Why the Grocery Store at Schaad and Bakertown Waited 20 Years for a Road

In June 2006, county planners reviewing a request for commercial zoning at Schaad Road and Bakertown Road estimated the wait. Their condition would keep the land from being developed "before the new Ball Camp Pike realignment project is substantially completed, which is likely to be at least 5 years from now."

It took about 20. On Sept. 17, 2026, a Knox News photographer captured the Walmart Neighborhood Market under construction at that corner. Five days later, the paper's "What's That?" column reported that both Walmart and Weigel's are coming to this stretch of Schaad Road, a Neighborhood Market on one side and an "auto spa" on the other.

The county agreed to commercial use on this land two decades ago, on the condition that it wait for the road. So the biggest change for people who drive this corner every day is the road package that comes with the store.

The Deal Struck in 2006

The rezoning case, 6-U-06-RZ, went before the Metropolitan Planning Commission on June 8, 2006, and Knox County Commission approved it on July 24, 2006. Planners recommended Planned Commercial zoning for the north 24.1 acres and Planned Residential zoning, up to four homes per acre, for the southern 13.1 acres. The commercial part came with one condition.

No development plan for commercial development shall be accepted for review by MPC until the new Ball Camp Pike realignment is completed adjacent to this site. MPC and County Engineering staff will determine when the road project is at a point of sufficient completion.

That realignment became the new Schaad Road. When Knox Planning reviewed the current proposal in 2026, its staff summary described the 14-acre property as zoned PC(k) in 2006 "subject to the condition that the property not be developed for commercial purposes until Schaad Road is complete."

The 2006 report also looked ahead. It said that "as the road project proceeds and sewer utilities are extended to better serve this area, the sector plan proposals may change." The planners expected the road to shape what came next, and the record since then shows that's how it played out.

Twenty Years, Then About Twenty Months

The approval took one meeting. The wait took most of two decades. Once the road was far enough along, the paperwork around this one intersection moved quickly.

When Planning reviewed the Weigel's plan in December 2024, Schaad Road along that site was open but still under construction. The grocery application, from Orange Knoxville, LLC, followed about 16 months later.

What the Store Has to Build Before It Sells Anything

The Knox Planning approval for case 4-SE-26-C describes a grocery store with a fuel station and convenience store on a 10.5-acre lot, two outparcels for future development, and a public road extension. Its nine conditions spend more words on traffic than on the building. Here's what the developer is responsible for:

• A traffic signal at Schaad and Bakertown, with the cost split evenly between the property owner and Knox County.
• Widening Bakertown Road to two 10-foot lanes with 2-foot shoulders, curb and gutter, and a sidewalk on the east side, from the new road at Schaad to the railroad right-of-way.
• Moving the Schaad Road median opening west so it lines up with the new road and a future commercial driveway on the north side of Schaad.
• New turn lanes on Schaad, plus a check of whether the westbound left-turn lane at Bakertown needs more storage length.
• A new public road, called Road "A" in the plan, along the east side of the lot. It has a sidewalk on one side and connects to Honey Nectar Way in Cardinal Landing.

Planning staff summed it up in one line: "The property owner is responsible for the full cost of the road improvements, except for a cost-sharing agreement with Knox County for the traffic signal." The plan calls for the two outparcels to be reached from the internal driveways.

How the Daily Drive Changes Around the Corner

These conditions change specific turns.

Truitt Path Lane. It's already limited to right-in, right-out turns because it sits off-line from the median opening on Schaad. Shifting that opening west to line up with the new road keeps Truitt Path Lane right-only and gives left-turning traffic a new spot to cross Schaad.

Cardinal Landing. Honey Nectar Way is being built and platted as part of the Cardinal Landing subdivision to the south. The grocery's new road extends it north to Schaad, so that subdivision gets a public street that runs past the store and out to Schaad Road.

Bakertown Road. The county plans a bigger project on Bakertown beyond the developer's section. Knox County Chief Engineer Jim Snowden told WVLT in February that the county is "widening that entire corridor of Bakertown all the way from Ball Road to Ball Camp Pike," with two 10-foot lanes and sidewalks. The same plan straightens out the Bakertown and Ball Camp Pike intersection. Snowden told the station that drivers there now have to jog "over about 50 feet and up," which leads to rear-end crashes. County Commission approved right-of-way and construction easements on four tracts for that project on April 27, 2026.

The traffic study for the grocery site used 2030 as its buildout year. That's the year the traffic engineers assumed the development would be fully built out when they modeled the intersection.

The Grocery Run, Measured From This Corner

Before the April hearing, the Lobetti Landing HOA board sent Planning a letter listing round-trip distances from the site to the closest existing grocery stores.

The board used these numbers to argue the area already had enough grocery options. They also show what the corner has had so far: the closest full grocery store was a 5.4-mile round trip. The same letter called the planned signal "a positive outcome that will hopefully serve to slow traffic in a potentially congested area." It also raised concerns about the traffic coming from the store, the new road behind it and a nearby apartment project.

The Weigel's going in directly across Schaad from the grocery has its own fuel, convenience store and car wash. So two fuel stations will face each other at an intersection that didn't have one.

The Road Keeps Deciding What Comes Next

The 300-unit apartment plan at 8007 Ball Camp Pike, filed by Thompson Thrift Development, Inc., sits just southeast of Schaad Road. Planning heard it on Feb. 12, 2026. All three projects in this article went through Planning in the window after Schaad opened along their sites.

The road isn't finished as a whole. Knox County described the full plan to WBIR as a "Northwest connector" linking Callahan Drive at I-75 to Lovell Road at I-40. The next phase extends Schaad Road between Oak Ridge Highway and Pleasant Ridge Road. The last section, widening Lovell Road, depends on TDOT, and the county told WBIR it hoped to have the whole corridor open "within the next 10 years." In the same report, the county named Andes Road, Johnson Road and Bakertown Road as Schaad intersections where its corridor study found a need for signals.

Anyone wondering what will go up on a vacant parcel along the unfinished stretches of Schaad can look it up. Knox Planning and KGIS post zoning cases for the public, and the Schaad and Bakertown corner shows a 2006 condition can still decide what gets built in 2026.

If you live near Schaad Road and want to know how this corner, and the work still planned along it, could affect your home's value or your plans to sell, Martha Riordan and the MR10 Realty team are glad to walk through it with you, case file by case file. Get in Touch.