What
We Have Done
Save Chilhowee Mountain, a not-for-profit
organization incorporated in Tennessee,
grew out of the spontaneous protest
that erupted when the public learned,
just a few days before the planning
commission meeting, that the Blount
County Planning Commission would
consider, at its May 2006 meeting,
a developer’s plan to build an 80-unit
subdivision on the east side of
Chilhowee Mountain. This is the
side that faces the National
Park. Dozens of concerned Blount Countians
showed up at the commission meeting
to object, but to no avail: the commission
approved the plan. A group of those
who had protested realized that truly
“saving” Chilhowee Mountain from
inappropriate, high-density development
would involve a long struggle.
In July we incorporated.
Our first action was to retain a
nationally prominent environmental
lawyer,
Gary
Davis. Davis recommended
that we sue to challenge the commission’s
approval of the subdivision, and we did. That lawsuit brought
the developers to the bargaining
table, but only briefly. At the point
in negotiations when it became
clear that we would settle only for
effective, independently-monitored
protections for the surface water
and ground water quality, the developers walked away from the table.
Since then, we have:
- Documented the developers
numerous and ongoing violations of the Federal Clean Water Act,
and authorized Davis to file another lawsuit challenging those
violations.
- Staged two successful community-based fund raising events and are planning two more.
- Collaborated actively to try to insure that the former Camp Montvale site on
the Maryville side of the mountain does not fall prey to commercial
development. In fact, one of the sticking points in our negotiations
with the developers resulted from our insistence that, if the developers
did purchase the Camp Montvale property, they would donate a conservation
easement to an appropriate conservation agency within a reasonable
time.
- Obtained a substantial grant from the World Wildlife Fund to support outreach,
and to help finance the monitoring of surface and ground water
quality down slope from the subdivision site and made plans to
put those funds to good use.
- Published an inaugural newsletter to help get the word out to our friends and
allies that we plan to join
in the long struggle to prevent
inappropriate development of
the Chilhowee Community. Click
here to see the latest newsletter.
We hope you will join us in
that fight.
Our Goals:
- To reduce damage to Abrams Creek caused by actual and potential development on the slopes of Chilhowee Mountain.
- Specifically to mitigate/reduce damage resulting from development of Overlook
at Montvale.
- To hold all parties to development accountable for their commitments and actions.
- To develop a longer term strategic plan for Save Chilhowee Mountain beyond this initial challenge.
SCM also intends to produce other changes:
- More knowledgeable elected and appointed bodies that will result in improved development standards for Blount County.
- A marked improvement in enforcement of existing standards by regulatory bodies.
- An increased sensitivity to environmental threats resulting from development pressures, and
- An increased awareness of the critical importance of environmental quality on the long-term economic health of Blount County.
View the meat of our lawsuit against Harmony Property Group, LLC, (a for profit group with James C. Tomiczek and Otto Slater, partners) and the Blount County Planning Commission.
View a joint press release of our compromise that was not printed by the local paper.
See a letter
sent to the Tennessee Department
of Environment and Conservation. It outlines some very serious concerns and issues. We believe that the TDEC
has not done its job. By
their own omissions they
might just as well be driving
the bulldozers. Here is a more recent complaint.
