1. Contact County Commission - email all of them, or call / email Email your district’s Knox County Commissioner as well as your two At-Large Commissioners (Larsen Jay and Kim Frazier). Give them your name, and tell them the community / area you live in. Tell them you support the Position of the Advocates, and the amendments that the Advocates support.

2. Sign our petition.

3. MOST IMPORTANT - Attend the MON, APR 22 5PM County Commission Meeting

This is the meeting where County Commission will take up the Comprehensive Land Use Plan. It is in the Main Assembly Room, City-County Building. Either sign up here (Apr 22, Commission Meeting) or call 865-215-2534 NO LATER THAN 4:00PM Friday, Apr 19th to sign up to speak. Meeting info from the county here and we have tips on attending the meeting

We need to fill the room - BUTTS IN SEATS MATTER. You don’t have to sign up to speak; your presence alone speaks volumes and sends a message that this issue is important.

 Contacting County Commission

You may email all county commissioners at once by emailing commission@knoxcounty.org.

Individual County Commissioner Contact Info is published at https://commission.knoxcountytn.gov/people/. Here is the summary by District #:

1 Dasha Lundy dasha.lundy@knoxcounty.org 865-315-0237
2 Courtney Durrett courtney.durrett@knoxcounty.org 865-297-4418
3 Gina Oster gina.oster@knoxcounty.org 865-343-1639
4 Kyle Ward kyle.ward@knoxcounty.org 865-315-0685
5 John Schoonmaker john.schoonmaker@knoxcounty.org 865-607-6625
6 Terry Hill terry.hill@knoxcounty.org 865-205-5768
7 Rhonda Lee rhonda.lee@knoxcounty.org 865-256-2604
8 Richie Beeler richie.beeler@knoxcounty.org 865-661-6351
9 Carson Dailey carson.dailey@knoxcounty.org 865-660-0019
At Large (10) Larsen Jay larsen.jay@knoxcounty.org 865-224-3736
At Large (11) Kim Frazier kim.frazier@knoxcounty.org 865-805-1739

 Talking Points for Communicating Your Concerns

• Thank the county for starting the Advance Knox initiative to update our plans. Acknowledge that we need to change, because the sprawl of the last 20 years is not what we want. If you participated in any of the Advance Knox public input rounds, state that you have participated in the Advance Knox process.

• Express a desire for a balance  between accommodating a growing population while preserving our natural beauty, farms and agriculture, and the character that makes East Tennessee special.

• Tell them what makes Knox County special to you. Are there particular farms, parks, or natural areas that you like? And what type of growth has happened recently that you are not excited about? Does it make you think of leaving the area if this type of growth continues?

• If you are a farmer, involved in agriculture, or involved in conservation, tell them your story - where is your farm, what do you produce, where do you sell your products, how long have you been farming your farm? How much do you produce (pounds, bushels, or money). We need to emphasize that there is an active agriculture industry in Knox County, and the people of Knox County are the customers.

• Request that they make changes to protect some of our best farmland soil and farms.

• Request that they make changes to strengthen the criteria for amending the plan.

• Request that they consider compact expansion of the future land use. The large expansion, particularly into northeast Knox, will start a “land rush” for expanding into an area without significant employment centers, parks, and an already-stressed transportation network.

• Conclude by thanking them for their consideration and their work on the plan.

The amendments we support have additional details.

Questions and Comments From Community Meetings

• What happened to the results of the listening tour? Were they included in the plan?

• How is the soil data being used?

• There was a suitability analysis that included some transportation patterns and access to schools, but it did not include the agricultural value of land or incorporate soil data.

• To be effective we need to include a map of our suggestions for growth.

• If we are expecting 75,000 poeple over 20 years, they have to go somewhere. If we are asking them to reduce the map then where are they going to go? We should offer suggestions.

• What is the current capacity of the current plan in absence of the additions in the new plan?

• How does the sewer line impact growth?

• We need to remind people about the existence of and the number of Century Farms in the region.

• It’s not always about where we develop, but how we develop. A good example of new development that is walkable, high density is Northshore Town Center.

• How will lifting density restrictions in the current plan allow for more efficient development that could play into reducing the scope of the new plan?

• Development in some of these areas will encourage farms to sell. It changes the character of the area and, per the farmers, the new residents don’t respect the farms. There are stories of people moving in to areas near farms and planting things like Russian Sage along the property which is toxic to cattle.

• There are other issues associated with development that compromise pollinators and species diversity.

• We have had experiences with people trespassing, thinking it’s ok to use open spaces for various activities or fish in our farm ponds.

• If people don’t see hay or horses or anything, they assume there’s nothing going on with the land.

• Development slowly erodes the farms.

• Increased traffic and streetlights changes the character and livelihoods.

• What amendments can be put in place to protect farms and soil?

• Other efforts were successful because they pointed out the faults in traffic patterns. They had the data and when no one listened they sued. A perfect example is the failed effort to build ‘Innsbruck Farms’ on Ruggles Ferry.

Sign Your Support of Our Comprehensive Plan Position