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Editor’s Note: Rights of Way: The first in a series regarding the continuing growth in the city of Morristown and its effects on a long-standing neighborhood.

Morningside – the collection of well-kept homes and tidy lawns set along the main thoroughfare that continues the journey of Main Street from the west end of Morristown across Haun Drive to eventually meet East Andrew Johnson Highway (and tucked away, as well, on quiet side avenues like Baylor, Bushong, Cherry and Chestnut) – is raising its voice.

The city is listening, but Morningside wants a call to action.

The eloquently spoken defense of the neighborhood (subdivided in 1955) by residents did not uproot the proceedings at the Aug. 8 meeting of the Morristown Regional Planning Commission, unlike the construction equipment that engaged in deforestation near the edge of Morningside’s northern border, leaving the naked ground visible to motorists traveling in either direction along East Andrew Johnson Highway.

“During the deforestation and evacuation process, Chestnut Avenue was constantly utilized for heavy machinery, truck traffic which entered and excited the said property,” resident William Burja said in his address to the planning commission. “Our street, Chestnut Avenue, is a designated dead-end street with a cul-de-sac turnaround. The specific traffic mentioned created additional damage to the road, unsafe traffic conditions throughout the residential area which include noise and dust pollution created by the equipment.”

Development, or progress, is nothing new to Morningside – the neighborhood contains at least one plat dating back to 1915. Near the eastern most point of its namesake thoroughfare, the former Hamblen County fairgrounds were developed into the bustling Sky City Shopping Center in the 1960s, followed by new businesses and a church along the neighborhood’s northern outskirts that took advantage of the increasing traffic along AJ Highway, with a large retail swath beginning construction across the highway in the 1980s.

For the most part, residents remained quietly unfazed by the commercial growth until 2021, thanks in part to a largely wooded area, a natural buffer between the homes on the back avenues of the neighborhood and the traffic count on the highway.

Then 15 acres that included the buffer were sold.

The hope held by the residents who filled the pews six deep on Aug. 8 in council chambers that serves as the planning commission meeting hall was that the hearts and minds of commission members would be won over – that they would protect the neighborhood then and there by recommending to close long abandoned city rights of way on Bushong and Baylor or deny a rezoning request by the buyer of the 15 acres, a local developer.

Planning commission members instead voted to keep the rights of way open and recommend the rezoning request to city council.

Once the paperwork made it to the council meeting on Aug. 15, however, its members took less than a minute to table the rezoning request indefinitely, seemingly in accordance with the wishes of Cherry Avenue resident Michael Jinks.

“I’m asking that you take a second look at this rezoning thing ‘til we can get this mess cleaned up down here that we’ve got now: these ‘swimming pools’ and this water and all this wood and scrap that’s laying there, that’s been there for three months,” Jinks said during the Aug. 8 meeting – a statement that garnered the loudest applause of the evening from co-residents.

The closure of the rights of way, however, were stalled by the planning commission and were not included on the council’s Aug. 15 agenda.

The 50’ x 145’ city property on Bushong requested to be closed by adjoining property owners Carl and Rebecca Templeton is located just north of the intersection of Bushong and Cherry avenues, as described in the Aug. 8 meeting by Senior Planner Josh Cole – “It appears to have once been a stub that was platted to help development occur on the property to the north,” he said.

As Cole stated the recommendation of the planning department, murmurs of dissent could be heard throughout crowd in the chamber pews: “At this time staff believes it is premature to close and abandon this stub due to the unknown nature of how the vacant property to the north will ultimately be developed. However, this request could be reexamined in the future if the property is developed in a different fashion,” he said.

Morristown Mayor Gary Chesney, who also serves on the planning commission, commented, “Josh, when you say it would be premature now, it’s because we don’t know what’s coming. You’re not saying the request here is no forever, you’re saying no for today.”

Cole responded, “A lot of this property is still vacant and the purpose of this stub was to provide access, and until we have a better grasp of how it’s going to be developed, I think it’s premature.”

