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Planning commission approves Broadstone McFarland Farms final plan after heated debate; approval subject to staff conditions
Summary
After more than an hour of debate over changes from the preliminary plan, the planning commission approved the final master development plan for Broadstone at McFarland Farms, with approval explicitly conditioned on staff recommendations.
The Mount Juliet Municipal and Regional Planning Commission on Aug. 21 approved the final master development plan (FMDP) for Broadstone at McFarland Farms — a mixed residential and commercial project at the southwest corner of Cedar Drive and Old Lebanon Dirt Road — after extended public debate and a reconsideration to add staff conditions.
Alliance Residential’s legal counsel and design team told commissioners the revised plan conforms to the approved preliminary master development plan (PMDP) and includes changes meant to reduce asphalt area, increase open space and improve landscape buffers along Old Lebanon Dirt Road. “The proposed FMDP actually has over 7.5 acres of open space,” project engineer Andrew Walters said during the presentation.
Several commissioners objected to the scale and character changes between the PMDP and the FMDP and said the revised plan felt like a materially different project from what the public had reviewed previously. Commissioner George called the changes “a bait and switch” and said significant differences in building placement and massing should have been considered again at the PMDP level. Commissioner Jones said he could not in good conscience approve the plan and intended to vote no.
Staff stated the revised final plan complies with the PMDP’s requirements and recommended approval. After an initial motion to table and later a procedural motion to reconsider, the commission approved the FMDP with the staff conditions included in the record.
Key technical changes described by the applicant and staff include: a single principal access off Cedar Drive (rather than multiple access points), consolidation of residential buildings (fewer, larger multifamily structures), reduced total asphalt coverage (from 6.9 acres in the PMDP calculation to 5.54 acres in the FMDP) and increased open space over the originally approved plan.
The commission recorded the approval as subject to staff conditions; those conditions will guide permit-level reviews and future site-plan submissions and were required to be satisfied before the development proceeds to the Board of Commissioners for any remaining approvals.
Actions and next steps: The planning commission’s approval — with staff conditions — will allow the developer to move forward to building-permit and site-plan phases subject to the staff’s checklist. Commissioners asked staff to ensure any required sequencing or architectural conditions from the PMDP are enforced at permit review.
