Antioch Road rezoning moves on to final reading in face of public upset

The Johnson City Commission unanimously approved everything on its agenda Thursday night, including a rezoning request for an eventual 48-home development on Antioch Road. The board approved the rezoning request 4-0 after its second reading and public hearing, with Commissioner Todd Fowler absent. During the public hearing, several community members who live in neighborhoods that surround the proposed subdivision voiced their opposition to the development. "The traffic on Antioch Road is atrocious, and adding any more is going to be — it's crazy," said city resident Cindy Humphrey. Humphrey said she lives less than a mile away from the proposed development and did not know until the project was proposed until after the commission had passed it on first reading. According to staff at Thursday's meeting, the city only mailed notice letters to people who lived 200 feet away from the proposed development. "I had no idea this was even happening until I saw it in the newspaper after last week's first reading," Humphrey said. "So maybe just a little bit more of reaching out to the community more than just 200 feet? I think 200 feet is is ludicrous." Another point of contention among the residents who live nearby the proposed development is plans to connect two existing street stubs through a neighboring piece of undeveloped land. Despite these concerns, the commission ultimately sent the rezoning on to its third and final reading with a motion from Joe Wise and second from Whitney Goetz. Both Wise and Brock's decision leveraged on the development's small size in comparison to many other recent housing projects. Both said the development fit in appropriately with surrounding neighborhoods that are zoned the same. "And so when the neighborhood … on the upper side went in, I'm sure the people close to that neighborhood didn't want it there either," Brock said. "So it really presents an issue with who gets pushed back that can't be there when your neighborhood could be there." "It's a part of development, and we have to try to mitigate, as much as possible, any disruptions in an area," Brock said.