Center for Planning Excellence Director Elizabeth “Boo” Thomas says she will convene a meeting between Rouzan developer Tommy Spinosa and the Blue Ribbon Commission created to monitor his traditional neighborhood development in Southdowns off Perkins Road.
But Thomas says she can’t sit down with Spinosa and Southdowns neighbors to air concerns before Wednesday, when the Metro Council Planning and Zoning Committee is scheduled to vote on proposed changes to the overall land-use plan for the development, called a concept plan.
Spinosa has characterized the changes as minor; neighborhood residents say they’re major because they will affect the density of the project, as well as the location of some green space and residential units.
Earlier this week, Metro Councilor Alison Gary said she will ask the council to defer the matter until the two sides can sit down and meet, something to which Spinosa has agreed as long as it takes place prior to next week’s council meeting and heads off the deferral. But Thomas says that’s not going to happen, as too many unanswered questions surround the project.
“I don’t know why there is so much discrepancy between what the neighbors say the (proposed) changes are and what Mr. Spinosa says the changes are not,” says Thomas. “I am happy to sit down with them, but I need more time to get this all straight.”
In a related development, Spinosa filed last week for a revision to the final development plan for a part of the project known as Creekside. The revision basically details the changes alluded to in the revised concept plan and shows that Spinosa wants to build 17 single-family homes along Glasgow Avenue on a strip of land that was originally reserved for green space.
Approval of that request will hinge on the Metro Council’s approval of the changes to the concept plan, according to Glenn Hanna at the Planning Commission.
If the Metro Council OKs the changes to the concept plan, the Planning Commission will consider the development plan revision at its April 23 meeting. If the matter is deferred by the Metro Council, the vote on the development plan revision will also get pushed back, Hanna says.
