Council reviews rezoning for VA clinic site amid wetlands, drainage and traffic concerns

Clarksville City Council on the meeting agenda heard a Planning Commission presentation on E10-2026, a request by applicant Rustam Khorrami III (Batson Eastland Company) to rezone about 61.82 acres from agricultural to C-5 highway and arterial commercial to permit a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic.

Planning staff, represented by Mr. Tindall, said the parcel fronts Edgewood Place about 950 feet west of Wilma Rudolph Boulevard, sits partly in council wards 11 and 12 and is currently grassland and wooded. He told the council the site is consistent with the 2024 Clarksville‑Montgomery County comprehensive plan and that both staff and the Planning Commission recommend approval, subject to a full traffic impact study at the site‑plan stage.

The project description presented to council included an approximate 300,000 square‑foot, three‑story building and a large parking footprint. "Spring Creek Parkway is likely to be the main entrance to this development," Mr. Tindall said, and he warned that the forthcoming site‑plan review will require a revised traffic impact study to analyze turning movements, a potential right‑turn deceleration lane and signal timing or funding for any new signal.

Council members focused on stormwater and wetlands issues after Mr. Tindall identified a "blue line stream" at the northern edge of the property. Mr. Tindall and later Mr. Smith described historical drainage work with railroad owner RJ Corman in the late 1990s and early 2000s that attracted notices of violation from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). According to Mr. Smith, the corrective action at the time was to "dam up" the earlier pipe and allow existing equalization lines to operate; those agencies later defined the area as protected wetland and wet‑weather conveyance.

Councilman Shikany and others asked whether alternate connections such as Gibbs Lane or a reconfigured driveway could provide secondary egress and relieve Wilma Rudolph Boulevard; Mr. Smith said steep topography and existing conveyances complicate alternate routes but that realignment and signalization options are being evaluated. "We could require additional approvals through the Army Corps, TDEC, and our own departments," Mr. Smith said, noting that developers must provide compensatory storage and on‑site detention to offset new impermeable surface.

Councilman Chandler recounted site visits and urged cleanup of what he described as dozens of discarded railroad ties in the wetland and concerns about an exposed sewer lift‑station‑type structure near Old Russellville Pike. He raised practical questions about whether the city or a developer could remove debris or work with RJ Corman to improve flow. Mr. Smith responded that removing or reestablishing earlier pipes would require property easements or agency approval and that grading permits and road work would not proceed until state and federal signoffs were obtained.

Technical details on pipe sizing surfaced in council questions. Councilman Lovato contrasted a current 12‑inch pipe with a proposed 18‑inch bypass pipe described in the hydrology assessment; Mr. Smith said an 18‑inch sealed pipe within the developer's easement would evacuate the modeled flows in the developer's plan but emphasized that site development will proceed only after the necessary permits and letters from other agencies are on file.

The council did not take a final vote on the rezoning during the discussion recorded in the transcript. Planning staff emphasized that a full revised traffic impact study and required permits from the Army Corps and TDEC must be completed before grading permits or other site development activities proceed. The presentation and the questions make clear that water management, historical corrective actions involving RJ Corman, and agency approvals will shape the timeline for any building or grading work on the proposed VA clinic site.