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An explanation of the Preliminary Injunction
By now I hope you have heard the good news that Judge Todd Campbell issued the Preliminary Injunction on July 17. This means TDOT must cease all activity on the Pellissippi Parkway Extension until CAPPE’s motion calling for a full Environmental Impact Statement can be heard in court. The date for that hearing has not yet been set. It could be as soon as three months or as far off as six months. Below I’ve answered some of the questions people have been asking about the Preliminary Injunction. Why did CAPPE seek a Preliminary Injunction? CAPPE asked the Court to issue the Preliminary Injunction because we knew we would not get a hearing date for many months on the motion for an Environmental Impact Statement. We knew that while we were waiting for a court date, TDOT would be proceeding with right-of-way acquisitions (and condemnations). We felt these actions should not go on when there was uncertainty about the future of the PPE. Apparently the Federal Highway Administration agreed, because they withdrew federal funding for right-of-way acquisition pending the outcome of our case. As the FHWA explained, they did not want federal dollars to be spent on something that was uncertain. What does the Preliminary Injunction mean? The Preliminary Injunction means that TDOT and the FHWA must cease all activity on the PPE. The language in the ruling is "all Defendants and their officers, agents, employees, servants, attorneys, and all persons in active concert or participation with them are hereby restrained and enjoined from continued planning, financing, contracting, land acquisition, and construction of a four-lane, controlled access highway called the Pellissippi Parkway Extension from State Route 33 to Highway 321 in Blount County, Tennessee, pending further order of the Court." Why did Judge Campbell issue the Preliminary Injunction? The Judge’s ten-page ruling explains all the issues he considered in issuing this ruling. Please ask a CAPPE Board member if you would like to see a copy of the Judge’s ruling. Judge Campbell wrote that there was a "probability of success on the merits" of CAPPE’s case on several counts. Judge Campbell noted that there is an "Oversight Agreement" requiring the State to "comply with all Federal-aid funding requirements, including but not limited to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)." He noted that there is nothing in the record to demonstrate that the Federal Defendants explained why the PPE was an exception to the NEPA requirement for an EIS. He noted that CAPPE had a probability of success on the merits of the claim that NEPA requires an EIS because the Environmental Assessment prepared by the State and the FONSI (Finding of No Significant Impact) issued by the FHWA have not adequately explained why the PPE does not "significantly" affect the quality of the human environment. Judge Campbell noted that the Federal Defendants did not take the "hard look" required by federal regulation at the need for the PPE, induced growth and potential inconsistencies with local planning, air pollution and ozone impacts, impacts on the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and impacts on those whose livelihoods depend on working farms that would be condemned as part of the PPE. Judge Campbell also noted that the Preliminary Injunction "serves the public interest by insuring compliance with NEPA. From CAPPE’s point of view, the ruling could not have been stronger. However, the PI does not mean the PPE will not be built, nor does it mean an EIS will be done. The PI means that TDOT has to cease all work on the PPE until our next court date, where the decision will be made about whether an EIS is required. What happens to the appraisals and Right-of-Way purchases that were being negotiated before July 17? All such negotiations must cease, as ordered in the Preliminary Injunction, until CAPPE’s case (requesting the full EIS) is heard in court. Any property owner who has a signed contract with TDOT regarding compensation for their land or property should seek legal counsel regarding the status of that contract. Does the Preliminary Injunction mean the PPE will not be built? No. The Preliminary Injunction means TDOT must stop all work on the PPE until our case is heard in court. What happens next? CAPPE is awaiting the setting of the date of the court hearing on our motion for a full Environmental Impact Statement. Our attorney and the TDOT and FHWA attorneys are setting up schedules for sharing of information and documents necessary to prepare for that hearing. CAPPE will continue to educate the public and raise funds for our legal expenses. Meanwhile, the State has said they will build the PPE with state revenue. Reactions around Blount County CAPPE members and supporters are very happy with the outcome of the July 17 hearing and the issuing of the Preliminary Injunction. We know this is only a small step and there is no guarantee the Judge will rule later that an EIS is required. However, in reading the Judge’s ruling, we feel affirmed that asking that the law be upheld was the right thing for CAPPE to do. The Judge’s ruling also means the regulations