All Real Estate Info Blog

Williamson Square Active Adult Villas

Here is a brief rundown of what this project consists of:

Project will be located on the property that surrounds the old Carmike Theater, which is now the New River Fellowship Church, behind the Kroger building of Williamson Square. The name of the Developer is Umbrella Investments (principals are Justin A. Cutler and J.D. Eatherly). Umbrella Investments has never built a project and they want to start in our back yard!

Basically, there are a total of nine buildings. Eight buildings will have lower lever or basement level parking, and two or three floors of apartments above them. There are a total of 250 apartments in the project with a total parking space capacity of 453 spaces. The ninth building is a clubhouse and it will have a pool. The apartments are for “active adults” which means that one person MUST be 55 years of age or older. This is a heavily regulated industry by the Fair Housing Act. The apartments are one and two bedroom units and some will not have cooking facilities (I don’t know where they will cook or how they will eat at this time).

All of the buildings are to have a maximum building height of 35 feet. The plans seem to show structures on the roof that extend beyond the 35 foot maximum height.

We will lose over 1800 trees in the construction process, trees that buffer our neighborhood from the commercial development. Replacement trees will be planted by the developer (usually with a 3” tree diameter), but for the benefit of the new residents and not as a buffer to separate the different zoning classifications (commercial vs. residential).

The Fire Marshall has request two “future right of way” connections be incorporated into the project for “future” connection to London Lane. At this point, there is no connection to London Lane that will be completed, but let’s not be naïve, its coming. This will mean that London Lane will have a direct connection to Highway 96 through this property. It means Alexander Ford will use our neighborhood as a test drive route. It means traffic will be out of control and to date, there have been no comments from the Board of Mayor and Alderman about any improvements to be made to accommodate the increased traffic.

We, as a neighborhood have ONE opportunity to express our opposition to this project. We can speak at the public hearing on September 25^th of the Planning Commission for the City of Franklin. Please review the attached plans and information that is posted on this website and get involved, it is our only chance to have an impact on what will happen to our neighborhood.

The Church has a lease that has a termination clause in two years. If they decide to exercise the termination clause, there is no telling what will happen to the building and we MUST plan for that NOW!