The Knoxville Knox County Planning Commission on Aug. 14 granted two appeals from local architect and developer R. Bentley Marlowe, overruling staff denials of two middle-housing applications and allowing the proposed small multi-unit projects to proceed under the city’s middle-housing rules. The appeals concerned whether the submitted designs met the code’s definitions for townhouse, triplex and multiplex forms; staff had concluded the forms did not meet the code’s intent and design standards.

Marlowe and his architect argued the submitted designs complied with the middle-housing standards as written and that the code contained ambiguities about whether certain side-by-side or garden-style unit arrangements should be treated as townhouses, multiplexes or triplexes. During both appeals the architect pointed to Tennessee Supreme Court precedent that zoning ambiguities must be construed in favor of property owners. Commissioners divided over the policy implications but a majority voted to overturn staff on both files, allowing Marlowe’s designs to advance to plan review.

Several commissioners said the approvals reflected a tension between the letter of the newly enacted middle-housing language and the broader spirit of providing neighborhood-scale housing. Commissioner Nick Gill said he disliked the slot-house form but noted the projects met the ordinance’s literal standards; other members urged staff to refine definitions to avoid repeat disputes. Staff and appellants agreed the city’s planned move to assign future design-review questions to a design-review board will help resolve technical and visual-compatibility issues in future applications.