Thank you for your feedback and continued interest in your communities!
25 Comments
Showing 1-25 of 48 results
Deborah , 37922
January 17, 2024
As zoning in Knoxville and Knox County continue to evolve and change. I would like to ensure my best property interests are maintained.
It is my understanding that there is a District Commissioner that is currently planning a meeting to restrict, down zone or attempt to rezone certain areas. Additionally, it appears the commissioner may be leaning in a certain direction without full support of their constituents. Pre-determined assumptions in favor of residential zoning.
**The commissioner did call me on (1/16/2024)and assured me she is representing all her constituents.
Please let it be known, that I, Deborah A Ferguson support Advance Knox Zoning and the Growth Planning for our area. I am excited to see Advance Knox move into adoption phase.
I Do Not support down zoning (of any type) for 100 Essex Drive property.
No person or community group should be able to change my zoning without my full support.
Deborah, 37914
January 10, 2024
Part 5: It's THEIR plan, not ours - the County, including all of Knoxville. Do the mayors care about us? Do we have advocates other than those for big business? No. Developers' dreams - not ours, we the citizens who have loved Knoxville since we were born.
Please spend time, energy, & money on longtime current residents!! For heaven's sake, DO NOT SPEND ONE MORE CENT OR MINUTE ON ATTRACTING MORE PEOPLE!!
WE ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO BUILD A NEST FOR EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO MOVE HERE!
A home is supposed to be a refuge.
Thank you for listening
Deborah, 37914
January 10, 2024
Part 4: Rural & family farmland are our most precious & clean resources. We need more family farms instead of unhealthy huge nasty inhumane corporate factory farms from whom we have to ship & buy unhealthy chemical-ridden foods grown on depleted chemically treated & enhanced soil! Gobbling up great rich land to bulldoze, pave, & provide expensive housing to entice thousands of people to move here is simply wrong, & backstabbing to us all. We need the peace & contentment that only rural areas can provide! It's already disappearing, & we suffee, because of the extreme greedy development everywhere.
Washington Pike & Millertown Pike used to be among my favorite roads to go for a nice country drive. No more. Now, a long line of vehicles stay stuck to my bumper, due to all the cookie cutter subdivisions & much development already done out there. It's too late to change that, but please choose balance! Please choose to respect & support the importance & health of natural land, & how human beings cannot happily survive without a space to breathe clean air, see fireflies & the night sky, & enjoy seeing our wonderful Tennessee landscape & trees right outside their windows! I repeat: WE ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO BUILD A NEST FOR EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO MOVE HERE! Leave our natural land & farms alone. We shouldn't have to beg. If you won't do that, quality of life is nonexistent.
Deborah, 37914
January 10, 2024
Part 3: The first example of our City/County hell is how the new Suttree Landing Park on the south side of the river was ruined, after years of promising residents they would do wonderful things to beautify & give access to the riverfront! No. Along the entire length of the Park, just feet away, a dozen big ugly apt bldgs were erected on the public parking for the Park. It is no longer a nice river park access connected to a greenway & accessible to The Public. Who would want to go have lunch & walk there now? No one.
Example 2: There is a landfill on County land across the street from my City home that recently got permission to expand. This landfill & everything connected with it is orrible to live with. "Meridian Waste - Riverside Construction & Demolition Landfill". TDEC had to approve the expansion, but their documents show that they have no idea this once beautiful old marble quarry land is in the midst of an actual neighborhood of HUMAN BEINGS! This is one example of the type of thing that happens uncaringly to take advantage of lower income neighborhoods.
Deborah, 37914
January 10, 2024
Part 2: Our property taxes & dwelling costs have already increased exponentially because of this! "Whatever the market will bear?" Most people moving here are quite well off, & can bear quite a bit in the marketplace. But many long time residents can no longer afford to buy even a small starter home! People are being evicted from apartments because they cannot afford the huge price increases. Will our leaders address, regulate, & correct these problems, including the resulting sad homeless problem? No. This is all quite disheartening.
Deborah, 37914
January 10, 2024
Part 1
As usual, those in charge seem to be in LOVE with developer money & marketing to lure more population. Existing human beings, neighborhood promises that were made years ago, & natural land are ignored.
The last 3+ years there has already been enough bulldozing, paving, giving large tracts of land to developers, putting cookie cutter subdivisions all around the perimeter (& inside the city) where there was natural lovely rural-feeling land, plopping huge apartment buildings everywhere in untenable & perplexing locations.