in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) must be taken seriously by TDOT and the FHWA. The Judge’s ruling also signals that CAPPE is a legitimate organization working in the public interest. Efforts to discourage or intimidate us have not worked. Some Blount County residents are not so happy. Some are saying (incorrectly) that CAPPE has stopped the PPE. CAPPE did not stop the PPE. What CAPPE did was ask that federal regulations be upheld. The Judge ruled only that TDOT has to stop work on the PPE until our next court date. We do not understand why some Blount County residents–including some of our elected officials-- think that following the law is unimportant. What other laws do our elected officials think the State should disregard? Some people who bought land a few years ago hoping to sell it at a profit for development near the PPE are angry with CAPPE. To these people, all we can say is that speculation in real estate is inherently risky. So is choosing to disregard the law. Some people may have received verbal offers for their property from TDOT, and are now unhappy that those negotiations are suspended until our case is heard in court. A few people may have made commitments to purchase property in anticipation of finalizing their compensation and relocation agreements with TDOT. While we feel sympathy for these people, they took action based on assurances from TDOT and it is with TDOT that they must take up their concerns. We hope their commitments to purchase property contained the standard contingency clauses stipulating the fulfillment of TDOT’s offer as a condition of the purchase contract. Anger with CAPPE is misplaced. Judge Campbell found that TDOT, not CAPPE, had failed to comply with the law. Some people think that CAPPE is a tiny group of people who will be losing land if the PPE is built. Many of our members do not live on the proposed route of the PPE, and some of our members will lose land if the PPE is built. The local media have continued to represent CAPPE as consisting of only a few affected property owners, even though we have told them about the breadth of our membership and support. People across Blount County have joined and supported CAPPE because we think the impact of the PPE has not been properly studied and the assumptions of its positive effects are only assumptions; they are not based on analysis. Specifically, Mayor West’s claim that the PPE will alleviate traffic congestion in Maryville is speculation. This speculative claim is also made in TDOT’s Environmental Assessment, but it is not proven by analysis or data. The Southern Loop, (which with the PPE would comprise a beltway around Maryville and Alcoa) which Mayor West also supports, could draw some traffic away from downtown Maryville, but current traffic figures show that most traffic into downtown Maryville has downtown as its destination. Just because a few prominent people say the PPE is a solution to the problem of congestion in downtown Maryville is not sufficient to persuade all of us. We want to see the evidence that this is truly a solution, and even more important, that the "solution" does not create even bigger problems for Blount County. This is why CAPPE has been asking for an EIS. Some people are starting to notice that TDOT has lots and lots of money while the rest of the State budget is in a crisis. TDOT has expressed, to the court and to the public, their intention to build the PPE with state revenue even if the FHWA does not restore the funding it has temporarily withdrawn. Given the condition of the state budget, and the shortages in funding for our schools and other services, we expect even more Blount County residents will join CAPPE once it becomes clear that their tax dollars are being used to build an interstate highway that will only add to the existing pressures on Blount County schools, roads, air, water and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. |
Citizens Against the Pellissippi Parkway Extension
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| Analysis of recent news story on TDOT's decision to undertake an EIS | ||
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You may have seen the story in the Maryville Daily Times on September 28,
reporting on TDOT's announcement of the decision to
undertake an
Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed Pellissipppi
Parkway
Extension. (The story is posted on CAPPE's website,
www.korrnet.org/cappe
in the section on CAPPE in the Press.)
What does this mean?
Our interpretation is that TDOT and the Federal Highway
Administration have
conceded that CAPPE was right all along: federal regulation
requires an EIS
for any new, four-lane, limited access highway in a new
location, and so an
EIS is required for the Pellissippi Parkway.
What will happen now?
FHWA and TDOT will begin the process of research and
analysis that an EIS
requires. Both the draft EIS and the final EIS are
full disclosure
documents providing a full description of the proposed
project, the existing
environment, and analysis of the anticipated beneficial or
adverse
environmental effects. In the draft EIS stage, all
reasonable
alternatives-including "no action" or "no build"--must be
discussed at a
comparable level of detail.
