Controversial Schöne Ansicht Investor Yokley Bids to Buy More Salemtown Property Zoned with Duplex-Friendly "R6" from Howard Gentry's Senior Advisor

I found out tonight that properties at the northwest corner of Hume St. and 6th Av., N. are now under contract and the potential buyer is Steve Yokley of UP, LLC, whose Schoene Ansicht development just across 6th Av. has suffered from one controversy after another. The available properties are already zoned duplex-friendly R6, and Mr. Yokley's associate, Taurus McCain asked me not too long ago if I would oppose duplexes on those properties if UP, LLC bought them.

Besides the Schoene Ansicht townhouses, Mr. Yokley has already built duplexes on 5th Av., and he and his fellow Salem Gardens investment group have a request pending Public Hearing tomorrow night to build 6 more duplexes at 6th and Garfield. While Salemtown's neighborhood association supported some of Mr. Yokley's developments, we are vigorously opposing the Salem Gardens request.

The cause against Salem Gardens rezoning for duplexes is now even more urgent, considering that there is nothing stopping Mr. Yokley from putting even more duplexes on the northwest corner of 6th and Hume should the sale go through. A sale would also mean that there is nothing to stop Mr. Yokley from allowing debris from a new construction site on the Hume St. hill to clog once again the 5th and Hume intersection.

The seller and current owner of the parcels is Brooks Parker, who is a major advisor to Vice Mayor (a.k.a., Metro Council Chair) and Mayoral Candidate Howard Gentry. A recent press release from the Gentry campaign calls Mr. Parker a "longtime senior advisor."


UPDATE: Linked Gentry Press release has been removed by the campaign.

Planning: Proposed Salem Gardens Development Cancellation Based on Owners' Unwillingness to Pay for Stormwater Hook-up

The Planning Department responded quickly to my query about Salem Gardens' proposed re-zoning this morning. They tell me that the re-zoning is a switch back to the original zoning and a cancellation of the Salem Gardens Urban Design Overlay. You can read the Planning Department's memo after the jump (p. 55, items 12 & 13).

The owners did not choose to pay for 450' underground hook-up to the storm sewer for their surface run-off and they were not allowed to hook-up to the sanitary sewer because that might result in sewerage overflowing into a waterway, something over which Metro has lately been in federal trouble.

But this news casts a puzzling light on co-owner Steve Yokley's comments to my original post on the run-off issues just down the street at Schoene Ansicht. Back on January 25, in an attempt to address mixed messages on Schoene Ansicht's stormwater run-off (surface vs. sewer) Mr. Yokley wrote:

I would like to make a comment on the mixed messages sent. That was not my intention; it was actually a misunderstanding on my part. The Salem Garden project at the corner of 6th and Garfield, was slated to discharge underground. I assumed that this project [Schoene Ansicht] would be done the same way.

Late last year, another Schoene Ansicht owner, Taurus McCain had met with Salemtown Neighbors and said that the Water Department was opposing plans to have water run-off at the surface of Salem Gardens. He also mentioned that the Salem Gardens partnership would try and enlist the association's support allow their partnership to discharge water on the surface rather than underground.

My questions: was the Salem Garden project ever truly "slated" to be discharged underground if running it to the sanitary sewers was out of the question and if running a 450' line to the storm sewers was cost-prohibitive? If it was "slated," then why did Mr. McCain speak with us last year about possibly supporting a request for an exemption to allow surface water run-off?

I'm confused about all of these details, and I don't know whether I would support this request to go back to the original R6 overlay.

Development Controversy Hits Pages of the Tennessean

People just need to give me the chance to tell them what's going on and not just believe what they read in a neighborhood blog.

- - UP, LLC Investor Steve Yokley defending Schoene Ansicht's problems in yesterday's Tennessean

So, don't believe those Schoene Ansicht mudslide pictures from 5th and Hume that Enclave published this morning. S-townMike could have just photoshopped the muddy mess into a picture of a clean intersection. Don't believe what you see here. Go see the intersection with your own eyes and judge for yourself. Stand around the intersection after it all dries and let the dust blow up and sting your own eyes.

