STOP

WASTING

OUR

TAX

DOLLARS!

Enter your name and email address to sign up for news and information!

GET

INVOLVED!

Click here to see what you can do to help!

Read about
previous TDC bumbles, stumbles and fumbles. They don't have a great track record!

Who is
The Development Corporation anyway, and why should I care?

UPDATE! We collected over 600 signatures on our petition asking MPC not to change the sector plan process. However, the fight to keep the process unchanged is still ongoing - we will keep you updated.

EAST KNOX SECTOR PLAN UPDATE

Attention! The East Knox County Sector Plan is currently undergoing an update by the MPC. The Sector Plan governs all aspects of development including roads, schools, and infrastructure. It is the guide for how development will occur in the sector. If you live or work in East Knox County, it is very important that you participate in this process because the Sector Plan will determine what will occur in the sector for the next several years.

We were recently informed that that the MPC staff has decided to make significant changes to the Sector Plan update process. The staff has designed an online survey that they have asked interested parties to fill out, and have said they will take that data and create the preliminary plan, then have a couple of public meetings after that.

We have several concerns about this process and the dramatic change from the method under which the 2000 Sector Plan was developed. We feel that some of the survey questions are leading and open to interpretation. In addition, we think this process does not place the questions in the proper context, and there is no opportunity for dialogue with MPC staff and others before answering the questions.

It is our understanding that this new process is designed to reduce the amount of time spent developing the Sector Plan and that planners felt that the survey, followed by two public meetings, was a more convenient method that would garner more input from a broader range of people. While we do think that surveys have a place in the process and that the internet is a good way to allow people to participate who might not be able to attend meetings, we do not think that a survey is a good way to start out the planning process. There may be more initial responses with a survey, but is the input the same quality, or is it just people flipping through a survey and answering questions without a real understanding of the issues?

We are asking the MPC to reconsider this process and allow the people of the 8th District to have meaningful participation in the Sector Plan update. We would ask that the current East County Sector Plan of 2000 be used as the starting point for the discussions; that there be an initial orientation which discusses concepts and the planning process ahead of any survey; and that adequate time be taken by the MPC staff to both educate the public and to consider the public's input in order to develop a quality East County Sector Plan update.

Click here to download the petition in Word and here for a PDF version. After you have gathered signatures, call (865) 540-1455 and leave your name and number for someone to call and pick up the petitions, or send an email to info@knoxaction.com and let us know you have signed petitions to be picked up. Remember, the survey is over with on May 16th, so we need your petitions turned in as soon as possible.

The Development Corporation

The Development Corporation of Knox County (TDC) is a private corporation that is funded by YOUR taxpayer dollars.

TDC wants to spend around $54 Million in taxpayer dollars to develop a unneeded speculative industrial park at Midway Road at a time when we are losing schoolteachers to surrounding counties because they can make over $10,000 a year more than they can in Knox County, we are drowning in debt, companies continue the exodus from the nearby existing business park, Forks of the River, and they don't have a single tenant for their brand new Hardin Valley Business Park.

WE DON'T NEED ANY MORE BUSINESS PARKS!

TDC says we need more land for industrial development in Knox County because we're "running out of land," but there is over 700 acres of land and more than a dozen industrial buildings in Knox County's inventory.

Besides the business parks, there are acres of brownfields and greyfields (industrial sites that have been abandoned) in our center city area that could and should be revitalized before we go out into the country and destroy greenfields. There is also hundreds of acres of land in new business parks going in all around us in places like Roane County and Blount County, in which Knox County invested $5 million just this year!

It's foolish to waste our scarce resources when the demand is not there now and won't be in the future!

IT'S NOT A "DONE DEAL!"

TDC's track record isn't so great - click here to read the facts and decide for yourself whether TDC deserves another dime of taxpayer money.

There's a lot of good reasons why progressive cities have stopped building these types of parks and offering what amounts to corporate welfare to companies that agree to leave their current location and move elsewhere. It often turns out to be not such a good deal after all, by the time all the cash incentives, tax abatements, free infrastructure, reimbursements and pollution problems are factored in.

JOBS AT WHAT PRICE?

TDC has said that this development could bring as many as 2,000 jobs - not that they have any specific prospects for their proposed park.

With infrastructure costs low-balled at $31 million, not counting the hidden costs of getting sewer to the site (new sewage plant on the French Broad that we all get to pay for with higher KUB bills) and the environmental costs, that's over $16,000 a job, way over the national average.

---

Questions? Contact us at (865) 540-1455 or info@knoxaction.com

IT'S

NOT

A

DONE

DEAL!

NO SAY?

NO WAY!

GET

INVOLVED

Click here to see what you can do to help!