Downtown Design Review Board approves six infill housing certificates with conditions

The Downtown Design Review Board on March 25 approved certificates of appropriateness for six infill housing projects across Knoxville, attaching site-specific conditions to address parking, window placement, materials and landscaping, and postponed one narrow‑lot project for redesign.

Board members and planning staff focused their discussion on context, emergency access and how new two‑story duplexes and narrow infill houses fit into blocks of predominantly one‑ and one‑and‑a‑half‑story houses. For multiple approvals the board added conditions requiring final site plans to meet city engineering standards, to include walkways and street trees, and to revise parking so vehicles are not dependent on front‑yard curb cuts.

The board’s action followed staff presentations on each case and applicant responses. Staff repeatedly cited the city’s middle housing standards and the infill housing design guidelines when recommending approval subject to conditions that will be enforced at permitting.

Among the most discussed items were: a duplex on Apricot Avenue (case 2F25) where members required off‑street parking/driveway details, removal or alternative treatment of horizontal cedar banding and minor window revisions; a new house on Connecticut Avenue (2I25IH) approved with revisions to roof massing, porch details, handrails and materials; a two‑story duplex on East Moralia Avenue (3A25IH) that drew the most split vote (5–2) over height and…