John Coffelt, Editor

On reconsideration, the Manchester Planning Commission volleyed back on July 21 a zoning request for four recently annexed lots on Gilley Circle after the Board of Mayor and Aldermen failed to zone the annex at the July meeting.

The three of the lots owed by Richard O. Agbigor were recommended to follow the low-density distinction from its current county designation, and the larger 11.46-acre plat received an R-4 high density residential, the same as the adjacent Gilley Farm property.

Those recommendations passed the first reading by BOMA in June but failed in July, leaving the properties un-zoned.

Codes Director Brittany Fiske said that Planning Commission’s initial and second recommendation is verbatim to what the city’s Land Use Plan shows for the area.

One of the controversial points for the zoning is the access to the 11 acres onto Gilley Circle. Presumably if it were developed separately from the Gilley farm, access would be through the lower density Gilley Circle.

Chairman of Planning Mark Williams noted that the matter at hand was zoning for the property.

“Nobody knows if this person is going to develop it or may sell it to whoever owns the other piece of property. There’s just no way to know. It’s in our Urban Growth Boundary and the owner has asked for the annex and it has been, so it needs to have a zone attributed to it. Our current land use map…shows that area as high density,” he said.

Fiske said that BOMA would hear the matter as a second reading at a subsequent meeting.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.