Developer Defers Primm Rezoning Request After Commission Criticism

A rezoning request for a proposed subdivision on the Primm property on Moores Lane has been deferred after coming under skeptical, at times withering, questioning from city commissioners.

Jerrold Pedigo, the developer of the planned subdivision, requested the deferral after it became clear his plan did not have enough votes to make it past the Brentwood Board of Commissioners on first reading at its meeting Tuesday night.

The proposal, as previously reported, would rezone 28.9 acres of the Primm property on Moores Lane from R-1 (Large Lot Residential) and R-2 (Suburban Residential) to OSRD (Open Space Residential Development). This would allow developers to plan for 24 lots on the land instead of 20, since OSRD developments do not have to consist of homes built on at least one acre lots.

“We feel that those four extra lots are necessary to provide some of the amenities we want to have,” said landscape architect Skip Heibert, who was there with Mr. Pedigo to speak in favor of the proposal.

As he explained, an OSRD zoning would allow for the building of an extensive buffer area between property lines and Moores Lane, through which developers planned to build a meandering trail for residents to use. It also could have resulted in a greater buffer area of trees between the subdivision and the historic Owen-Primm home, which dates back to 1806 and is located just to the east of the proposed development.

“We just think we can make a better more attractive development” with OSRD zoning, Pedigo said, citing what he viewed as the enhanced curb appeal of a neighborhood that did not edge right up to a busy street like Moores Lane.

The commissioners were unimpressed.

The most sustained, impassioned objections to the proposal came from Commissioner Anne Dunn. As a longtime member of the Historic Commission, Dunn was especially concerned with the plan’s treatment of the Owen-Primm home.

“A lot of you know that I’ve sat up here for a long time and I’ve seen a lot of rezonings,” she began. “This to my memory is the first one that encompassed historic sites and structures that were chopped off effectively so they do not have to be dealt with.” She contrasted the proposed Primm subdivision with developments like Governor’s Club, Inglehame Farms and Taramore, which she suggested had shown more respect for the historic properties within their limits.

She flatly did not accept Heibert and Pedigo’s contention that the projected buffer between the development and the historic home would act primarily as a protective barrier.

“I think the way you have treated this—what you call a buffer to protect the historic site to me is a screen where it’s out of sight out of mind,” Dunn said. “You don’t want the new neighborhood to have to look at the historic sites over there. Maybe we see this from a different angle, but I don’t call that protecting the historic site, I think it’s screening the historic site so that the new owners don’t have to look at it. I cannot support this.”

Commissioner Mark Gorman strongly sided with Dunn.

“Mr. Heibert, you spent an awful lot of time talking about the historic portion of the land, but this provides no protection for it,” Gorman said of the rezoning plan. “This is just kind of carving it off, chopping it off so you don’t have to deal with it at all. There are significant historic properties in the city of Brentwood that have made the historic feature on the property the centerpiece.”

Mayor Regina Smithson expressed her disapproval not only of the rezoning request, but for any development on the Primm property at all.

“I just wish it would not be developed. Just like everyone else,” Mayor Smithson said. “We’d like to close all the roads and say, No more building, no more building. But as a landowner they have the right to develop it the way it’s zoned. And I respect that but I can’t support this tonight.”

Other commissioners took umbrage with more practical aspects of the plan. Commissioner Ken Travis, for instance, said he could not support the proposal unless it called for a left turn lane on Moores Lane into the subdivision.

One subject that came up repeatedly throughout the meeting had to do with possible archaeological discoveries on the property.

Commissioner Betsy Crossley asked Mr. Pedigo if any cemeteries had been discovered on the property. Pedigo said that an archaeological study had been done of the land and nothing of note was found, but that did not seem enough to ease the commissioners’ concerns.

Commissioner Gorman recalled an incident related to Inglehame Farms where he said developers had conducted an archaeological study which found nothing, but later hit upon a significant burial ground in the course of development. He said the developers had to forfeit a large portion of the land as a result.

Commissioner Dunn, noting the presence of the Boiling Springs Site burial mound right across Moores Lane from the proposed subdivision, wondered how sure developers could be that there were no archaeological sites on the Primm land.

“I would be amazed if the early Indian village stopped just where the state of Tennessee built its right of way,” she said.

Pedigo gently pushed back against some of the criticism directed his way by the commissioners. On the subject of the historic home, he stated that his plan was simply adhering to the wishes of the Primm family, whom he said had expressed a desire to renovate the property themselves.

Again, Commissioner Dunn did not find this line of argument convincing.

“That farm was a microcosm of early Brentwood,” she said. “It started with the Native American settlements. It moved on to the plantations. It encompasses on that little strip of land down there on Moores Lane, everything that happened to this community from 1500 years ago…I know you can’t save every building there, but I just think this says let’s not even address it. Let’s count on the fact that somebody in the family will care and do something. I don’t know, maybe I’m cynical but I’ve learned not to count on stuff like that too much.”

After he asked Pedigo some questions related to the legalities of the sale of the land, Commissioner Rhea Little, sensing the tenor of the meeting, mentioned to him that he had the right to defer his proposal if he wanted to. This would give Pedigo 120 days from the night of the meeting to move his rezoning request through to its final reading before the commission.

“I’d prefer it the other way. I think it’d be more attractive, but I can tell the winds of support are not in my favor so that would be OK,” Pedigo said.

Only Vice Mayor Jill Burgin had shown any inclination to vote in favor of approving the rezoning request, and even then only because she said she wanted to give the public more opportunity to ask questions about it.

After the meeting, Pedigo was surprised at the way things had gone.

“No, I didn’t expect it to go that way, so that’s just a difference of opinion,” he said.

If Pedigo chooses not to present his rezoning request again to the commission, he still has the right to develop the property adhering to the present residential zoning standards. Those plans would just have to be approved by the Planning Commission.