The draft EIS and final EIS contain much more comprehensive and detailed
analysis than that done for an EA. Purpose, need, and
all areas of
potential impacts--traffic, environmental (including air,
water, and noise
pollution), economic, land use, historical, archeological
and social-must be
addressed through in-depth study. The impact, or lack
of impact, must be
substantiated by data. The EIS must also address
mitigation of all
potential impacts.
The EIS also addresses secondary and cumulative impacts. Secondary impacts
are those effects that are expected to be "caused" by the
proposed action
but are later in time and removed in distance, but are still
reasonably
foreseeable. Cumulative impacts are those which result
from the incremental
consequences of an action when added to other past and
reasonably
foreseeable actions-such as the new Alcoa Parkway and the
proposed Southern
Loop.
The public will have opportunities to review and comment on the draft EIS.
TDOT and the FHWA must consider and prepare responses to all
substantive
comments received on the draft EIS, including comments from
the public
(hearings or individuals).
What happens to the injunction?
The Sixth Circuit Court ordered Judge Todd Campbell to
modify the original
injunction to allow FHWA and TDOT to prepare new NEPA
documents. All other
aspects of the injunction remain in place, which means TDOT
cannot acquire
Right of Way or do any other work on the PPE until the final
EIS is
approved.
What does the future hold?
TDOT has said the EIS process may take from 18 to 36 months.
CAPPE
maintains that objective data documenting the purpose and
need for the PPE
have never been provided. We have asked TDOT to use
the EIS process of
study and analysis and the data it generates to inform a
decision whether to
proceed, rather than use the EIS to confirm a premature
decision on a
project for which need has not yet been established.
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| INFORMATION REGARDING TDOT PUBLIC MEETING OCT. 25, 2007 ON PURPOSE AND NEED AND ALTERNATIVES
TDOT has
scheduled a public meeting for Thursday, October 25, We received notice of this meeting on Friday, October 5, despite TDOT’s own commitment, in their Public Involvement Plan, to provide 30 day notice of all public meetings. See http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/pellissippi/pdfs/PPECoordinationPlan.pdf At the Oct. 25 meeting TDOT will present the ‘Purpose and Need’ for the PPE as well as ‘initial alternatives.’ The public will have opportunities to comment on the Purpose and Need and the alternatives. Written comments can be sent to TDOT for 21 days after the Oct. 25 meeting. Starting at 5:15 PM (EDT), TDOT will make a formal presentation on the status of the project. The presentation will describe the work completed since the Scoping Meetings in June 2006, the purpose and need statement for the project, and initial alternatives identified for the project. Following the formal presentation, from 6:00 to 7:00 PM, citizens will be afforded an opportunity to work with TDOT officials in smaller groups and share their ideas on alternatives to be considered. Representatives of TDOT will be available to assist with the exchange of ideas and to provide information on the purpose and need of the project. The workshop will conclude with a full group discussion and question and answer session between 7:00 and 8:00 PM. A court reporter will be available to receive oral statements to be included in the project transcript. In addition, comment sheets will be available for those who prefer to make written statements. Background In July 2006, CAPPE Board members met with TDOT staff at the Knoxville TDOT headquarters. At that meeting CAPPE urged TDOT to share the ‘Purpose and Need’ statement with the public before seeking public input on alternatives. How could the public assess alternatives when the Purpose and Need were not known? The upcoming Oct. 25 public meeting combines Purpose and Need with Alternatives. By putting these two components into one meeting, the public is being asked to consider alternatives without being given adequate time to evaluate the Purpose and Need. New developments TDOT has changed the description of the project purpose. The original rationale for the PPE was to provide four-lane access to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This need no longer exists, but instead of acknowledging that this project is no longer needed, we see TDOT offering new ‘needs’:
