We learned last week that the developer of the contested parcel on Ebenezer road in front of Bexhill neighborhood has destroyed the Bexhill neighborhood signs on either side of the commercial parcel.

The attractive brick columns, in place for decades and that some of believed may have been in the right of way and would be spared, were bulldozed about two weeks ago. Now large piles of concrete rubble mark their former spots.

Ironically, some observers had recently noticed the columns still in place, flanked by neatly trimmed mature landscaping, believed their preservation was a nice resolution to the community opposition, a show of respect for the neighbors.

We have mentioned before our concern about the grossly underfunded Knox County roads budget, the obligations of which apparently grow monthly as developers hand over new roads for county maintenance.

From Compass yesterday –

Street Talk: An item titled “Acceptance of New County Roads” is a staple on Knox County Commission agendas — nine out of the last 12 months, commissioners have accepted the conveyance of roads built in new subdivisions by developers. Those neighborhood streets are crucial to the subdivisions’ viability, but maintaining them is an expense and hassle for developers who generally don’t have their own highway departments. So after building the roads to the specifications of county codes, they donate them to the county, i.e., the general public — for whom they become both assets and liabilities.

At-large County Commissioner Kim Frazier, who was just sworn in last month, has a particular interest in the the way costs and impacts associated with development are externalized to the surrounding communities. As a founder of Hardin Valley Planning Advocates and the Knox County Planning Alliance, she has for years argued that those costs are often overlooked or underestimated when Commission approves new development plans.

So this month, as Commission considered accepting roads from the Roefield subdivision near Gettysvue Golf Club in West Knox County, Frazier requested a briefing on the long-term financial implications.

Jim Snowden, the county’s senior director of engineering and public works, said the county currently has about 1,730 miles of roads and over the past 25 years has on average added about nine miles per year in new residential roads.

Those new roads can typically be expected to last about 20 years without major repair, Snowden said, but eventually need to be milled and resurfaced. At current prices — including what he said is an “all-time high” cost of asphalt — it costs about $220,000 to pave a mile of road.

Snowden added that some of the issues being discussed in the Advance Knox planning process could help reduce those costs in the future — particularly “scenarios that limit our continued sprawl and allow for less of these roadways like this, with higher density and maybe even narrower streets.”

But for now, commissioners voted to accept the Roefield roads.

Thanks to Jesse Mayshark, Scott Barker and Compass for following important public matters. Here is an excerpt from this morning’s Compass:

The City of Knoxville is taking steps to create a Zoning Department that would coordinate land use determinations with Knoxville-Knox County Planning, though it’s unclear what the relationship between the entities would be.

Buried in a $7.5 million budget amendment approved by City Council last night was a measure transferring a vacant zoning chief position from the Plans Review and Inspections Department to the mayor’s office.

The position, rechristened a special assistant, would “support the creation of a new Zoning department as part of the City’s efforts to improve development services,” according to documents. The budget amendment authorized appropriating $25,000 to cover an increase in pay for the position.

Chief Policy Officer Erin Gill indicated the proposed Zoning Department would work with the Plans Review and Inspections Department on “reactive” matters — applications for specific projects and zoning changes. That apparently would leave “proactive” efforts — the development of long-range plans, for example — to the Knoxville-Knox County Planning staff.

“It’s part of making development more predictable,” Chief Operations Officer David Brace said.

The proposal came as a surprise to Council members Lauren Rider and Lynne Fugate, who grilled Gill and Brace about the Zoning Department. “This seems like it’s something bigger,” Fugate said. “This seems like a precursor to the city having a planning department and the county having something else.”

According to Gill, the city administration is still developing a plan for the proposed department. “This is a work in progress,” she said.

Knox County is indeed taking a similar approach, with Senior Director of Engineering and Public Works Jim Snowden taking a more active role in land use decisions.

