The Knoxville City Council last night made an annexation of the land on which Love’s Travel Stop sits official.
Knoxville had agreed to annex the land contingent on Love’s purchasing the land from Knox County.
There was little discussion among council members when the ordinance came up, some of them commenting on how long they’ve been working on this and that they know what’s in the ordinance.
Mayor Pro Tem Dennis Maurer says has been months in the works.
“This ordinance embodies all of the work that the planning commission and the zoning board of appeals has been doing for the past couple of months,” Maurer said.
The ordinance also contained a zoning variance on the placement of a sign
The council additionally waved building permit fees for the Love’s project.
There was also a report from the planning and zoning commission on businessman Keith Vaughn’s plans to renovate and commercialize the historic St. Mary’s Chapel.
He assured aldermen last night that his planned removal of one of the chapel’s cloisters would not cause any structural damage.
“So at this point right now, all we’re doing is taking that cloister, the bad part off the rest of the way,” Vaughn told council. “We’re going to secure the rest and then we’ll put a parking lot in and we’ll move forward next year with the rest of it.”
Vaughn expects his purchase of the building to be finalized in April.