CAPPE’s response The PPE will accelerate residential development in the area, imposing further strains on the County budget and already inadequate infrastructure (roads and schools). There is no plan to improve the existing road system to which the PPE will add traffic. The Blount County Policies Plan does not contain a vision of becoming a bedroom community for Knoxville and Oak Ridge. The Policies Plan does contain a commitment to maintaining the rural character of the County. Transportation planning ideas from 30+ years ago have been replaced by new approaches that will better serve our community. Transportation planners around the country have learned from the outdated ideas of the past – let’s learn from them. TDOT’s own studies showed little improvement in Level of Service (LOS) on major arterial roads if the PPE were built. This is a classic example of referring to a symptom to justify an action rather than addressing the cause. TDOT should address the factors that cause high crash incidents, not seek a way to by-pass them. Also the PPE would increase the likelihood of crash incidents, injury, and fatality by adding traffic to US 411, a substandard 2-lane road with no shoulders and poor sightlines. We are asking to see the traffic studies and analysis TDOT relied upon as the basis for determining these ‘needs.’ TDOT is also offered revised objectives: The core transportation objectives of the proposed action are:
CAPPE’s response We agree that safety is a primary objective. We disagree that increasing traffic on US 411 and delivering traffic onto US 321 will improve safety in the Maryville core. We agree that acceptable traffic flows (level of service) is an objective. We disagree that the PPE would improve traffic flows on SR 33, which needs two major improvements: a center turn lane and reconfiguration of the Lincoln Rd./SR 33-Broadway/Wildwood Road intersection. (See proposed designs.) TDOT further says: Secondary objectives of the proposed action include:
CAPPE’s response The PPE will ensure the opposite of these ‘secondary’ objectives. As indicated above, the Blount County Policies Plan expresses a commitment to maintain the rural character of the county. The accelerated growth that would follow the extension of the PPE, and the demand for services, are contrary to the community’s current needs and growth management goals. Alternatives TDOT has proposed five alternatives for evaluation in the EIS: (1) No-Build; (2) Transportation System Management (TSM) activities; (3) Transit; (4) Upgrade existing roadways in the northeastern part of Blount County; and (5) a new four-lane roadway on new location. CAPPE’s response Alternative (1) is preferred, as there are other higher priorities for transportation improvements in our county. The Alcoa By-Pass will do much more to address safety and Level of Service, as will the Montvale Road improvements. Alternative (4) Upgrade existing roadways in the northeastern part of Blount County is consistent with the Wilbur Smith Associates study that was done for Blount County some years ago. The two major highways in the area (SR 33 and US 411), if improved, would contribute a great deal to improved traffic flow and safety. Our Highway Superintendent Bill Dunlap has identified other roads (for example, Ellejoy) in need of safety improvements that qualify for federal funds. Additional comments
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Project Comments
Tennessee Department of
Transportation
Analysis of Proposed Pellissippi Parkway Extension (PPE) Developed by The Raven Society, February 2008 This new interstate highway would significantly accelerate new residential and commercial growth in eastern Blount County. For this reason, The Raven Society opposes it. The mission of the Raven Society is “to support policies and practices that protect the rural, natural, and historic qualities of Blount County.” The new growth will occur in an area of open spaces and working farms, much of which inevitably will be turned into subdivisions. One of the county’s last remaining natural and rural areas will become suburban sprawl, and Blount County will be one more large step toward becoming a suburb of Knoxville and a bedroom community for Oak Ridge. “Growth in the northeast segment of the County can be expected with this new roadway due to the improved access between this area and Knoxville” (2006 Blount County Land Use Strategy by Hunter Interests, Inc.). Protecting the rural, natural, and historic nature of Blount County requires opposition to the Pellissippi Parkway Extension. There are less obvious reasons for The Raven Society’s position, and they should be of concern to all Blount Countians. · This growth will add new costs to the County for public services such as schools, roads, courts, law enforcement and emergency services. “Major transportation corridors such as the Pellissippi Parkway… warrant additional analysis and examination based on the impacts of increased population counts.” (Hunter Interests study) · Neither TDOT nor any local governing body has analyzed the projected impact of the PPE on Blount County’s budget. We already know some of what will happen. According to David Bennett, County Director of Accounts and Budget, the cost of providing schools to new residential development is greater than the property tax revenue generated by it (“The Economics of Growth in Blount County,” May 2005). “For each $1 of revenue received from residential properties in FY 2005, Blount County spent $1.23 providing services. For each $1 from commercial and industrial land uses, the county spent 25 cents; and for each $1 