That variance sign on Jonathan Avenue? Approved, 4–0.
The corner-setback request we decoded two weeks ago sailed through the Board of Zoning Appeals with no opposition. And the Kerbela apartments finally have their committee date: August 13.
- BZA-26-0042
- Approved 4–0 · Jul 21
- The ask
- Corner setback 15 ft → 12 ft
- Kerbela apartments
- Back before the ARC · Aug 13
Closure for anyone who's been following the little "VARIANCE" sign in the grass on Jonathan Avenue: the Board of Zoning Appeals took it up on July 21 and approved it four to nothing. The homeowner asked to build three feet closer to the corner than the setback allows — twelve feet instead of fifteen — nobody showed up to object, and the board's motion pointed to the lot's irregular topography, which is a polite way of saying corner lots on a South Knoxville hillside are shaped like nothing in the zoning manual. The board meets next on August 18, if you've got a sign of your own to wonder about.
Meanwhile, on the bluff
The bigger file finally moved too. The roughly 220-unit apartment plan for the old Kerbela Shriners Temple site — remanded to the Administrative Review Committee back on July 9 and left hanging since — now has its date: August 13. That's the hearing where the project's seven requests to bend the South Waterfront code get another look. The bluff has waited a month; it can wait two more weeks.