The city and county have different zoning ordinances, but the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission, which consists of members appointed by both mayors, makes initial decisions — and in some cases the final determination — on land use issues for both governments. The Knoxville-Knox County Planning staff handles applications and makes recommendations to the Planning Commission.

The idea of creating separate planning commissions — one for the unincorporated portion of the county and one for the city — has been floated from time to time in recent years. The Planning Commission was created by state law, however, so any changes would require state action.

The dual foghorns of Knox County’s development industry, the propagandists, oh sorry, we meant PR writers, of the Chamber of Commerce and The Board of Realtors are honking away loudly lately. Why? Looks like they want to be able to say they have your approval of the outcome of Advance Knox.

Advance Knox? AK is allegedly, the visioning process that will codify what we Knox Countians want for our community in the coming decade. In the view of some close observers it is the County Mayor and development cabal’s million dollar planned end-run around Knox County’s zoning regulations, and they will prevail – unless citizens step in.

Here’s your choice. Be there (in person or online) and speak up or let the Mayor and team say what you want. Public sessions around the county begin next week. They are:

Sunday, Oct.2 at New Hopewell Elementary School, 2-4 p.m.; Monday, Oct. 3 at Gresham Middle School, 5:30-7:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Oct. 4 at Cedar Bluff Middle School, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

A virtual session will be held at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 5.

The Advance Knox process was forced on the County when it’s leaders systematically neglected and ignored the prior plan – The Knox County Growth Plan, until finally, community groups raised it from the dead and said hey, wait a minute. What about this master zoning plan? Didn’t we citizens clearly say, codified, in writing, with state approval that we wanted planned, controlled growth, not rampant profiteering and runaway bulldozers paving over of the entire County? Then there was a scrimmage.

The Mayor’s team lost that round and were left having to fight out every rezoning, parcel by parcel with public input before the Planning and County Commissions – the way the law intended. They don’t like that. Their top industry spokesperson, developer Scott Davis, complains again and again that it raises development costs and slows things down (translation: doing things properly cuts into profits).

If you can’t win playing by the rules, change the rules? The Mayor and team continually push to advance their plan by working to change how things work, jiggering the meaning of the law, the structure and composition of boards and staffs, who controls what. But we’ll get to that later.

You may recall that the Mayor’s previous major assault on zoning/The Growth Plan unexpectedly went down in flames when the Town of Farragut declined to sign on to the Mayor’s plan to chuck it. Now the Mayor and team intend to see that you and your neighbors sign off on their vision, or they can say you did, and that’s what matters. The State demands a publicly approved process. So either we show up and speak out loudly or give the insiders what they want.

How does the Mayor plan to get what he wants from you? By laying out for you in dreamy, aspirational detail how denser development and the paving of green spaces will improve your quality of life – and getting you to unwittingly sign off on his vision.

This is being orchestrated via a million dollar consultancy contract. The earlier Advance Knox public input sessions were embarrassingly poorly attended and they certainly did not give the Mayor the mandate he seeks to claim. The recent PR onslaught is designed to correct that – by driving people to the public sessions – but, judging from their PR placements, only the right people – realtors, developers and their kith and kin along with young professionals who presumably want to see a more urban, dense, entertainment and nightlife oriented Knox County.

The insider-preferred vision touts more Northshore Town Center type development (never mind the sordid multiple failures along the way that left a stalled, blighted parcel for years as multiple developers failed to fulfill the vision presented and stranded the early purchasers in homes they struggled to re-sell). In the Chamber’s PR piece, community groups that question carte blanche development, those who have organized to preserve existing zoning (their property rights?), are criticized as only focusing on preserving farmland and green space. Those of us on the front row of many of those zoning disputes beg to differ! Overwhelmingly, the greatest concern has been for transparent advance planning and fair cost sharing of the impact of development on roads, sidewalks, schools, utilities and fire and police.

You can attend the Advance Knox actual meetings or weigh in online at https://advanceknox.org/schedule.