By Larry Simmons – President Tollgate Action Committee
We believed that with the overwhelming support (95.1% yes) from Tollgate residents regarding the development of the front of Tollgate, our elected and appointed officials would act quickly. Instead, some of our elected and appointed officials are nitpicking the developer’s plans and finding multiple reasons to delay moving this project forward. Concerns about driveway length, width of buildings, lot size and other items have become delay factors. Please understand the developer originally asked for approval to build 193 townhomes and 30 live work units in the front of Tollgate Village. That has not changed. What has changed is the mix of offerings. To attract a larger demographic, the developer is putting in a mix of styles and even some condominiums.
TAC has tracked this development from the beginning and has strived to keep residents aware of the facts.
Unfortunately, due to the delays by some of our elected officials, the development at the front of Tollgate is in jeopardy. They continue do whatever necessary to keep this development from occurring. It is to the point where Regent Homes may decide to pull out of this effort leaving us with an undeveloped piece of property, just like it has been for the past ten years.
If Tollgate residents are truly for the development presented by Regent Homes at the December 9th Town Hall meeting, we cannot let these delays continue. TAC committed to support the will of the residents. We now need your help again.
To get this project moving, one way or the other, TAC has scheduled another Town Hall meeting for Tuesday, March 20, at 7:00 pm. It will be held at the Thompson’s Station town hall at 1550 Thompson’s Station Road West. This meeting will be different from our last one. We have invited every Board of Mayor and Aldermen member as well as every Planning Commission member. We have also invited the Town Administrator and the Town Planner to attend. Regent Homes will be in attendance. The intent of this meeting is to address any issues anyone may have regarding this development, get factual answers from the source and once more get a verbal commitment from Tollgate residents to support or not support this project.
Assuming residents continue to support this project, we also will ask each BOMA member and each Planning Commission member for their support.
The intent is to get all the facts on the table, get firm commitments from Tollgate Residents and our elected
officials to support the will of the people. Then, we want to get commitments from town staff and elected
officials on when this is going to occur. We must hold them accountable.
Thompson’s Station is a great community and as it grows, it will experience growing pains and sometimes may lose direction. It appears that this has occurred on the development at the front of Tollgate and we as
residents, taxpayers and concerned citizens must hold our elected, appointed and town employees
accountable for doing the will of their residents.
This truly will be one of the most important meetings that you can attend regarding Tollgate Village. Please make every effort possible to attend this meeting and share your opinion to our public officials.
