GERMANTOWN, Tenn. — Don’t expect to see new apartment buildings popping up in Germantown anytime soon after the town’s Board of Aldermen voted Monday night to place a moratorium on them.
Many feared apartments might become a fixture of Germantown as word spread of possible plans for new apartments at the so-called “Cordova Triangle” – at the corners of Germantown Road, Cordova Road and Neshoba Road.
“We don’t need people coming in here and telling us, “What you need, Germantown, is more apartments,” Germantown resident Don Lossing said.
“It is time for Germantown to put Germantown families first again,” Alderman Dean Massey said.
Related: Controversy surrounds possible apartment complex moratorium in Germantown
According to Mayor Mike Palazzolo, apartments already compromise about 15 percent of Germantown.
“I got many emails that really portrayed people that live in multi-family housing as not necessarily first-class citizens in our city and that’s further from the truth,” Palazzolo said.
In the end, it was concerns about overcrowding in Germantown’s schools that may have won the argument.
Teacher Maria Cox said she fears the flood of students another apartment building would bring.
“I feel like apartments and bringing in so many more people is not ideal,” Cox said.
Aldermen debated making the moratorium permanent, but it was the 18-month moratorium that was approved.