DEVELOPERS OF APARTMENTS REMOVE ZONE REQUEST FROM COUNCIL TABLE

Developers for a much debated 96-unit apartment complex along County Road 206 withdrew their request for rezoning and special-use permits Monday night at the City Council meeting.

The proposal had been scheduled for a public hearing.

A lawyer for Thorn Investments LLC said the developers didn't receive the tax credits from the state they had hoped for and couldn't in "good faith" present their development as proposed.

Neighboring landowners, whose property abuts the proposed 5-acre tract near Bloomfield Road and Benton Hill Trace, were glad the rezoning request was withdrawn.

Nearly 100 residents had gathered to oppose the proposal.

Property owners along the county road were told that when they agreed to annexation, their land would be zoned as R-1, residential. They never thought it would be rezoned just a few years later, said Dennis Raddle, who lives in the area.

Rezoning the land for an apartment complex "is a far cry from what we signed on for," said Earl Norman, an adjacent property owner.

Because so many residents in the neighborhood opposed the rezoning request and special-use permit, it would have required a two-thirds majority approval from the council.

The Planning and Zoning Commission had unanimously rejected the proposal, citing concerns with increased traffic on the winding road.