Monthly Archives: February 2022

We have been part of a group pressing Knox County for corrective action. What has taken place is a very prolonged back and forth in which the county has looked to other parties to fund or to participate financially in the much needed corrective work.

At first there was extended back and forth with the City of Knoxville. More recently, the county has looked to the state and this week we have been told they are looking into seeking federal (Covid recovery) funds. All along, numerous neighbors have reminded the county of their peril and asked for action. The most recent county response has been a conversation about the use and whereabouts of pumps the community was told were purchased to pump out the overflow.

Bluegrass Lake has become a symbolic and sadly glaring example of the lack of planning and funding to keep our roads,homes, neighborhoods and businesses safe as County Commission continues to override zoning and permit runaway building with no plan for essential supporting infrastructure.

I drove to the City County Building last night wondering how many people might even brave the cool temperatures and heavy rain to attend a zoning hearing. I did not have to wonder long. While there were many proposed rezonings on the agenda and nearly all were approved, one stood out.

I had not cleared building security when I was met by a large crowd citizens carrying red signs that read “No Rezone”. The group had already overfilled the Small Assembly Room and were now being moved, of necessity to the building’s largest space. The group was polite, cheerful, orderly and organized; their goal was to once more prevail upon the County Commissioners to preserve their historic rural community.

The Dry Hollow community is comprised of mostly farmland, woodland, a high ridge shelters it. There are scattered homes (fewer than 25), some historic, most old, as well as a large church and cemetery and a limited light manufacturing area. The community is not supported by public sewer, water or improved roads. On one side it adjoins Chapman Highway, long regarded as the most dangerous road in the state. The valley is bounded on the opposite side by Sevierville Pike, a road that except for paving is little improved since pioneer days when the stagecoach originated there in Dry Hollow and served travelers to Sevierville. At least one home is of particular historic significance, many are older and have remained in the same families for generations.

Opening the meeting the Commission Chair, Ritchie Beeler told those in attendance that eleven citizens had complied with the rules and signed up in advance for the opportunity to speak. He read a statement which promised to punish any citizen who was disorderly or who falsely testified before the Commission. That was, through my eyes, an unfortunate opening insult to a group of modest people, many of whom were elderly, speaking from their hearts to and of a community they clearly love.

Ultimately, only two were allowed to speak. They told the commissioners of homes their families had inhabited for generations and they pointed to their children behind them who hoped to do the same. They spoke of the wildlife and streams, of memories, of their lifestyles, the sadness and anxiety the potential change was causing. When others of their group stood to be recognized or tried to speak out in response, Commissioner Jay told them, more than once, to “speak through your leader!” They were also cautioned by the chair to “be respectful” or he might clear the room. No other citizens were given the opportunity to address the Commission.

The citizens had wisely, and I suppose, of necessity, retained the counsel of Dan Sanders, formerly of the Knox County Law Department and recently the former advisor to the Commissioners.

It is interesting and important to note that earlier in the meeting the current representative of the County Law Director’s Office, Mike Moyers informed the Commissioners that his Office was now reversing it’s previous position and would after all, uphold the state-mandated Knox County Growth Plan that he had told the group last month was no longer valid.

Mr. Sanders had argued, accurately (if one believes numerous opinions of the State Attorney General) last month that the Plan was valid. Last night he again proceeded under that assumption. He told the Commissioners that the developers’ proposal did not adhere to the Growth Plan and he outlined the many ways that it did not. He also told the Commissioners the developers were already injuring the historic community by starting preparatory work before any permitted rezoning. He also said that the developer had made little or no effort to meet with or work with the community to ease tensions or to possibly find a compromise. He told the commissioners, that already, Thunder Mountain Properties was in the process of bulldozing, of removing trees, of pushing down fences, forcing debris into the steams and destroying wildlife habitat.

Much of the meeting was consumed with the district Commissioner, Carson Daily outlining how South Knoxville was growing and the residents should embrace the changes as new residents flow into the area and demand housing. Mr. Daily ultimately offered a motion – a proposed compromise that would allow the developer 180 rather than the 255 homes being sought. The Dry Hollow residents answered in unison “No!”.

For some time after Mr. Dailey’s proposal no other commissioner offered a second to the motion. Finally, another commissioner, Mr. Busler seconded the motion, but it did not advance. Finally, a third commissioner, Mr. Jay moved to postpone the matter for sixty days. That was met with applause.

Below is an article on the history and ecology of the Dry Hollow acreage – which is already being bulldozed even before a final rezoning vote. This excellent Hellbender Press article is being posted courtesy of Compass/Jesse Mayshark. Both presses are doing a fine job of documenting the rapid disappearance of Knox County greenspace. https://hellbenderpress.org/dry-hollow-special

Pay as You Grow?

Two Hardin Valley subdivisions highlight the county’s challenge in funding infrastructure — and the sway it gives developers.

BY JESSE FOX MAYSHARK • FEBRUARY 2, 2022

Hardin Valley subdivisions

TWO PLANNED SUBDIVISIONS IN THE HARDIN VALLEY AREA HAVE GENERATED COMMUNITY OPPOSITION.

Two controversial rezonings approved by Knox County Commission last week illustrated the ongoing tensions between new development and established neighborhoods in the fastest-growing part of the county — and suggested that many commissioners feel trapped by a lack of funding for infrastructure to keep pace.