On the subject of believing what you read: I agree that you shouldn't believe everything you read, just like I shouldn't have believed Steve Yokley when he e-mailed me saying that the Schoene Ansicht run-off would connect to sewers underground. Wait, didn't he just ask for a chance in the Tennessean? It sure sounded like a chance when he e-mailed me. In fact, these investors have had countless chances to work with neighbors on design issues, but as one commenter put it in a previous post, they keep shooting themselves in the proverbial foot.

There's nothing I would like more than not to have to blog about questionable investment and construction practices in the North End. As I told these investors face-to-face the other night, I shouldn't have to blog on it. They should be doing the right thing.

But, the Tennessean reporter of yesterday's story--which also promoted Steve Yokley and Taurus McCain's Salemtown developments with some free right-column advertising--paid attention to the controversy after reading about it on Enclave. And nobody outside of the six people who were there would have known about a UP, LLC investor physically threatening the President of Salemtown Neighbors had I not blogged on it yesterday. So, go ahead and give Steve and Taurus more chances than they have been given already and more than they deserve, but just remember that there are other sides that don't get public mention short of a neighborhood blog.

Schöne Ansicht Owners, Despite Invitations to Neighbors, Have Been Unresponsive on Trash Problem

It is one thing to post your phone number over and over in the comments section of Enclave for Salemtown residents to call with questions or issues. Actual follow-up is another matter. Some neighbors of the Schoene Ansicht townhouse project tell me that they have been complaining about blowing trash from the site since construction started months ago, yet co-owners of UP, LLC have yet to respond with a silt fence or staying barrier to protect the rest of the neighborhood.

Only within the past two weeks, after controversy involving a drainage pipe boiled over, did hay bales appear across the driveway onto the property. Those bales looked like they were meant to keep debris on the property. However, the bales were often stacked to the side to let trucks in and out and not put back out after everyone had left. And now they have disappeared altogether.

So, once again and with several units yet to start construction, trash is free to blow around the vicinity of Hume and 6th and 5th and Garfield. A few weeks ago I saw one of my neighbors with a leaf-blower walking down the alley and moving all of the Styrofoam, dry wall shrapnel, and workers lunch sacks that had blown out from Schoene Ansicht back up on to the construction site. However, cleaning up after bad neighbors should not be the work of the rest of us. If UP, LLC is really invested in the development of the neighborhood and not solely in squeezing as many bucks as they can as quickly as possible, then why aren't they policing their own sub-contractors?

UP, LLC co-owner Steve Yokley countered S-townWife in the comments section of one of my posts when she complained about construction workers from his site dumping cut-down trees in back of our property:

This is the first time that I've heard about this. If you want to contact the builder directly, call me and I'll put you in contact with him. There are a lot of sub contractors that come and go in a project, and if I don't know about an issue it can't be addressed.

There is absolutely no reason why S-townWife should have to take responsibility for Steve Yokley's problems by dealing with the builder herself. And there are no guarantees according to their track record with containing their trash that any of the Schoene Ansicht owners were going to follow-up even if she had called them rather than hauling it back over herself.

So, neighbors: call UP, LLC at the phone numbers they list on Enclave every time I post information that they do not care for readers to see. But do not be under the illusion that whatever issue you have will get follow-up.


UPDATE: Bales are now back.

"Beautiful View" Is Not Looking So Beautiful to Some in Salemtown

A low visibility conflict has been brewing lately among some property owners in Salemtown over a large drainage pipe installed at a new townhouse development at 6th Avenue & Hume Street called Schoene Ansicht (German for "Beautiful View"). The drain pipe would funnel rainwater run-off into the alley between 5th and 6th Avenues and possibly onto the low-lying property of neighbors who reside across the alley from the development.

According to e-mail correspondence between a Metro Storm Water Engineer and a representative of Dale and Associates, the SP zoning of the site did not deal with stormwater run-off at all. However, the property itself has been converted from one that held a small duplex hugging the corner surrounded by mostly permeable greenspace to a high density footprint covering the entire property and offering paved parking. Nearly all of the prior greenspace is gone. So, water from the re-developed property is to drain into retention tanks and overflow though a single pipeline into the alley.

