Discussion grew heated in Thursday’s Planning and Zoning Commission as residents of Enzor Road expressed their dislike and disapproval of subdivisions being built to the west and north of their homes.

Walter Stell, with Survey South, represented Carolina Girls LLC at Thursday’s meeting and requested a final plat approval for Carolina Girls Plat No. 1 located to the west, but not including, 1280 Enzor Road in a reserved residential zoning area. Stell said the subdivision would be modeled after the homes adjacent to the property and have similar covenants to the homes in Diamond Fields.

“This is a 12-lot subdivision along Enzor Road,” Stell said. “They all face Enzor Road and then on the front there is 100 feet. The homes would be on septic systems until the sewage system is brought on board. What we want to do is adopt the same covenant with the same size houses, same restrictions as Diamond Fields. These houses and these lots will be similar to the houses across the street.”

The request was ultimately approved unanimously by the commission under the condition that the lot to the farthest right would be modified from 99.71 feet to 100 feet.

Stell also presented to the commission a preliminary plat approval for Carolina Girls Plat No. 2, which is to the north of Enzor Road, east of the proposed Enzor Road connector road and south of the proposed Franklin Drive extension in a reserved residential zone. Stell said the plat would consist of 145 lots built and sold in phases, which would require further approval from the commission. Stell estimated the project to take roughly 20 years with several lots being sold each year.

“Typically, we do this in phases,” Stell said. “Really all we want to do is one small phase currenlty. Close to a year before we are to where we can get it approved. Melissa asked on the board’s behalf to see the whole plan.”

Stell showed the commission a blueprint of the neighborhood and Carolina Girls LLC plans for the area, which is still a ways away from coming to fruition.

“It takes two or three years to sell 21 lots when we develop,” Stell said. “This plat, if you do it by street, it will take 20 years to develop. These lots will have a tie to the city’s sewer system, will have curbs and gutters, will have sidewalks and the covenant will be similar to the covenant of Deerstand Hill.”

Stell said the homes would be approximately 1,100 square feet and a neighborhood park is being offered for the homeowners to decide on. Stell said the neighborhood would also have a park dedicated to recreation in the back area of the neighborhood with approximately three or four areas being dedicated to that space.

“Realistically, this is what you can do in an RR zone,” Stell said. “We’ll bring the sewer up from the bottom probably to the street to the right, or a trail to the right, and bring sewer all the way up, run it along the rear of the lots.”

While the development has promise of 145 new homes, Stell’s request was met with overwhelming disapproval from audience members, which was majorly made up of current Enzor Road residents.

“Our main concern is the character of the neighborhood,” said Jerry Spurlock. “Enzor Road is going from a country road and all of a sudden we’re going to have trucks coming off of 87 into our neighborhood and possibly 145 homes dumping into Enzor Road.”

Stell explained to audience members and to the commission that the notion of a traffic problem arising was highly unlikely, but residents adamantly disapproved the building of another 145 homes stating it would create more of a traffic issue than already exists on Enzor, especially during the summer months when travel ball draws hoards of people to the Sportsplex.

“There will be 145 more homes, which is three times what is already out there,” Spurlock said. “And, if it’s very popular, it can build up easily in 10 years. All of these lots will be dumping onto a 50-foot wide county road, country road. Everybody in the neighborhood is against it. We’re not against the houses on the front. We’re fine with the character of the neighborhood like it is. You’re going from a 100-foot wide lot to a 50-foot wide lot. You’re going form a possible 60 homes to a 121 homes on 50-foot wide lots. It’s significantly changing the character of our neighborhood and directly impacting the health and safety of the neighborhood.”

Planning and Zoning Commission member Bill Hopper shared the statistic with commission members and audience members that 4,200 single-family homes are currently in Troy. Seven hundred and seventy-three of those homes have been built within the last 15 years.

“Although, there is some demand out of this less than 25 percent have been in the last 15 years,” Hopper said. “The likelihood of all these, it will take a while.”