Neighbors question indoor gymnasium in historic Cleveland area

A new two-story building in a historic home district of Cleveland, Tenn., is causing concern to area residents just off Bowman Avenue near Lee University.

CLEVELAND, Tenn. Eyebrows are being raised over an indoor basketball gym being built in a Cleveland neighborhood that helped launch the city's historic preservation movement.

Cleveland city officials have fielded complaints about a 4,844-square-foot, two-story building going up behind the Centenary Avenue home of Matthew and Tara Brown. The couple cleared away a 912-square-foot, 1930s-era house at 932 Oak St. to make way for their gym, which some local residents feel is too large and out of character with the neighborhood.

"Some people are upset about it, and others were simply wondering what process did he go through to get this approved," City Manager Janice Casteel said.

The Browns declined to comment.

City planner Corey Divel also said he's gotten calls about the gym.

"I think I had two phone calls when it first started going up," he said.

The Browns went through the necessary steps to build the gym, Divel said, including getting a certificate of appropriateness from Cleveland's seven-member Historic Preservation Commission. It approved the certificate in a 4-0 vote at its May 21 meeting, according to meeting minutes, with support from commissioners Joan Benjamin, Randy Wood, Charlotte Thorogood and Maryl Elliott.

Architect Douglas B. Caywood, who sits on the historic preservation commission and was the Browns' architect for the gym, was absent. Caywood declined to comment Friday about the issue.

Plans on file with the city show that the gym building is 18 feet tall to the eaves, where the roof begins. The basketball court is 50 feet wide, the same as a regulation NBA court, and has two nets. It will be 61 feet long, about two-thirds the length of the 94-foot-long regulation court. The new building will include a one-car garage and a kitchen.

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Neighbors question indoor gymnasium in historic Cleveland area