A plan to put apartments for people 55 and older on the old Kerbela Shriners property in South Knoxville is on hold after a rare council vote.
The Knoxville City Council voted 5-4 on Tuesday, Oct. 13, to uphold an appeal filed by the South Waterfront Advisory and Advocacy Group. The appeal challenged the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission's earlier 7-6 approval of the project at 315 Kerbela Ave.
The developer, CR Endeavors, proposed a 55-and-older community on about 5.7 acres spread over two parcels. WBIR reported the plan at 225 units. WVLT described it as more than 200.
Seven exceptions to the code
The South Waterfront is one of only two parts of Knoxville that use a form-based code. The other is Cumberland Avenue. Instead of focusing mainly on what a building is used for, the code sets standards for building footprint, lot size, block length and pedestrian access. It grew out of the South Waterfront Vision Plan. WBIR says the code was adopted in 2007, while WVLT dates it to 2006.
CR Endeavors asked for seven deviations from the code. According to WBIR, those included a block about 3,000 feet long, more than twice the 1,400-foot maximum, and a single 5.7-acre lot, almost twice the 3-acre limit. The company pointed to the site's steep slopes as the reason it needed the exceptions.
Chief operating officer Ryan Robertson told the council the company had spent months revising its design after hearing from neighbors and city leaders. Those changes included a public plaza at Dawson Street and Sevier Avenue, space for food trucks, an east-west walkway and a land donation to the city.
"We respect the code. We appreciate the code," Robertson said at the meeting. "If we were able to do a development here, we would be in support of it."
Council member Karyn Adams said in a statement to WBIR that the South Waterfront "didn't get this way by accident," and that the vote "was about upholding this code and ensuring that what does get built, on this site and others, keeps supporting that vision."
A rare kind of appeal
Rob Frost, the attorney advising the council, told WVLT the project was reviewed under the code's Level III process, which is meant for big projects that ask for alternative ways of meeting the rules. He called it the "first time in literally 20 years that there's been a level three appeal."
Frost said the debate came down to whether the developer met the intent of the code. "I wouldn't use the word violating," he said. "They did not meet compliance with the form-based code."
Frost told WBIR the company has three options. It can submit a new proposal, drop the project, or file a lawsuit within 60 days.
CR Endeavors said in a statement that it respects the council's role "and will consider its input as we evaluate next steps and develop a path forward." The company has not said which route it will take.
Vice Mayor Tommy Smith, in a statement read at the meeting, told the developer, "It's okay to wait for something that aligns with the South Waterfront Code. That time will come."
Why it matters for Contractors
For builders, the takeaway is simple: on the South Waterfront and Cumberland Avenue, the code's design rules carry real weight, and a planning commission approval may not be the final word. This project cleared the Planning Commission by one vote and was then reversed on appeal, months into its design work.
Contractors pricing jobs in these two districts should ask early how many deviations a project needs and whether the neighborhood is on board. A project that leans on exceptions for block length, lot size or pedestrian connections carries more schedule risk than one built close to the code.
The Kerbela site shows how that plays out. The developer said steep slopes were the reason it needed a longer block and a bigger lot, and that argument did not win over a majority of the council. Contractors working on hilly parcels in either district should expect site design questions like these to get close attention from neighbors and council members, not just from planning staff.
For now, nothing is moving on the Kerbela property. If CR Endeavors comes back with a new proposal, it would go through planning review again, and any appeal could once again end up before the council.