Advance Knox
according to Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and other county officials.
The new plan is intended to make development in the county less lopsided by condensing growth in different areas that can accommodate development. It’s estimated the new plan would bring the county a nearly $5 million annual surplus from efficiencies.
That $5 million surplus could go to pay for road maintenance and schools and help keep property taxes low.
The Advance Knox initiative was started in November 2021.
What would happen if Farragut denied the plan?
Jacobs told Knox News in a statement he’s confident Farragut leaders will approve the plan.
“We have a great working relationship with Farragut leaders, and they played a crucial role assisting us and providing us input to help craft the plan,” he wrote. “They are obviously major stakeholders, and provided some great suggestions that we were able to work into the proposal.”
If Farragut shoots down the plan, Jacobs could reconvene the Growth Policy Coordinating Committee to rework it, but he has previously said he wouldn’t do that.
Jacobs said it would be premature to speculate what would happen if the plan is voted down, and wrote, “With all due respect, right now that would be a question for another day.”
Knox News asked Jacobs twice why he would not reconvene the committee and once if that stance was intended to put pressure on the bodies to approve the plan. Knox News was given the same response each time:
“I am confident that Farragut is going to pass the plan. They have been at the table throughout the entire process,” Jacobs said. “That is the most important thing at this point. Everything else is speculation.”
If Advance Knox fails, any reworked plan would need approval by the Knox County Commission, Knoxville City Council and Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
The Knox County Commission will vote on another part of the plan, the Future Land Use Map, at its April meeting. The map specifies which development types - including town centers, commercial space, residential subdivisions - can be built on which tracts of land.
The commission already has approved the growth policy plan on the condition it also approves the Future Land Use Map, which has already been approved by the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission.
Essentially. if the county votes down the Future Land Use Map, it could spoil Advance Knox.
Could Farragut’s vote be overturned?
Yes.
No matter which way the Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen votes, the decision could be appealed in chancery court, according to Tennessee state code.
An appeal would be heard without a jury and the petitioner would have the burden of proving the decision was incorrect. A petitioner has 60 days to appeal after the decision of Farragut or the other bodies that voted on the plan.
Could Farragut kill Advance Knox?
Farragut leaders don’t seem inclined to kill the plan. Knox News asked Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen members about their outlook ahead of the vote later this month.
Knox News posed questions to Vice Mayor Louise Povlin and Aldermen Scott Meyer, Drew Burnette and David White about their position on Advance Knox, but all declined to comment on the upcoming vote.
Mayor Ron Williams said that while Advance Knox is a priority for Jacobs and his staff, it’s not front and center for him.
“There’s more things going on in our town than (Advance Knox) ... I’m worried about what’s going on in my town,” he said.
Specifically, he’s more concerned about incoming traffic from neighboring Loudon County. It’s grown 1.61% annually since 2019, according to data from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research. Loudon County is expected to have a population of nearly 69,500 people by 2045, according to the Boyd Center. That’s 14,500 more people than in 2020.
Williams told Knox News that Farragut isn’t an “anti-development” town. He said his constituents are excited about new projects coming into the area, such as the Farragut Town Center, which includes a Chase Bank and Tupelo Honey restaurant. Farragut leaders are seeking input on a vision plan for the town center.
“I listened to all the farmers that felt threatened by the mapping,” Williams said. “There’s a tremendous amount of people in the Choto area, including one particular candidate for commission, and that’s their business. Not mine.”
Do 5th District Knox County Commission primary results spell trouble for future development?
Residents of the commission’s 5th District - the far-west portion that covers the far-west communities of Farragut and Concord - have shown how they feel about development, and it doesn’t look positive. Russell won the Republican Party’s nomination in the March 5 five-way primary with 47% of the vote.
If Russell wins the general election in August, her hostility to development could threaten future projects throughout the whole county.
Russell, who lives outside the town of Farragut, ran her campaign on the idea that development in the county needs to be stopped, or at least slowed. She gained recognition for her work opposing Choto Landing, a development that would have brought 56 leased townhomes to 12320 Northshore Drive for households earning less than $70,000 a year.
She told Knox News the reason she wants to serve on the commission is because of uncontrolled, irresponsible development.
“Instead of accelerating development, we need to pull back on it for a period of time to allow for the infrastructure to be done first,” Russell told Knox News in a candidate interview before the primary.
Even though Russell doesn’t live in Farragut and her anti-development activism is rooted outside the town, threefourths of Farragut’s precincts voted for her over four primary opponents.
She told Knox News she hasn’t had much time to look over the plan due to