This presents a problem for next-door neighbors whose property sits several feet lower than the alley. I stood in the neighbors' yard to take a picture and from where I stood the pipe seemed to hit me at eye level. In his e-mail the Metro Engineer who also visited the site told Dale and Associates that he is concerned for the adjacent property and thinks that even when the alley is paved, the pavement "inversion" will not be enough to divert the run-off to the street.

Dale and Associates told the Engineer that Public Works would not allow them to run the pipe to the street because of a sidewalk, and so they maintain that they had no other choice. They are advocating a high crown in the alley to divert water to Hume Street. But that would present another problem for the adjacent property. The corner of 5th and Hume is where the water would run. 5th and Hume is one of those water run-off problem areas that Metro Water promised to solve a long time ago, but has not done so. So, even if the run-off from 6th and Hume is diverted down the alley to Hume, it will eventually add to the post-storm ponding in the adjacent neighbors' front yard instead of their back yard.

To further heighten tensions in the neighborhood, co-owners of the development seemed to send mixed messages to concerned neighbors about the project. One co-owner told neighbors that the pipe would empty right into the alley where it currently comes out. Recently, I sent an e-mail to another co-owner with the text:

I noticed that on your 6th and Hume development you are running what looks like a drainage pipe along the property line to the alley. Will that carry water run-off into the alley or are you planning to connect the pipe to the street run-off?

I received this response:

It'll be connected underground. This was a requirement by Metro Water's Storm Water division. All of that special stuff for that underground water retension system cost $117k installed. Not to mention the amount of time it takes to custom make pieces to fit our small project.

That response does not indicate that the water would run into the alley, even though it is very clear from other sources that the water will not connect to the street run-off or underground to the storm sewers. That mixed message generated confusion--with some charging Schoene Ansicht co-owners with deception--at our last Salemtown Neighbors meeting when we discussed the pipe. The co-owners used to attend those meetings, but have stopped doing so.

Salemtown Neighbors has been very supportive of this development from the beginning. We gave approval to this and other projects so that they could get Metro Council authorization to build. I even wrote a letter on their behalf to the Planning Commission supporting their plans. However, there are increasing concerns among some members, especially affected residents, that co-owners and developers of Schoene Ansicht are not doing what they should to mitigate water run-off problems that could adversely affect some of those who have supported them in the past.


UPDATE: Schoene Ansicht Co-owner Steve Yokley responds in the comments section of this post that he mistakenly assumed that the drainage plans on this development and another they are going to start in the future were the same when he replied to me in the e-mail I quote above:

The Salem Garden project at the corner of 6th and Garfield, was slated to discharge underground. I assumed that this project would be done the same way.

Last Night's Stormwater Run-off Mires Intersection with Schöne Ansicht's Mud

While the intersection of 5th Avenue and Hume Street has had its share of ponding problems after storms, now it has the extra problem of silt run-off from the Schoene Ansicht project. Only 10 short days ago I warned that UP, LLC investors, Steve Yokley and Taurus McCain failed to respond to neighbors' requests to put up a silt fence or some barrier to keep debris on the construction site. Now the fall-out--after what was an unremarkable rain event in Nashville--is a muckety mess for neighbors to walk and wheel across. And once it dries, it will be a dust bowl blowing up in our faces.

The curb cuts--designed for wheelchair access--at both west corners of the intersection were choked this morning with an inch of mud and water. We have had Salemtown residents in the past who were wheelchair-dependent. Today they would not be able to cross the street at this intersection without a winch system to pull them out of the mess.

A stroll from 5th up Hume past the Schoene Ansicht construction site allows one to see a foot-wide channel adjacent to the street gutter where stormwater run-off picked up the silt and small gravel, carried it down hill and deposited it at 5th Avenue. Before the storm, freshly dug piles of dirt extended uneroded to the edge of the street. Now the run-off channel is clearly visible, as is the lost opportunity to save Salemtown the headache of a debris-clogged thoroughfare by putting up a simple, inexpensive, properly installed silt fence, which "can detain hundreds of pounds of sediment and water--even a concentrated flow" [source].

