The developer of the 454 home Mountain Brook development won approval from the Planning Commission on their proposed concept plans. The original plans were introduced at the July meeting and were well received by council members. Discussions surrounding the development go as far back as 30 years, when Mountain Brook Farm was originally annexed into city limits.
While the Planning Commission was supportive of the development, several concerns were raised, including the final width of the long-awaited Antrim Boulevard Expansion that will run approximately through the center of the property. Not only will the road serve as the principle entrance and exit to the development, but it will also serve as a bypass around Town to help alleviate congestion in the square.
While the extension will be built and paid for by the developer, the last portion of the Boulevard expansion will have to cross the property of Flowserve. Flowserve will have to allow the construction in order for the expansion to continue onto 140, something it has not committed to doing so yet, which came as a surprise to the Council members.
The revelation of the need to cross Flowserve property, which may result in the expansion’s connection to RT 140 being years away, led to Commission Chairman James Parker asking, "How can we put 454 homes on a one-way development?" He urged the commission to wait to get a commitment from Flowserve to guarantee the road continuation onto RT 140.
A representative of the developer acknowledged the issue and said they plan on widening the boulevard’s entrance, as well as the road, to compensate for the "one way road" during the building process. And while they are planning on using a traffic engineer to figure the best way to control traffic congestion, they could not guarantee that Flowserve will ever allow the Boulevard to be extended through the its property.
City Manager Jim Wieprecht told the Commission that the road through Flowserve property has been on the comprehensive plan for years and they will be discussing it with the property owners. However, he pointed out that the plan needed to be approved in order to address the traffic issues.
City Council Liaison Chris Tillman adamantly agreed that the planning commission must take the first step. "This project keeps being put on the back burner, we must approve this plan in order to move forward," he said. He pointed out that in order to get traffic off the square, a bypass must be built—and the only way to do that is to move forward with the Mountain Brook project.
Resident Harry Mead cautioned the Commission stating, "this may be all we get, so how is it going to affect everything else?" He questioned, if Flowserve decides not to allow the Boulevard to be extended through their property to RT 140 then what will happen?
Wieprecht pointed out: "The volume of traffic that travels through the City on a regular basis has grown disproportionally to the growth of the City itself. If the City doesn’t grow which opens the door to a bypass, the traffic still will."
