Cookeville City Council faces its first hurdle on preserving limited access on Tennessee Avenue, discussing a street request at Monday’s work session.
The requested access point would give public street access to properties north of the Nashville Eastern Railroad. Cookeville City Manager James Mills said Tennessee Avenue to limit access points to maintain efficient traffic flow. Mills said decisions like this are something the council needs to take seriously.
“The more driveways you have on Tennessee Avenue, the worse traffic is gonna flow,” Mills said. “Your example is Jefferson (Avenue), it’s got so many driveways, so many cuts, it just defeats the whole purpose of it. And that’s why this street was designed to be accessed with parallel access streets.”
Mills said he anticipates that more access points on Tennessee Avenue will be needed in the future. However, Mills said the city’s goal is to restrict the number of access points to keep the initial purpose of Tennessee Avenue intact.
“Until you get a development proposal, it is sort of hard to guess on that,” Mills said. “Another thing about these access points, if you look at this major street plan, which Jon is getting available to you, they all connect to other streets. Like they go out to Buffalo Valley (Road) or they all connect, so it’s about connectivity.”
Community Development Director Jon Ward said he believes this particular request is something the city should approve.
“You know, it’s a half mile from the railroad to Broad (Street),” Ward said. “I mean, it’s a long stretch without a planned access point there, and it’s you know, it is unlikely the access point south of the railroad could ever be extended across the railroad. We built a bridge over the railroad, right, so in my opinion, it is logical to consider an access point between the railroad and Broad for the purpose of both east and west properties.”
Mills said all property tracts north of the railroad have road frontage and that no one is currently landlocked. Mills said if a developer divides a property into different lots, the developer would have to provide a dedicated right-of-way for the other property tracts that would not have roadside frontage.
Mills asked City Attorney Dan Rader if the city should amend the access point that the city has already granted to the county for the new county fairgrounds. Rader said the city could amend the ordinance to include the county, but a public hearing would not be needed since the county has already been granted access.
The Cookeville City Council will vote this Thursday to set a public hearing date for the request on September 4.