We need spaces to breathe, natural land left alone, small farmers to help keep us well! They are so important to having healthy food & a healthy life! I refuse to participate in supporting factory farming shipped from all over the country. NOT healthy or humane!
We've had 30%+ increase in population in the last 3 to 4 years due to people deciding to move here. The City & County wildly cater to these sudden new quite well-moneyed residents! I'm sick of seeing bulldozed land & new pavement, buildings, subdivisions. WE ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO BUILD A NEST FOR EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO MOVE HERE!!
Gerald
January 10, 2024
Ladies and gentlemen:Attached are the full comments of the Harvey Broome Group of the Sierra Club on the proposed Growth Plan that will be considered tonight. Only a portion of it will be delivered orally by me tonight.
Please consider all of our comments before making any decision
French Broad Preservation Association
January 10, 2024
Please see the attached position statement from the French Broad Preservation Association on the proposed Knox Growth Plan.
AttachmentMargie, 37920
January 5, 2024
Re: Kevin's comment below (12/30/23).
This constitutes a 5-alarm fire. We doom our collective future if we continue this reckless destruction of farmland. NINE point EIGHT acres of farmland lost PER HOUR - day in and day out - for the last FIVE years?!? And 6.3 acres PER HOUR - for the 20 years prior to that????????????????
Fourth most threatened state t have ag land converted to other uses????
Hello??????? Anyone listening??????? No more conversion of large tracts of farmlands. THIS TO STOP - NOW!
Kevin, 37918
December 30, 2023
In the just-released 2024 Economic Report to the Governor, UT highlighted Agricultural Land Loss in Tennessee:
Agricultural Land Loss in Tennessee
In 2020, The American Farmland Trust ranked Tennessee as the fourth most threatened state to have agricultural land to be converted to other uses. There is approximately 26.3 million acres of total space in Tennessee. From 1997-2017, there was 1.1 million acres (4.2 percent of total land in Tennessee) of farmland converted into other uses, mainly residential. The amount of farmland lost was equivalent to 55,601 acres/year, 152 acres/day, and 6.3 acres/hour. From 2017-2022, there was 432,941 acres (1.64 percent of total land in Tennessee) of farmland converted to other uses. From 2017-2022, the rate of farmland loss increased to 86,588 acres/year, 237 acres/day, and 9.8 acres/hour. In the coming years, the conversion rate could maintain or increase again due to Blue Oval City development in Haywood County and surrounding counties. Additionally, a growing trend in Tennessee is expansion of the solar industry. Thus, the solar industry could increase the rate of farmland conversion in the next few years.
Source: https://haslam.utk.edu/publication/economic-report-to-the-governor-2024/
Sandra, 37914
December 24, 2023
I sent these questions Friday via email but am following up submitting them through the web page. Since the GPP is coming ahead of the Comp Plan, these questions pertain to the documents that support the proposed amendments to the GPP. I'm trying to understand the supporting document.
Under Constraints:
What flood plain year?
What % steep slopes?
Under Placetypes:
What is density per acre for: suburban low, suburban medium, suburban high, Town Center, and Mixed Commercial.
What is the housing type difference between suburban medium and suburban high, and why is there no suburban high on the FLU map?
What does PMT mean?
Attached units are a secondary use in suburban. Is this suburban low or medium?
There is a placeype called suburban mixed but it doesn't appear on the FLU map, unless suburban medium = mixed. Please clarify.
Please provide a zoomable map with an environmental features layer overlaid with a unconstrained developable land layer.
What is the Urban Footprint Base Canvass and if it is mapped may I see it?
And finally (for now) some population questions regarding unincorporated Knox County:The Comprehensive Plan references the 2045 Mobility Plan for population projections. Page c-3 of this Mobiity Plan compares 2018 population (465,289) to projected 2045 population (570,688) resulting in an increase of 105,063.
The Quick Facts Census estimated 2022 population is 494,574 which when compared to 570,688 results in an increase of 76,114.The county's share of projected growth is mentioned twice in the Comprehensive Plan: 73% and 75%. Taking the higher % this results in a projected 2045 county population increase of 57,086. If then divided by average household size of 2.4 the demand for residential units is roughly 23,786. Not the estimated 31,000.
I would be curious to know the number of residential units approved by not yet built.
And if we could have any data that is more accurate that would help. What do you think of this analysis?
What is the assumption behind so little attached housing shown on the FLU map? And so much suburban? How does this meet the public's priority for conservation and affordable housing? How does this meet the desire for nodal development? Nodal development doesn't have to be a Town Center. It can be clusters of higher density located near arterial and connector roads.
