Cookeville City Council will hold a public hearing Thursday on an amendment to permit subdividing commercial units into individual lots.
When the amendment was first proposed in November, the council had concerns regarding how existing commercial developments would be impacted by the change. Community Development Director Jon Ward said the city’s planning commission revised the amendment to address the concerns.
“This proposed amendment now would only be applicable to new commercial developments designed and constructed to meet the requirements of the zoning and building codes that would receive a certificate of occupancy after January 1, 2026,” Ward said. “So, this would eliminate any concern for any of the older developments.”
The council also had questions regarding ADA parking requirements and continued maintenance. Ward said those concerns have also been addressed.
“We’ve clarified the Commercial Owners Association agreement that’s required for the continued maintenance of the individual units in common infrastructure in the development,” Ward said. “We’ve added language referencing parking and ADA parking requirements for proposed uses. These were also reviewed by Danny ( Attorney Danny Rader), who was satisfied with the proposed changes. We’ve modified some signage requirements just to clarify any complications there. I know that was not brought up by anybody, but we restrict any individual free-standing signs for individual uses. A common sign would be an option, and then wall signage would be allowed per the code.”
Council Member Eric Walker said he still has concerns with the amendment. Walker said his concerns are the long-term impacts of permitting commercial property to be subdivided.
“I think just my concern was use and longevity,” Walker said. “This addresses kind of older properties. I think we have seen just how leases alone, long-term leases, can make it challenging for certain properties to be redeveloped. You know, I don’t know the details on the Cookeville Mall, but I imagine that property is probably worth more than how it stands today as something else, and I’m sure there are leases probably in the way keeping it from doing that. I think part of my concern was, you know, when you put something like this building in theory has to last forever until it gets completely bought out by a single owner or a lot of different people agree that it becomes something different.”
Walker asked how the city could manage the uses of units and ensure parking lot requirements can meet a wide range of uses so that way the city does not have a development that would be tough to fill. Ward said the city’s code requirements should prevent those issues.
“We feel like that this amendment lays all that out,” Ward said. “I mean, we are putting that as required standards to permit this. The parking is determined by the use. You know, shared parking areas and all that have to be included in a common easement, and can I say that you might propose some, I mean, heavy parked use in a development that is not designed for it, yeah, but that happens all the time today, right? I mean, we have people who try to change properties from one use to another that requires more parking, so the property is not a candidate for that use.”
Ward used an example saying the code would not allow a restaurant that requires 125 parking spaces to be located on a property that only has 25 parking spaces. The council will meet this Thursday at 5:30pm at City Hall.