June 20, 2006
The Raven Society reaffirms its support for Hunter Interests' recommendations in its Growth Strategy for Blount County that the county prepare an open space plan that designates high-priority scenic and natural areas, clearly including Chilhowee Mountain, and protects them from development. If we fail to act now, we will not get a second chance. What is required is leadership from public officials at the highest levels and a real commitment to involve the public in determining what kind of community we will be.
The proposal by a newly-organized
group calling itself Harmony Property Group to construct a residential
development on Chilhowee Mountain illustrates the need for Blount
County to take seriously the Guiding Policies' articulated in the
Blount County Policies Plan, which was adopted by The Blount County
Regional Planning Commission in 1999, and recently affirmed in Hunter
Interests proposals.
Two of the Guiding Policies are
particularly relevant. The first
is to preserve the county's rural...and
natural character. The second is managing and regulating land use
and development to preserve the
quality of the growing county.
A development which builds eighty
houses on small lots down the
side of Chilhowee Mountain does not and can not adhere to those Guiding
Policies. If the development
meets current zoning restrictions,
which is a hotly-contested question, then those restrictions are
inadequate to preserve the county's rural
and natural character.
The fact that anyone could propose to
develop Chilhowee Mountain indicates Blount County's failure to plan
and prepare for preserving the quality of its own future. Hunter Interests'
Growth Strategy for Blount County recognizes clearly the steps we must
take in order to achieve what Blount Countians have adopted as Guiding
Policies and specifically to preserve our most treasured natural assets.
The Raven Society urges the public and public officials to make this
impending assault on one of the most beautiful mountains in Tennessee
as the end of the rampant degradation of Blount County.