Sewer is given an extremely high weighting. Is this existing or does it include proposed? By including proposed (if it is included) aren't we letting utility companies dictate the extent of growth. That is, just because it can be serviced doesn't mean it should be.
Attachment
Mike, 37922
December 20, 2023
As a developer and a conservationist, I realize the need for more housing AND the need to preserve open space and especially agricultural land. They need not overlap. It is critical to preserve what little agricultural land is remaining in Knox County - it is important for availability of local produce; it is important for preservation of wildlife and it is an important part of our local culture. I urge anyone so inclined to contact Foothills Land Conservancy (www.FoothillsLand.org) to investigate placing a conservation easement on your rural land to protect it from development forever.
Bob, 37920
December 19, 2023
Hello -- The Kimley Horn project manager told the Growth Committee at the October meeting that the unincorporated area of the county is projected to add 70,000 residents by 2040. How was that number arrived at? I have emailed gpp@advanceknox.org with a spreadsheet i made using calculations based on Census Data and Boyd Center projections, showing that the projected increase would more likely be around 55,000 or less.
Kevin
December 19, 2023
Dear Growth Plan Committee
If we lose some or most of these local Knox County farmers, we accelerate the loss of the rural character and heritage of Knox County. This is our touchstone to our past - to who we are as East Tennesseans. Our rural areas and farms give us places close by that allow us to slow down, to experience a slower pace of life, and to enjoy the natural beauty of our land. If any of you have watched "The Heartland Series", you understand exactly what this means.
The best neighbor for a farm is... another farm. We need land use policies that incentivize farms continuing to be farms. Farmers help each other. The more farms we have, the stronger and more resilient our agricultural industry is.
What I perceive is that farmers have been seeing farms sold off one by one for years. Each of these farms, turning into a subdivision, is mourned by the remaining farmers. They are losing friends and peers who they can share knowledge and experience with.
For years they have felt like they are putting fingers into the dike. With the expanded Planned Growth Area, it looks like a huge wave of water coming towards them that will overwhelm all of the remaining farmers holding that dike in place.
We need land use policies that encourage entire areas, not just individual parcels, to be set aside for farming, natural areas and open spaces - to create that community and ecosystem where these can thrive, instead of being under constant threat from the next development proposal.
If there are existing farms, open space, and natural areas, then we should use those as starting points for designating Rural Areas, and encourage those traits by making sure there is plenty of Rural Area around them to help build and maintain that ecosystem.
Julia, 37918
December 18, 2023
Part 3:
Please remember that many people on this end of town are farmers. We have fertile ground here. Please don't allow developers to develop that land. Agriculture is a resource; if we build over the growing grounds, those can be lost forever. Everyone that comes out this way comments about how beautiful and peaceful it is. I can't imagine losing all this open space, these amazing views, these trees... I understand the developers want to make money. I understand that people need homes. But people in the Ritta community don't want to become overcrowded. We ask that you leave us some open space and some of the character and integrity that has made this community ours and so beloved to so many of us.
One thing you can't make more of is land. If you destroy it or build on all of it, you can't make more. The developers will get rich now, but the communities will suffer.
Julia , 37918
December 18, 2023
Part 2:
Due to the development that has already taken place, we already struggle with traffic issues. There has been no real road improvements to this area, and there are none planned. Most of us locals take back roads, but those are becoming developed and congested now, too. Our schools are becoming full, and we already lack certain amenities. Our closest hospital was St. Mary's, and that was closed.
If you want to develop, please be thoughtful with your plans. Please leave some open spaces, some trees, stop developing ridges, which I thought wasn't even supposed to happen anymore. Please leave the integrity of this community; stop putting multiple houses to an acre! Certain builders just come in and create the same subdivision over and over with 4 or 5 floor plans...there is no character to that whatsoever. Be a good neighbor, considerate of your surroundings and the character of the area.
Also, if you plan to allow so much development, please think ahead toward future needs...parks, schools, roads. Please don't develop before these things are established and in place to support the growth. It would be a disaster to not have the infrastructure in place to handle the population.
Julia, 37918
December 18, 2023
Part 1:
I have lived in the Ritta community my entire life. I have watched as farms have been developed and acres of trees have been cut down to develop subdivision after subdivision. I understand that the Knoxville area is growing and homes are needed, but I fail to understand why we must pack 5 homes to an acre and why every inch of land must be developed. At one time, the requirement for building in this area was one house per acre. Most people that I know wish they could have one acre of land or even half an acre, yet these greedy developers want to pack these homes in on top of each other. People have no peace and no privacy.
