JOHN COFFELTEditor

The Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen passed during the Aug. 6 meeting a request for a 13.63 acre tract of land to be annexed at the end of Hospitality Boulevard.

The site, owned by JJ Manchester, LLC. Jay H. Crippen of Knoxville, is expected to be developed as a hotel. The owners requested the property to be zoned C-2 commercial highway service district.

“My understanding of this is that it’s going to be a hotel,” Alderman Julie Anderson said. “Ordinarily, I’d be for this, but because it’s upstream of a chronic manhole, number one. And number two we don’t have an approved sewer rehab plan and we have failed to publish the required plans of service for the annual annexation report that we’re supposed to publish… I don’t feel like I can approve something like this.”

Codes Director Brittany Fisk told the board that the Planning Commission sent the request with a positive recommendation. She did not recall if the vote was unanimous.

Urban Growth Boundary resident Sarah Bradley spoke during the public hearing related to the matter. She opposed the annex on the grounds of the condition of sewers, overcrowding in the school system and criticized the department’s plans of services as being a cut-and-paste form letter.

“I don’t know why we haven’t de-annexed Bonnaroo,” Bradley said. “We’re in default in many ways, but that one is really clear because of a written agreement which hinges on a road project …”

The resolutions annexing the property and adopting the departments’ plans of service passed with 4-1 votes, with Anderson voting no and Alderman Donny Parsley absent.

The first reading of the ordinance zoning the property to C-2 passed unanimously with no comments.

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.