received from farm, forest and open land uses, the county spent 41 cents” according to the “Cost of Community Services Study, Blount County, Tennessee” commissioned by the Tennessee Farm Bureau and conducted by American Farmland Trust in 2006. · We believe that the City of Maryville will annex the land around the intersections of the PPE with Sevierville Rd. and E.Lamar Alexander Parkway and gain the commercial tax revenue from the inevitable development that will replace the currently open lands near these intersections. The City of Alcoa has already annexed the area at the end of the Pellissippi Parkway at Old Knoxville Highway and will receive revenue from the commercial developments there. · The Cities of Alcoa and Maryville, strong advocates of the PPE, will get most of the commercial tax revenues from it, but Blount County will have to educate the children who will live near the extension. Residential development in Louisville and Maryville is already adding substantially to the county’s public service obligations, according to Mayor Cunningham’s address to the Blount County Commission in January 2008. He noted that the City of Louisville and the Maryville Regional Planning Commission recently approved 471 subdivision lots in areas outside of Maryville’s urban growth boundary that the County is required to service with infrastructure. Children in those areas will go to county schools. · One of TDOT’s arguments for the PPE is that there has been “expanding residential development in eastern Alcoa and Maryville and northeastern Blount County.” Extending the Pellissippi Parkway to US 321 will only encourage and enable even greater residential development there. It will contribute to turning the area into a bedroom community for people who work in Knoxville and Oak Ridge and thus add to the “increasing demand for trips” to which TDOT’s “statement of needs” refers. The encouragement of sprawl is not a transportation need but rather the consequence of poor transportation decisions. · Approval of subdivisions by the cities is an issue over which the County has little control. There are other forces putting pressure on Blount County’s public service obligations, however, over which Blount County actually does have influence, if not control. One such issue is whether to build the Pellissippi Parkway Extension, but the County has neither objected to the project nor asked TDOT to analyze its impact on the County’s budget and tax rate. · Blount County’s roads in the northeast quadrant already are inadequate and in need of major improvements, even before the addition of the thousands more daily trips that will come with rapid residential growth.
· TDOT’s own recent traffic studies, as reported at the public meeting in October 2007, confirm that the PPE will not alleviate traffic congestion and poor levels of service on the major arterial roads. In fact, completion of the PPE will make traffic on some of them worse and leave the rest relatively unchanged. In addition, putting more traffic on US 411 N will only exacerbate the problems of that road. US 129 will be essentially unaffected by the PPE and the PPE cannot help US 321, which it will feed.
· The PPE will not solve Blount County’s serious traffic problems and challenges. Alternative uses of transportation funds, however, can help, and will prevent the loss of open space and farms and the addition hundreds of new children into Blount County’s schools. For example: o The major traffic congestion in Maryville is east-west, on SR 33 (East Broadway) and US 411 North (Sevierville Rd.) and South (West Broadway). Because the PPE is a north-south route, it cannot help this problem. One solution is to upgrade SR 33 from the end of the Pellissippi Parkway west into Maryville, add a center turn lane, and reconfigure the Wildwood Rd./Lincoln/Broadway intersection. o Upgrading and straightening Peppermint, Hitch, and Helton Roads will improve traffic moving north-south from the end of the Pellissippi Parkway. o Road improvements within the Cities of Maryville and Alcoa suggested by the Hunter Interests study will facilitate traffic flow within the cities and offer better options than building the PPE. To date neither city has moved to implement them.
TDOT argues that because the PPE has been planned since the 1970’s it should be completed. Perhaps a four-lane roadway between I-40 and US 321 was needed then, but it is not needed now. At that time there was no four-lane route from I-40 to US 321 except for US 129 from Knoxville. Now, I-40 is connected to US 321 by three four lane highways: US 321 from Lenoir City; I-140 to US 129 from west Knoxville; and US 129 from Knoxville. The Hall Road-Washington St. split off of US 129 just south of the airport is a direct route to US 321 from Knoxville and I-140 and it is not congested or accident-prone. In fact, TDOT recently changed the lane alignments at that split to allow two lanes to carry the US 129 South traffic (straight toward the Wal-Marts) and one lane to carry the traffic toward Hall Road and then merge with US 321.
