Oak Ridge council approves zoning changes, park projects and transfers; dozens of board appointments made

Oak Ridge City Council at its first meeting of 2025 approved a series of ordinances, rezoning requests, a planned unit development amendment, and multiple resolutions, and completed a large round of appointments to boards and advisory bodies.

Key actions (votes and short notes):

- Zoning text amendment (mixed‑use): Council approved final adoption of an amendment to the zoning ordinance to add mixed‑use development as a permitted principal use in O‑1 (office) and B‑1 (neighborhood business) districts and to standardize language in related commercial zones. A public hearing was opened and closed with no public speakers and the second/final reading was approved unanimously.

- Rezoning off Tuskegee/Wilberforce Avenue: Council approved second reading rezoning approximately 2.65 acres (Anderson County tax map 105D group A, parcels 033 and 034) from RG‑1 (residential open space and reserve) to B‑2 (general business). The Planning Commission had unanimously recommended approval and the ordinance passed on second reading with no opposition.

- Centennial Bluff PUD amendment: Final reading approved a change to the Centennial Bluff planned unit development master plan replacing 24 single‑family lots with two multifamily condominium buildings and making minor boundary adjustments; planning staff said unit counts were unchanged and recommended traffic study at the site plan stage rather than during the PUD amendment. Motion carried unanimously on final reading.

- Resolution supporting American Museum of Science and Energy Foundation request: Council approved a resolution supporting placement of a decommissioned submarine conning tower (often called the…