KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Knoxville-Knox County planning commission voted in favor to support a developer's approach to bringing multi-family homes to a section of the Chickamauga Avenue area.
The developer, Damon Falconnier with Chickamauga-Dutch Valley LLC, aims to build duplexes across the avenue in an effort to help the city's housing demands. But not all neighbors are pleased with the idea.
"Our only concern is with the density. I don't think that you can responsibly ever squeeze seven buildings onto a strip of grass that much," Matt Morlock, a neighbor of the area, said.
"We're not anti-development, we want it to be smart," he added.
A duplex is a type of home with two living units. And duplexes are one of the city's housing plan ideas.
"A duplex is basically double that," Bennett Hirschhorn, a real estate lawyer and duplex owner, said
He says duplexes can be a way for the city to meet the demand for housing.
"What we need in Knoxville is more density, because, with more density, we can get more more people living in the same houses that we already have," he said.
Hirschhorn says this type of housing allows more options in a community and to middle-class neighbors, like elderly and young professionals.
"Knoxville communities are all about diversity," Hirschhorn said. "And it's not always just racial diversity, but it can be income diversity, age, diversity. Rental units make it possible for different types of people to live in historic neighborhoods."
The planning commission voted to support the plan to rezone the section of the avenue for that type of housing. The plan will be in the hands of the City Council. It will be brought up during a meeting on Sept. 5.