Indeed, there are other North End investors and developers who take their responsibility to the community seriously, even while they still intend to make money. A property at the corner of 5th and Monroe in Germantown has had silt fences up for weeks even with minimal construction. Moreover, the block on which the Germantown site sits seems flat. The potential for stormwater run-off damage to surrounding properties appears slight compared to that of Schoene Ansicht in Salemtown. Even so, Monroe developers installed it, and they communicated their intentions truthfully to the neighbors affected, which is a courtesy that Salemtown does not get from UP, LLC.

I do not know if the mud-caked curb cuts affect Metro's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and I do not know whether UP, LLC is required by Metro Codes to clean up their 5th Avenue run-off silt drop. But I do know that the investors' failures to prevent easily preventable problems is just another black eye for them, and it is further indication to me that, relative to other property developers, they have little regard for the neighborhood outside of the money that they intend to make from it.


UPDATE: pictured on the right is a construction site on 6th Avenue North near the Buchanan Street intersection in Salemtown. Its developers have put up a silt fence to catch stormwater and debris from running off the property. At least they are making an effort.

Just Say "Alley Ansicht," Which Roughly Translates to "Pipe Outlet Drains Through Alley to Lower Ground"

I've been thinking a lot over the weekend about the last time one of the Schoene Ansicht co-owners attended a Salemtown Neighbors meeting. He attended that meeting in the fall to ask our help in getting Metro approval to install more impermeable pavement at their future Salem Gardens development, which is to be a block down from Schoene Ansicht on Garfield St.

Enough of us were cautious in our response to him, some saying that we would want to hear Metro's reasons for not approving their plans before we could support his request. Given the latest controversy swirling around the corner of 6th and Hume, it looks like our group was very wise to go slow and cautious and be circumspect before giving support to more impermeable surfaces paving over Salemtown greenspaces. Given the buzz I've been hearing on our sidewalks this weekend, I'm not sure that the Salem Gardens ownership team could get much support for any easements or exceptions without making some iron-clad guarantees that they are looking out for their neighbors.

But think about it: at the same time that Schoene Ansicht owners knew that they were going to install a drainage pipe into the alley, quite possibly affecting the drainage across adjoining properties, they were asking their neighbors for more support to convince Metro to exempt them from tighter run-off regulations for another development in Salemtown. And we don't know many of details on Salem Gardens, except that co-owner Steve Yokley has said that its run-off will hook-up to the sewers; which leads to the inevitable question: why did they need our support to put in more impermeable surfaces if the water is going directly to the storm sewers instead of across hard surfaces?

Salemtown Leaders Meet with Salem Gardens Developers

Yesterday afternoon, Salemtown leaders were finally able to communicate all of their concerns about the rezoning of the Salem Gardens properties directly to the developers, who admitted that they had been "hands-off" about getting neighborhood support for their requested changes. The developers also showed some of their plans for duplexes along Garfield Street (elevations pictured above), and asked for neighbors' feedback.

The Salem Gardens Group, who originally received support to build multi-use retail/residential and townhouses at the corner of 6th and Garfield, came back in 2007 and along with UP, LLC asked to have the 5 properties downzoned for duplexes. The Planning Commission rejected that request after hearing opposition at the Public Hearing and recommended to the Metro Council that 3 of the properties be zoned for single-family homes. That recommendation is currently pending third and final reading at the Council's late June meeting.

Should the recommendation be supported by the Council, the SG Group will be able to build the three duplexes along Garfield (pictured above; they are in the process of getting permission to subdivide 1 of the 2 Garfield properties, which will allow them to build the third duplex). They must decide whether they can afford to build a single-family home on their remaining property on 6th Avenue, which will be zoned RS7.5 (intended only for single-family homes) on council approval. Their other options are to do nothing, to request another downzone or to sell it.