I am raising my children in the same community I was raised in, but it looks much different. With the implementation of the Growth Plan, it will be unrecognizable. We live in this community because it's a community. Many of us were raised together and know each other. We live here because we love it. We love our farms and our mountains. We love our trees and our open spaces. I have heard that the developers want this area to be the next Hardin Valley. The people of the Ritta community don't want this to be the next Hardin Valley. If we wanted to live in Hardin Valley, we would live there. We live here because we love our scenic views. The development being proposed will take all of that away.
Matthew, 37920
December 18, 2023
The Advance Knox process has been one of public input and debate. The current plan does not include Parcels 138270 8802. These were not identified through the process as a place where growth is needed, and with good reason. The infrastructure, surrounding area, and local community do not support this part of Knox County to be part of the growth plan.
I ask that you reject the notion of adding these additional parcels to the growth plan at the 11th hour. To add these, despite strong public opposition, would undermine the entire process of Advance Knox.
For additional details, please refer to policies 18 and 19 and their associated action items in the Comprehensive Plan. These can be found starting on page 64. These items demonstrate how the Comprehensive Plan will continue coordinating growth with infrastructure and amenities.
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The Growth Policy Plan and the draft Comprehensive Land Use and Transportation Plan is supported by the Systemwide Parks and Recreation Master Plan, a separate document that includes recommendations for upgrading existing parks, programming, and staffing. The Comprehensive Plan (pg. 46) builds off this plan to consider priority investment areas for new park facilities based on existing park deserts and residential development. As resources are identified, the park deserts map referenced will serve as the first step towards identifying priority areas to be considered for the development of future parks and recreation facilities.
As new park locations are identified and built, consideration will be given to the programs and amenities offered at each based on identified needs and gaps in the surrounding park programs and amenities.
Kevin, 37918
December 17, 2023
I asked Nourish Knoxville for some stats about Knox County Agriculture and the local farmers market. Here is some information demonstrating the impact of local agriculture on our community:- In the last 12 months, the Market Square and Winter Farmers markets had about 157,500 total attendees.- The New Harvest Farmers Market had about 13,500 attendees for the 2023 season.
- There are 31 agricultural vendors from Knox County at the Farmers Markets for 2023 - those are vendors who grow or farm in Knox County.
Certainly the Market Square Farmers Market is an economic engine for downtown, with visitors also patronizing downtown restaurants, shops, festivals and events. If Market Square was a mall, then the Farmers Market would be the anchor tenant.
And there are more agricultural vendors who do not sell at the Farmers Market, but sell directly to local restaurants and grocery stores and to the public through CSAs. Our local produce and food products are featured in our best local restaurants, which have helped give Knoxville a reputation for being a great food destination.
Local agriculture is important to our economy and our community. It sets us apart.
Connie, 37920
December 12, 2023
To Advance Knoxville: First of all, thank you for the work you have done to present a new growth plan for Knox County.
Your current recommendation appears to be a good compromise between the current desires of rural residents of Knox County and developers hoping to invade the area.
However, I understand that Thunder Mountain Developers are seeking to have the plan amended prior to the upcoming vote.
I urge you to stand firm to the principles behind your recommended plan. South Knox County residents are not opposed to reasonable growth, however allowing 4+houses per acre to be built will produce an increased burden to the already crowded schools in South Knox County, not to mention roads in the area.
Please stand firm against the pressure of these developers. Thank you
Phillip W., 37920
December 12, 2023
I grew up and dry Hollow community in the 1950s and 60s. I enjoyed the farming community and enjoyed walking through the fields and walking the Rocky roads. I realize some changes are good, and I realize Some changes are bad, especially if they’re not suited for the growth plan of that fits that community. These developers, in most instances have moved to their own gated communities where they can hold off these high density cheap properties . I do not think all the proper studies have been submitted in order to make a good decision on these Developments.
Joe, 37920
December 10, 2023
My comment is about the project going on Evens road.#1This mess is going to look like the mess built on Higland View road with those cheap looking houses over there and people there are not happy.#2 I live 1 block away and traffic is going triple a least taxes have already gone up and will increase more I'm sure.#3 I'm sure some of Ower reps out here got a pretty good payment for the ok of this . #4 the houses are of very low quality ask the people living in those on Higland road. Doesn't matter as long it's not in your hood.