Balltown nursery hopes to expand

 Balltown’s MVP Garden Center, just outside New Haven, has plans to expand, and to make it easier for customers to enter and exit the property.

Erin L. McCoy

Thomas Newton, left, and Charles Bryan own the Balltown property on which MVP Garden Center owner Michael Mattingly would like to extend his business.

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But first, the Joint City-County Planning Commission and Nelson Fiscal Court will have to approve a zone change application for a 0.6-acre property adjacent to MVP.

The property owners, Charles Richard Bryan and Thomas Frederick Newton, appeared alongside MVP owner Michael Mattingly at a planning commission public hearing Tuesday evening to explain their application.

“By getting this approved we will achieve a better entry-exit from MVP Garden Center. Currently you enter and exit right onto [New Haven Road],” Mattingly said.

The request is to rezone the property from B-1 neighborhood business district to B-3 regional retail business district because B-1 doesn’t permit garden centers, commission Director Janet Johnston-Crowe explained. MVP Garden Center, 5729 New Haven Road, is already zoned B-3.

Should the rezoning be approved, the group also requested a conditional use permit that allows for the plant nursery and garden center, but also places limitations on what would be allowed on the property.

“They have agreed to limit the uses to only B-1 uses,” Johnston-Crowe said, displaying a site plan that was submitted with the application.

The plan shows a one-way exit drive that allows those vehicles that have entered from New Haven Road to exit onto the Balltown Connector, a slower and less busy roadway. The site plan shows mulch bins and display areas for trees and shrubs.

Conditions include limiting the hours of operation to 8 a.m.-8 p.m. May-June and 9 a.m.-6 p.m. July-April. Screening will be required between the site and neighboring houses, and an annual planning commission inspection would be conducted.

Melissa Cecil, New Haven Road, expressed concern about security, and wondered whether a parking lot of six to eight spaces planned for the site would attract loiterers.

“We’re just worried about protection and all that, and strangers at nighttime,” Cecil explained.

Mattingly said a fence would surround the area and would be closed at night.

Clara Jean Rogers, Robert Taylor Lane, asked whether the light from a nearby security light would be blocked and Mattingly answered that it would not.

The zone change and conditional use permit come before the planning commission 6:30 p.m. July 24. If the commission recommends approval, they will come before fiscal court.