‘The message is, the developers run this town,’ a planning advocate says.

In both cases, Commission approved new residential subdivisions in Hardin Valley despite concerns from the local community, partly because the developers promised improvements to surrounding roads and sidewalks that the county cannot afford to build on its own.

“Land use continues to be the hardest thing in a growing county,” Commissioner Larsen Jay said during discussion of a development planned for Hardin Valley Road. “Everybody wants to be the last one to build, everyone wants to pull the drawbridge up, everybody wants to wait until infrastructure catches up.”

But, he said, the county simply doesn’t have the resources to build infrastructure at the pace required by private development.

“We’re also in a county that has decided for close to 30 years to never raise taxes and have the revenue necessary to be able to do public infrastructure,” Jay said. “So we have decided as a community to rely on private development in order to push infrastructure.”

It hasn’t been quite 30 years, but it is true that Knox County hasn’t had a property tax increase since 1999. The county’s population has boomed by more than 90,000 people since then, with much of that growth in formerly rural areas like Hardin Valley that are still served primarily by what used to be country roads.

The result has been growing traffic congestion and frustration from previous waves of new residents as still more agricultural space is bulldozed for subdivisions.

In Hardin Valley, the county has responded with a mobility study conducted by Knoxville-Knox County Planning, which identified possible infrastructure improvements. But the options are both limited and expensive. This year, County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and County Commission have asked the state Department of Transportation for help with some widening around the Watt Road and Campbell Station Road interchanges with Interstate 40.

The county’s own resources to undertake such projects are scarce. The county’s total capital budget this year is $28 million for all infrastructure needs countywide. Jay said that at a rough estimate, just widening one section of Hardin Valley Road to four lanes and adding sidewalks would cost $31 million. (Knox County actually has a smaller annual capital outlay than the City of Knoxville, which this year has a capital budget of $48 million for infrastructure within city limits.)

Trading Density for Roadwork

As a consequence, commissioners increasingly look to developers to provide bits and pieces of infrastructure as parts of their projects, as was the case in both developments approved last week.

In the first, a planned subdivision at 11636 Hardin Valley Road, developers Safe Harbor Residential pledged to invest $750,000 in a roundabout, road widening and sidewalks at the intersection of Couch Mill and Sam Lee roads — but only if Commission approved the rezoning at three units per acre rather than the two units per acre recommended by the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission.

In the second, at 2205 W. Gallaher Ferry Road, Ball Homes promised to straighten a section of Gallaher Ferry Road — but only if Commission approved 3.5 units per acre rather than the three units the Planning Commission approved.

Commissioners ultimately approved both of the higher densities on 7-4 votes, allowing an extra 132 houses in the first subdivision and an additional 14 in the second, smaller one.

Residents of existing communities near both planned projects strenuously objected to the plans.

“The issue is not growth,” Hardin Valley resident Gary Latham told commissioners during the zoning hearing. “The problem and ongoing concern is this: The growth you are allowing has been done with a lack of planning. It has been careless, reckless and thoughtless. Growth is great when it’s done wisely.”

Representatives of the Knox County Planning Alliance, which represents homeowner groups and preservationists from across the county, said the rezonings sent the message to developers that they could get whatever zoning or density they want if they just offer to build a little infrastructure with it.

“The message is, the developers run this town,” KCPA cofounder Kim Frazier said in an interview the day after the Commission meeting. “And it was on full display last night when they were publicly negotiating.”

Frazier, who is also the founder of Hardin Valley Planning Advocates, is running for County Commission this year, in the Republican primary for the 11th District at-large seat. Questions of planning and development will likely loom large in the countywide race.

Bargaining Positions

The promises and demands made by the developers rubbed some commissioners the wrong way. When Ryan Hickey of Ball Homes said the company needed to be able to build 85 houses on the Gallaher Ferry property — rather than the 71 permitted by the Planning Commission — in order to afford improvements to the road, Commissioner Carson Dailey glowered.

“I’m kind of disappointed that you’re holding that over us, after all the things we’ve approved before (for Ball Homes),” Daily said.

“I’m not trying to hold anything over anyone’s head at all,” Hickey said. “We’ll just disagree on that.”

The argument was enough to sway Commissioner Terry Hill, whose district includes Hardin Valley. She voted against the larger development, but she voted to approve Hickey’s specifically because of the infrastructure promise.

“I’m not willing to give up that road improvement,” she said. “I’m just not going to let it go by the wayside.”

The county is currently embarking on a complete update of its General Plan and transportation plan. The process is expected to take about 18 months and will set new expectations for both development and infrastructure in the unincorporated parts of the county.

Frazier said that in the meantime, Commission should not be approving large rezonings that stand to put county infrastructure even farther behind its residential growth.

“What the community was asking for was a bridge plan while the new comprehensive plan is being developed,” she said. “The first step would be, let’s just uphold the (existing) sector plans until we get through this process.”

But most commissioners were appreciative of the developers’ plans. Commission Chair Richie Beeler noted projections from the Planning Commission that the county will need to add nearly 8,500 housing units in the next five years to accommodate expected growth.

And Commissioner Kyle Ward, speaking of the Hardin Valley Road development, said, “I think this is the first development that I can remember since I’ve been on the commission that they’re offering to widen an entire road, a quarter mile give or take, and a roundabout, and add sidewalks and parks. This is what we always ask for when developers come here, is to do these things for us.”