Planning Commission approves SP amendment at Bell Road with condition to set aside pocket park near relocated cemetery

The Metropolitan Planning Commission on March 20 approved an amendment to a specific plan for roughly 22.43 acres at the corner of Bell Road and Harris Hills Lane to allow a mixed-use development that includes up to 316 multifamily units and 41,000 square feet of nonresidential space, with a condition that the applicant continue to work with the family and neighborhood on a pocket park related to a small cemetery previously relocated.

Staff told commissioners the amendment changes District 1 of an existing plan from nonresidential-only to a mixed-use district while leaving Districts 2 and 3 unchanged. The amendment area combines roughly 12.73 acres already zoned SP with about 9.7 acres zoned AR2A and proposes a maximum of 316 multifamily units and about 41,000 square feet of nonresidential uses. Staff recommended approval with conditions and disapproval without all conditions.

At the public hearing the applicant’s attorney, Tom White of Toon, Entrekin & White, said the project had two years of community engagement and that Councilmember John Rutherford supports the proposal. A neighborhood representative raised concerns about a small family cemetery that, she said, had been declared abandoned in court and whose markers were later moved. She asked the commission to help preserve the family’s burial site; she said family members had requested the stones be returned and the area be memorialized rather than used as a parking lot.

White told the commission his team had moved the remains through Chancery Court proceedings several years earlier and that the parties had agreed to work with the family to set aside a nearby parcel and re‑install the stones with the family’s consent. Commissioner discussion focused on whether to include a condition requiring continued coordination with the family; commissioners agreed to add a condition requiring the applicant to continue working with community members and descendants on creation of a pocket park near the former cemetery. Commissioners also noted staff’s historic‑resources team had recommended a Phase I archaeological survey as a nonbinding recommendation; staff clarified state regulations apply if human remains are uncovered during grading.

Commissioner Allen moved to approve the staff recommendation to approve with conditions and disapprove without all conditions and explicitly added the condition that the applicant continue to work with the community on the pocket park. The motion passed. The commission did not record a roll‑call tally in the hearing record provided.

The commission’s approval also included standard conditions regarding SP design and conservation provisions described by staff; commissioners will review final site plan details, including any park design, at later phases when building permits and final site plans are submitted.

Neighbors and the applicant agreed at the meeting to continue discussions about the cemetery stones and the small memorial space; the agreement is not part of the zoning text but was added as a condition to continue coordination and to be reflected during final site plan review.