By QUINT QUALLS

The Spring Hill Municipal Planning Commission voted in favor of a rezoning request Monday allowing for the relocation of the Tennessee Children’s Home from its current location on Main Street to a site off Doctor Robertson Road.

The plan to relocate the Children’s Home has been known to city officials for some time now. At Monday’s meeting Alderman Jonathan Duda said he believed the proposed site off of Doctor Robertson Road was considered for the relocation even as the city was going through the process to update its comprehensive plan and land use process. The city’s newly updated comprehensive plan, “Spring Hill Rising: 2040,” went into effect last fall.

“Then we updated for Spring Hill Rising: 2040, and we sought a future land use designation that we thought would accommodate a campus of this type. I do find the request is in keeping with our comprehensive plan and land use plan.”

The site of the proposed Tennessee Children’s Home relocation carries the future land use designation of “Mixed Use Neighborhood Area,” a primarily residential designation with a low to moderate intensity balanced mixture of retail and office space.

City officials considered the request by Rhodes Engineering to rezone 86 acres located at 2225 Doctor Robertson Road from Agricultural to B-1 Office and Limited Retail.

According to City Planner Dara Sanders, the Spring Hill Police Department reported the relocation of the Tennessee Children’s Home to the Doctor Robertson Road property would increase the amount of emergency calls in the area. The calls police get to the Children’s Home primarily concern runaways or physical assault issues, she said.

Chuck Rhodes, of applicant Rhodes Engineering, said because they plan to move the Children’s Home from one location to another, they do not expect an increase in the overall amount of calls.

With the proposed relocation of the Children’s Home, local developers have a plan to purchase the Home’s old property in order to build a walkable ‘downtown’ district which Spring Hill currently lacks. The project calls for the 103-acre Children’s Home property to be transformed into a mixed-use city center and town square that includes, among other things, a new city hall, a library and 320,000 square feet of office space.

The planning commission voted unanimously on Monday to forward the rezoning request for the relocation of the Children’s Home on to the Board of Mayor and Alderman with a recommendation for approval.

Quint Qualls covers Spring Hill for Home Page Media Group. Reach him at quint@springhillhomepage.com.