Rezoning would allow 33 more homes at Autumn Ridge off Bristol Highway

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — The Autumn Ridge subdivision just off Bristol Highway will enter another phase — this one with up to 33 single-family homes — if the city approves a proposed rezoning.

Developers Jordan Hodges and Terry Orth are requesting that 7.5 acres adjacent to already built or under construction residential be zoned RP-3 (planned residential). It’s part of about 15 acres closest to Bristol Highway and just north of Rocky Mount Historic Site that’s currently zoned planned business.

Hodges said the new homes would be “patio home” style and actually share a single lot, with common ground between all buildings and landscaping and other outdoor management handled by a homeowners association.

He said it’s a niche that’s attracting buyers who are either retiring locally or moving in from other regions and typically downsizing.

“It really draws retirees in that $400,000 to $600,000 price range, three bedroom, two bath minimums, two-car garages,” Hodges said. “They’ve got a lot of the existing neighborhood feel of them where they’re going to have a lot of brick, insides have more upgraded finishes like granite, hardwood, tile showers.”

The style will make the property stand out enough from the two-story single-family homes up the hill, and some new ones under construction, that Hodges said the envisioned cul de sac and property will get its own name: The Settlement at Autumn Ridge.

If the request passes the Regional Planning Commission Tuesday, the rezoning would require three readings from the Johnson City Commission, which could be complete by the end of April.

“We’d like to start … development of the road at the end of this summer, possibly early fall, and then that would probably take us to where we could actually go vertical in the first quarter of (2025),” Hodges said.

WHAT: 33 new single-family houses on 7.5 acres.

WHERE: Just off of Bristol Highway near Rocky Mount Historic Site, Johnson City/Piney Flats.

WHO: Premier Development.

WHEN: First phase of homebuilding could start in early 2025.

YOUR TAX BENEFIT: Based on an average assessment of $500,000 for 33 homes, the project would generate about $170,000 annually in combined Washington County and Johnson City property taxes.

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