CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's a similar plot playing out in communities across the mid-state: developers buying untouched land and building housing developments. In the Sango community of Montgomery County, a local family is trying to stop a large-scale apartment complex from being built across the street.
For decades the rural community on Highway 76 off Interstate 24 and Exit 11 has remained the same. Keith Boyd, who operates Boyd's Pumpkin Patch and a popular corn maze, said the development would be located across the street from his family's property.
"We’re going to have a very crowded environment here which we’ve not had," Boyd said.
Several months ago, over a hundred acres were annexed. When the properties were county land, plans to develop it fell through after hundreds of residents signed a petition.
“Asking mamma didn’t work, so then they ran to daddy and asked the city to be annexed which would allow them to build apartments on some of the property,” Boyd said,
As they wait to find out if the city will approve the developer's plan, neighbors feel they have no control over the situation.
"We can’t vote those city council people in or out of office, the people that are affected by this are in the county, and they don’t have any voice in this," Boyd said. "We’re accustomed here to having single family homes and farms, and there aren’t any apartments existing on this side of the interstate, and suddenly we’re just going to have an onslaught, a tremendous number of apartments, and traffic associated with that, and a complete dramatic change,"
On September 25 at 2 p.m., the planning commission will vote on rezoning the land, which would pave the way for development. Then, it will head to the City Council in Clarksville for a vote.
NewsChannel 5 has reached out to the developer behind Bristol Ridge Apartments LLC and have not heard back.
