The current policies and process have resulted in low density sprawl that has consumed a lot of farmland and open space.

For the last two years, the Advance Knox process used a lot of data, public input, and professional expertise to draft a brand-new Comprehensive Land Use and Transportation Plan. The top theme from the Listening round of Advance Knox process was “Natural environment / rural / small town character.”

This was confirmed in 2023 by an Advance Knox poll by East Tennessee Realtors. Resident’s top priorities for local government were:

• “Protecting open space like fields, forests and farmland from development”

• which was statistically tied for with “increasing the amount of housing that is affordable for families.”

Farmland loss is at a critical point. According to UT Institute of Ag, Tennessee is losing nearly 90,000 acres of land per year of agriculture and forestry land. That is equivalent to losing about 2 counties every 5 years. The rate of loss for 2018-2022 accelerated - nearly doubling - from the rate of loss of the prior 20 years (1997-2017).