The second request for closure, or abandonment by the city, was from James and Angelia Ramsey, the property owners of 1631 Morningside Drive, to close a 40’ by 140’ portion of the Baylor Avenue right-of-way.

Their request was for a multitude of reasons, according to planning staff, including the adjacent property has yet to be developed, people are using this right-of-way as an access to trespass on their property and adjoining properties, and due to potential safety issues with the placement of a house, garage and barn.

Planning Commission Chair Frank McGuffin made a visit to the location prior to the Aug. 8 meeting.

“Our concern is that if that right-of-way continues to go on and there is more activity, more houses … right there, then that road has got to be widened,” James Ramsey said from the podium. “As Frank has stated, he came through there today and challenged the trees just to let a car pass, to keep from hitting them. So here is my concern, not only for my wife and I but for the Owens that live across the street from us, if that road is widened – we have a circle drive on that side – not only is it going to get into our garage, but when my wife and I and our children and our grandchildren step outside, we’re going to come off the step into the road.”

McGuffin said, “I would have to agree with the property owner. There has to be something done to deter or stop any potential traffic coming through there. What can be done to keep anybody from coming across?”

A suggestion from planning staff was for Ramsey to contact the city’s public works department or to install a fence or posts, with McGuffin adding there would need to be barriers placed at both ends of Baylor. Traffic has been observed by Ramsey and his neighbors on the drive that ends at the rear of the Bible Insurance Agency building.

“I grew up on this property,” Ray Bible, Vice President of Bible Insurance, said. “The history of this street is that it was my dad’s driveway. It remained a private driveway until two houses were built on it at which time it had to be called a street. There is a right-of-way there. The reason that you can drive through to our parking lot is my dad needed to stay off of our highway. It was for him to get from his home to work at your safety as well as his. We have no objection to shutting the thing down and so forth. I personally drive through there occasionally, we don’t have to. It was done for dad’s convenience and safety. And that’s the only reason it’s not a dead end today.”

City councilmember Al A’Hearn, Ward 4, opined to the planning commission that the Baylor Avenue right of way should be vacated, agreeing with Ramsey: “He’s got to back at least eight feet (from his garage) into to the street to see if traffic is coming,” A’Hearn said.

Bible added, “There is no way to make this a through street there, it is a dead-end street. The pavement from Main Street (Morningside) back to the house I grew up in is today 12 feet wide. It’s not a street. It’s a driveway and it needs to remain a driveway.”

Rebecca Templeton spoke on behalf of the request to the city to abandon the Bushong right-of-way.

“Three months ago, I asked you all to close this because it had been abandoned for over 50 years. I did all the research on it. We actually re-blacktopped that driveway, resealed and have been taking care of it and the property around it. We were informed that it was our driveway to begin with, when we bought the property. However, with everything coming up we found out that it was a dead-end that belongs to the city,” she said.

“We have elderly neighbors that walk there because they feel safe because there is no heavy traffic through there. They actually walk my driveway. The neighborhood children come there to ride their bikes, they ride rollerskates. They feel safe. But if you open this up for other people to come through …. I’m just asking you, it’s been three months I’ve been waiting. I’m asking you to close it, abandon it. This guy that’s bought this property, he’s not part of the community … I ask that you all please hear my plea and do something for this community. I have lost a lot of trust and faith in our commission, because I have asked, I have went to everyone to ask ‘please help us do something about this.’ So, I’m asking you this time, three months later, to please consider closing this for the safety of the community and the elderly and the children that use my driveway to have fun, play and be safe,” Templeton said.

Planning staff recommended the denial of both requests for abandoning the rights-of-way based on identical reasoning: the closures would be premature, considering the unknown plans for development of the 15 acres off East AJ Highway.

Local developer Shannon Greene purchased the land with the original intention of requesting rezoning from its historical agricultural designation to residential in order to build apartments.

His request to the planning commission on Aug. 8, however, was to rezone a portion of the property, just over seven acres, that fronts the highway.