The Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission on Thursday refused to block a high-rise apartment building proposed for downtown Knoxville overlooking the Tennessee River.

Residents plan to appeal the decision to City Council.

Woodfield Development, based in Charleston, S.C., has proposed building an 18-story structure with 270 apartments atop a five-story parking garage rising from Front Avenue near Neyland Drive. The building’s main entrance  would be at the corner of Hill Avenue and Locust Street, but the bulk of the L-shaped structure would rise from the bottom of a steep bluff between Front Avenue and The Overlook condos and the historic River House.

Residents of The Overlook and the River House, which front Hill Avenue and currently have views of the Tennessee River, have fought the proposal. 

The firm has changed the design from its initial version, varying the heights of different sections to give the appearance that the structure would be composed of four buildings. If it’s built, the tower would be a visual gateway to downtown for anyone arriving from south of the city on Chapman Highway to the Henley Bridge.

But the new development would block the views of the river enjoyed by the residents of two neighboring buildings.

After three tries and design changes, the city’s Design Review Board unanimously approved a certificate of appropriateness for the project, but the Overlook Homeowners Association appealed the action to the Planning Commission.

Attorney Daniel Sanders, who represents The Overlook Homeowners Association, argued that the building does not meet the city’s downtown design guidelines.

“The project does not achieve a vision established by the design guidelines, and with a project of this importance, Knoxville can do better,” he said.

Sanders emphasized that the building’s parking garage, which would face Front Street, would not be inviting to pedestrians as suggested by the design guidelines.

“The current proposal for a parking garage on Front Street undermines Knoxville design vision, risking the creation of a pedestrian desert and derailing our aspirations to reconnect downtown to the Tennessee River,” he said.

Taylor Forrester, the attorney representing Woodfield Development, countered that the design guidelines are not mandatory.

“Our zoning ordinance provides that the design guidelines are not intended to bring uniformity in design or approach or to require specific materials,” he said. “They are to be applied in a flexible manner to meet the needs of development. They are not a rigid set of rules such as the dimensional standards and design standards under the actual zoning ordinance. Rather, they are set principles to guide development.” 

Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon took the unusual step of sending an administration official to the meeting to advocate for the project. Rebekah Jane Justice, the city’s chief of urban design and development, said the administration supports the Design Review Board’s unanimous decision to approve the certificate of appropriateness. 

“In this case, we have followed closely as the applicant has responded to the recommendations and feedback of (the Design Review Board), the Planning staff recommendations and input from the community,” she said.

Sanders objected to Justice’s comments as inappropriate, saying, “Ms. Justice works for the mayor, the mayor appoints (seven of the 15 members of) this board.”

Planning Commissioner Katie Overton harshly criticized The Overlook residents who filed the appeal, saying that their objections had nothing to do with design guidelines.

“What these people are mad about is that this apartment complex is going to block their view, because when they bought their property, they failed to realize that they didn't buy riverfront property; they bought river view property, and so now they want to throw a temper tantrum and act like nobody can build tall buildings downtown on property that they own,” she said.

Overton continued, using the acronym for “Not in my back yard” that’s applied to people opposed to development near their residences: 

“This is a bad faith appeal by a group of entitled NIMBYs to try to stop a development that is desperately needed in this community because they think that their view is more important than this developer’s property rights to build this building,” she said. “They think that their view is more important than the desperate need for rental units in this community.”

Other Planning commissioners focused on details of the proposal, such as the width of Front Avenue, which currently is a little-used street, the provision for street-level retail in the ground floor of the parking garage, and the stucco proposed for the bulk of the building’s exterior.

“I’m concerned that using stucco on a building this size could be a maintenance nightmare,” Planning Commissioner Logan Higgins said.

Ben Hudgins, the project architect, said stucco can present maintenance issues when applied to wood-frame construction, but the apartment building would be a concrete-frame building with metal studs, which is a more stable framework for stucco.

Hudgins also noted that the bottom frontage of the parking garage could be converted to retail space when the market demands.

Planning commissioners voted unanimously to reject the appeal, but the dispute is not over. Sanders said The Overlook Homeowners Association would appeal the Planning Commission’s decision to Knoxville City Council.