Knox County commissioners on Monday night approved a rezoning that opens the door to roughly 80 to 90 homes on land between Heiskell Road and Granville Conner Road in Powell, but only after tacking on a condition meant to keep the future subdivision from becoming a cut-through (via WBIR). The substitute motion passed 6-5.
The applicant is Homestead Land Holdings LLC, a Knoxville residential developer. According to the Knoxville-Knox County Planning case file, 8-J-26-RZ, the request covers 29.25 acres at 7741 Heiskell Road and several neighboring parcels, on the west side of Heiskell and the east side of Granville Conner, north of East Emory Road in Commission District 7.
The land had been zoned a mix of agricultural and planned residential at up to 5 units an acre. The approval puts all of it under planned residential at up to 3 units an acre. On the full acreage, that's a ceiling of about 87 homes, which lines up with the range WBIR reported.
Traffic dominated the discussion. Granville Conner is a narrow road: WBIR put it at 16 to 18 feet wide, and the planning staff report describes 16 to 19 feet of pavement that narrows to 16 or 17 feet heading north. Commissioner Adam Thompson worried that people living in the new neighborhood would use it as their main route instead of a secondary one, and that drivers could also lean on it if Heiskell Road backs up.
The Knox County Planning Commission had already approved the request with conditions on Sept. 10, following its staff's recommendation. The developer would pay to widen Granville Conner to 20 feet from the property's frontage south to West Emory Road, a stretch WBIR described as about 2,000 feet. Homestead also has to file a traffic impact study with its development plan that covers the western segment of Granville Conner up to Collier Road, and any improvements the study turns up would be built at the developer's expense, subject to approval by Knox County Engineering and Public Works.
Commissioner Shane Jackson added one more. The final subdivision plat has to use a nonlinear street network to discourage cut-through traffic, with traffic-calming features such as traffic circles, chicanes or curving streets, a maximum design speed of 25 mph, and no continuous straight public right-of-way connecting the main entrance and exit.
Thomas Krajewski, who represented Homestead, said the company agreed to the road improvements and to Jackson's condition, and that it would work with county staff on the specific traffic-calming measures, according to WBIR. The final design will come back to the Planning Commission for a vote at a later date.
The staff report helps explain why the narrow road carries so much weight. Heiskell Road is a minor arterial with 20 feet of pavement, but staff found that access points along it don't meet minimum sight distance standards because of a bend and a vertical curve, and said future access from Heiskell may be limited. Staff estimated the development at 888 average daily vehicle trips and about 32 public school students at full build-out, split among Brickey-McCloud Elementary, Powell Middle and Powell High. Water and sewer would come from the Hallsdale-Powell Utility District.
The northern parcel has steep slopes and a blue-line stream that requires a non-disturbance buffer. Staff said planned residential zoning lets homes be clustered away from those areas.
This site has been through the process before. Part of it was rezoned to planned residential at up to 5 units an acre in 2016, and later requests for that density on parts of the property were withdrawn in December 2025 and July 2026.
Why it matters for Contractors
Nothing gets built off a rezoning alone. The next step is the development plan and the traffic study, and that's when the lot layout, phasing and any further road work become public. Neither WBIR nor the case file says who will build the homes, so whether Homestead builds them itself or sells lots is still an open question.
For site and paving contractors, the outline of the work is already visible: a developer-funded widening of Granville Conner, possibly more off-site work depending on what the traffic study finds, and an internal street network that by rule can't be a simple straight shot. Curves, chicanes and traffic circles mean more curb line, more involved grading and drainage, and a stream buffer to work around on the north end.
Jackson's condition was written for this one case. Still, if you bid site work in north Knox County, it's worth knowing commissioners were willing to dictate street geometry to get a close rezoning through.