Norris will reconsider Sawmill Road
The Norris City Council will hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, June 27, to discuss whether the city should continue supporting the Sawmill Road extension project.
The plan to extend Sawmill Road from its current dead end off Orchard Road to link to Norris Freeway (U.S. 441) has been delayed at least temporarily by the City Council as the city’s proposed share of the cost has mushroomed.
City Council members voted last week to delay a requested additional payment of $213,000 to the Tennessee Department of Transportation for purchase of right of way for the extension – at least until the council can decide whether it wants to continue the project.
The city paid $35,000 of TDOT’s first estimated cost of $125,000 for right of way acquisition in 2019, which should have been all Norris would have had to pay for the extension.
Originally, Anderson County paid a matching amount to cover the $70,000 the state wanted in local funds to buy the property; TDOT was then expected to pay all of the construction costs of the extension.
But since the state began the process of right of way acquisition earlier this year, TDOT determined that the price for all of the required property had ballooned to a new total of about $600,000, or an additional $463,919.
That’s mainly because of rapid increases in local property values since the COVID pandemic began in early 2020, officials said.
Of that new amount, Norris is on the hook for $213,000, which the state wants Norris to pay immediately to keep the project going.
Mayor Chris Mitchell noted that the new cost figure from TDOT is still just an estimate, and that the price for right of way acquisition might go higher.
“This might go up,” he said. “I think we need to have a public meeting. This is enough of a change that we owe the people the right (to discuss the project). Is the entire city wanting this, or just a few people?”
Some residents on Pine Road have pushed for the Sawmill Road extension because it would allow trucks from the city’s industrial park area near the current end of the road to exit the city straight out to Norris Freeway next to Covenant Life Church, almost right across the highway from Cross Pike Road.
Now, those trucks must drive through a residential neighborhood on Pine Road.
Mitchell wants residents and business owners in the area to weigh in on whether the project is still wanted in light of the additional expense.
“It’s hard for me to believe we’ve gone to $600,000 to buy that property,” former Councilman Larry Beeman said at the council meeting. “We’re in a danger zone here ... heading toward a bigger problem.”
Another issue that might be causing property values to increase along the proposed route is that some of the property owners are making improvements to their property, which will raise values even more, the council was told.
That includes Covenant Life Church, which has built an RV/trailer park on its property – without obtaining any requiired permits from the city – that is now encroaching on the part of the church land needed for the Sawmill Road extension.
In other business June 13, the council:
• Approved a privilege (hotel) tax of 4 percent to be levied on short-term overnight residential property rentals. This goes along with the recent passage of a short-term rental ordinance for the city that requires owners of Airbnb-type properties to obtain city permits to operate such businesses.
• Passed on first reading an ordinance that will prohibit anyone from posting signs on public right of way, which city officials believe is unsightly.
The new ordinance, which still must gain final approval, would force the removal of signs such as the temporary ones put up on state right of way on Andersonville Highway by Covenant Life Church and other businesses, as well as some political candidates.