BEAN BLOSSOM — The land that once hosted Old Settlers reunions of Brown County families has been purchased by a longtime Brown County family: Marc and Kelly Rudd.
But a proposal for what to do with it isn’t sitting well with the neighbors.
At the May Brown County Board of Zoning Appeals meeting, Kelly Rudd and her daughter, Kamady Lewis, listened to 11 residents on and around Old Settlers Road share how they felt about Lewis’ plans for a private recreational development.
None of them supported the idea as proposed.
Lewis wants to build a 9,000-square-foot wedding barn near the southwest corner of the 19.5-acre property, away from the Duke Energy power lines that run through the middle of it. It would have parking up near Old Settlers Road for up to 180 cars, but Lewis said she doesn’t expect to have any more than 200 people at the venue including event vendors. She proposed operating hours of 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Lewis grew up in Nashville but doesn’t live here now; she’s a television journalist in Ohio. She told the BZA that she wants to move her young family back, but would need a way to make a “sustainable living” here. Building an event venue has been a dream of hers, she said. She also plans to open up the building for nonprofit uses like fundraisers.
The land’s zoning would not be changed to business; what’s being requested is a special exception to the zoning for this site and this business only.
Lewis said they’d exhausted various other property options before they settled on this acreage on Old Settlers Road, which she said had a similar history to what she wants to do with it.
“It was used for large community gatherings, reunions, music and celebrations, so, having that history made it more of a rare find. We wanted to bring the property back to its roots,” she said, and to “preserve the rural and scenic atmosphere.”
Neighbors said that this use would not be comparable with the Old Settlers reunions, which were described as two- or three-day-long affairs of family fun with very little, if any, alcohol use.
The Old Settlers reunion started in 1877 and took place mostly on this land, called Clupper’s Grove, until around 2008. Stories in newspaper archives from the 1960s advertised musical “hootnannys,” men’s and women’s hog calling contests and greased pole climbing contests, alongside hymn singing and a guest talk by a minister. Renowned schools superintendent Grover G. Brown wrote about reunions from the 1930s or earlier when family members would feud and try to knock chips off each other’s shoulders.
But those were not every-weekend events; they were once-a-year events, Ruth Ellen Evans pointed out. She’s lived on Old Settlers road for 62 years.
Neighbor Debbie Larsh also said that the traffic on Old Settlers Road for the reunion was one-way only. It isn’t that way now. She begged the BZA to vote down the proposal.
Evans and several other speakers mentioned the width and condition of the road as a hazard for additional traffic, with washouts and short sight lines. She also didn’t want to deny her children, now adults, their “right” to raise their own future children on the road, with the ability to ride bikes and walk to their grandma’s and not worry about who was traipsing around.
Noise was another big concern from the neighbors.
Lewis said she’s “a rule follower” and she’d be on site for all events to make sure there was no amplified music, no music outside unless it was something unobtrusive like a violin for a ceremony, and that guests would “pull the plug at 11” on all events.
Brent and Jenise Bohbrink bought acreage abutting this site to the south a few months before the Rudds bought theirs. If this wedding barn is put where it’s proposed — 66 feet from the south and 187 feet from the west property lines — they would be able to see it from their property, Jenise said.
Part of the reason why the Bohbrinks bought it was because it was “our own oasis,” Brent said. He’s lived in other homes in the Bean Blossom area where he could hear the music from Bill Monroe music park and the engines on the Gatesville track, which he didn’t have a problem with because they were here before him, he said.
“At what point do the people in the community of Bean Blossom have the ability not to have disruption to their residential life?” he asked the board. “Can we not have days where we can have quiet solace? Do we always have to listen to ambient music and loud cars? When do we get our time? … When is enough enough?”
Two neighbors asked for visual and sound barriers, such as a privacy fence, mature plantings and a dirt berm.
Lewis said she was open to talking about conditions like barriers and hours limits.
The planning department had recommended approval of this PRD request because staff found no evidence that other similar venues “materially and permanently injure” other property in the area, and the request met all the requirements for a special exception.
BZA members signaled that they might not approve it after hearing from the neighbors.
In March, the same board had voted down a request for a wedding barn on Bellsville Pike after neighbors brought up many of the same concerns about traffic and noise.
BZA member Darla Brown calculated that if there were two events per weekend May to October, that would be 48 events per year. “I’m just not convinced this is a good place for this type of business,” she said about the Old Settlers Road proposal. Member Randy Jones agreed.
Members Debbie Bartes and Buzz King said they could see both sides. Bartes pointed out that Lewis had offered to keep the music under control, put limits on operating days and hours, hire security and work with the neighbors on barriers. King said he deals with music and headlights all the time at home in Nashville, so he can sympathize, but he appreciates that the petitioners are “good people and they’re going to do what’s right.”
BZA Chairman John Dillberger said that if this land was bordered by other vacant properties, he might feel differently, but he’d been persuaded from the testimony that this would not be a low-impact business to the surrounding neighborhood. “My inclination is to say I think it looks like a great proposal in the wrong place,” he said.
Before they voted, Lewis asked if she could have a month to rework the plans and “try to make it work for everyone.” The board agreed.
The June BZA meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 23 at 6 p.m.