While the neighborhood association has not opposed the duplexes along Garfield, it has opposed the SG Group's attempts to build duplexes on the remaining 3 properties along 6th. Yesterday we explained to the SG Group that we are fighting for a balance between detached homes with yards and multi-family dwellings. The SG Group said that they were open to the idea of building a detached home on their 6th Avenue property if they believe that they can get the same return as they would a duplex by doing so. Some neighbors also expressed the hope that the SG Group would consider building brick and masonry duplexes along with their planned clapboard ones and choose a style closer to a "brownstone" look. The SG Group expressed openness to consider those requests.

The remaining two properties in the original Salem Gardens mixed use proposal are owned by UP, LLC (run by Schoene Ansicht developer Steve Yokley, who was not at the meeting). Pending council approval, those will be zoned RS7.5 for single-family homes. Currently, the blighted triplexes pictured at the right sit on the properties. The word on the street is that UP, LLC is not going to tear these down (in which case any new builds would have to be single-family homes). Instead, I am told that they intend to renovate them and use them as multi-individual spaces.

I cannot confirm this, because Mr. Yokley has made it clear to me after my posts on the Schoene Ansicht controversy that I do not have his permission to quote him. However, UP, LLC has also made it clear to neighbors in the past that they do not intend to build any single family homes in Salemtown ever, regardless of the views of our neighborhood association. Given all of the attractive development either going up or planned around Werthan Lofts do you think that these can possibly be upgraded beyond their resident-warehousing/trailer-park look to enhance the quality of life on 6th Avenue?

Another Night of Schöne Ansicht Erosion: Fresh Gravel Erodes Just Like Old Silt Does

Last night's storm produced another erosion event at the controversial Schoene Ansicht development, because owners Steve Yokley and Taurus McCain continue to refuse to maintain silt fence or some other containment system during storms. In fact, the belated silt fence they recently put up after being cited by Metro is now gone, leaving nothing between piles of dirt, layers of gravel and the downhill slope to 5th and Hume intersection. And most of the debris laying at the intersection was not originally on the property, as the gravel had been trucked in to build a sidewalk in front. So, not only are we getting original Schoene Ansicht material dumped on our neighborhood; UP, LLC is also trucking in debris to dump on us.

The eroded gravel and silt choked the intersection this morning. Passing vehicles skittered gravel at me as I took pictures. Back on the property, hay bales, which could contain some of the run-off, serve no containment purpose perched on top of a wall. Thank you for your on-going care for our neighborhood, UP, LLC. Keep telling us how you won't make our run-off problems worse. If you cannot construct a working containment system above ground, how can we trust that your wonderous underground containment system will work, also?

Without Question, The Worst North Nashville Blog

The Tennessean and reporter Lea Ann Overstreet have made perhaps the worst effort I've ever seen to blog Nashville/Davidson Co. North. Their effort is more like an afterthought than an attempt to be taken seriously by a North End audience. Ms. Overstreet's blogging is spotty and sporadic and her blog has recently become a spam magnet, inundated with advertising commenters.

After she took a development story last week that first appeared on Enclave without proper attribution and spun it promotionally, I left the following comment:

Ms. Overstreet: Your somewhat promotional piece of Steve Yokley's planned developments in the Feb. 28 edition failed to point out that much of what people are reading in the "neighborhood blog" was taken straight from e-mails that passed between Salemtown residents and Metro officials and at least one e-mail that Mr. Yokley sent directly to me. By quoting Mr. Yokley's comments about a "neighborhood blog," without presenting what was actually on the "neighborhood blog," your story makes it seem like that "neighborhood blog" simply fabricated information about Schoene Ansicht, which is in fact false. You also failed completely to source your article back to the "neighborhood blog," which is where you originally picked the story up as you intimate above. I hope that this is not the unbalanced, unsourced kind of neighborhood reporting that the Tennessean intends for the North End in the future.

Indeed, if proper attribution and fact-checking set real journalists apart from "pajama journalists" as

bellows, then Ms. Overstreet seems more of a blogger than a journalist, but she does not even seem to maintain her blog. I did not receive a response to my comment and nobody besides spammers--whom she does not seem to feel the need to control--is reading it as far as I can tell.