exemptions necessary to proceed.

At the corner of N. Fifth Street near Jefferson Avenue, applicant Derek Hunt received approval to construct a two-story, six-bed, five-bath duplex on the rear of his roughly one-third acre lot, located at 200 N. Fifth St.

Hunt, a former Maryville High School football coach and current Blevins Group Realty Executives agent, told board members he’s currently in the process of subdividing his lot to separate the front, where a house is already located, and the rear, where he plans to develop the new duplex.

Preliminary plans submitted to the board Thursday show a neutral, grey-and-white two-story building with drive aisles leading into single-car garages on either side of the attached units. In addition to the indoor parking, Hunt said both units will share a parking space and connector leading onto North Fifth Street.

The finished construction, Hunt said, is expected to have six bedrooms and five bathrooms. City staff noted they hadn’t received any feedback from neighbors surrounding Hunt’s property in advance of the meeting Thursday.

Applicant David Campbell’s 13 duplex proposal for 114 Dotson Memorial Road was also unanimously approved by the board, which was present in full Thursday except for member Suzette Donovan.

The 3.25-acre parcel located just behind the Alcoa Tenn Federal Credit Union on U.S. Highway 411 S., falls in the city’s business and transportation district but is bordered to the west by residential homes on Juneau Way.

Campbell’s proposal falls just under the minimum density requirements for his proposed 26 total units — at a ratio of eight units per acre, he could, in theory, included another unit or two before maxing out. A new, public road running east-to-west and a cul-de-sac street will also have to be constructed to provide access to the internal lots and to Dotson Memorial Road along the south side of the property.

Mockups provided to the board show a traditional, one-story unit with stone facade going halfway up the front of each unit before transitioning to a light grey siding. Each duplex will share a wall which connects the two units’ respective garages.

Both Campbell and Hunt will still need to receive preliminary and final plat approval from the Maryville Planning Commission before proceeding with construction.

A final request from Orange Maryville II, LLC, to allow on special exception a car wash at 2702 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway was withdrawn by the applicant and has reportedly been cancelled.

The local push toward multifamily developments in recent months contradicts national data collected by Moody’s Analytics, an industry finance advisory organization, which showed the rate of multifamily housing developments started in August dropped by about 21 percent amidst a broader residential construction slump.

Single-family construction starts rose on average the same month by almost eight percent, but Maryville and, to some degree, Alcoa operate in a bit of a weird position where increased economic attention and rapid growth over the last two decades have likely encouraged developers to prefer multiple units across the same amount of space, rather than following the more traditional approach.