TDOT offers four “additional (non transportation) objectives” for the PPE, which actually serve to emphasize why The Raven Society opposes it. Their objectives and our responses are as follows: · “Support community and growth management goals.” These goals, as outlined in the Blount County Policies Plan and Conceptual Land Use Plan, are to maintain the rural, small town character of the County, concentrate development within the cities’ urban growth boundaries, and preserve open and agricultural lands. The PPE will promote sprawl, unchecked residential and commercial growth. · “Minimize adverse impacts to neighborhoods and businesses.” The PPE will adversely impact neighborhoods and businesses in its path (e.g., Northfield). · “Minimize adverse impacts to farmlands.” The PPE will destroy current working farms. · “Minimize adverse impacts to the natural and cultural environment.” Essentially all of the public water for Maryville and Alcoa and the part of Blount County near the PPE comes from the Little River, which already cannot supply current demand and is at risk of degradation from this project and its consequences. Traffic and residential and commercial developments generated by the PPE will contribute to air, noise, and light pollution. The PPE will endanger and damage the natural and cultural environment.
CAPPE’s response to Feb 19 2008 TDOT public meeting What we learned from the TDOT Public Input Meeting on February 19, 2008 (see below for TDOT websites with the handouts, presentation materials and official TDOT comment form) NOTE: Whatever else you write in your letter to TDOT, you must state your opposition to the PPE and your preference that TDOT improve existing roads. 1. TDOT’s traffic analysis is seriously flawed. According to TDOT’s traffic studies, the PPE will produce marginal and short-lived improvements to traffic conditions on a few roads, and within 20 years even these limited improvements will have disappeared. Becky White, whose firm did the traffic analysis for TDOT, said that this projection assumes the Southern Loop and other proposed new roads will be built. The Southern Loop is a proposed 26-mile beltway encircling Alcoa and Maryville. (For why the projection makes this assumption, see below.) The Southern Loop (officially known as the Southern ByPass) is in the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization’s (TPO) Long Range Transportation Plan for 2030 (or later). By the time the Southern Loop is projected to be built, any of the (limited) positive impact of the PPE on traffic flow will be gone. Are you confused? Here’s why TDOT’s traffic analysis includes the Southern Loop: Transportation planners rely on a region’s Long Range Transportation Plan for basic assumptions. The Plan for our region includes the PPE, Alcoa Parkway, Southern Loop, and Montvale Road projects -- none of which would be ready for use when the PPE is projected to open. In 2001 TDOT Commissioner Bruce Saltsman announced the results of a feasibility study and said the Southern Loop, with a projected price tag of up to $276.6 million, was too expensive to build at that time. The feasibility study was requested by Blount County, Blount Chamber of Commerce, Blount Industrial Board, Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority and the cities of Maryville and Alcoa. In 2004 the City of Maryville was considering alternatives to the Southern Loop as proposed by by Hunter Interests. According to an article in the Daily Times on June 14, 2004, “After discussion, it was agreed that federal and state governments could likely be convinced to invest in a set of smaller road projects, rather than spending large sums on a major project such as the proposed Southern Loop, included in the long-range Transportation Planning Organization outlook.” So why is TDOT including the Southern Loop in their analysis of the impact of the PPE? Because the Southern Loop is still in the regional Long Range Plan of the TPO. The TPO’s Long Range Plan reflects requests from and is approved by the elected officials of the municipalities in the region. What you can do:
2. Local officials say that growth following the PPE will not add to sprawl and will be ‘managed’ because the interchanges are within the cities’ Urban Growth Boundaries This notion is either naïve or disingenuous. Alcoa and Maryville will ‘manage growth at the interchanges’ to the extent the cities enforce their own zoning regulations. It is the area in the County (outside the UGBs) that will become more attractive for subdivision development. This acreage will be less closely ‘managed’ and is most likely to be residential development that costs the county more in services than it generates in revenue (unless property taxes go up as they have in Maryville).
In 2000 city officials and real estate agents observed that the widening of 411S was a spur to growth. According to a Feb. 26, 2000 Daily Times article,
As the vacant
land fills up
near the new
road, the
subdivisions
will develop
farther and
farther back
into the county. Pat McGill, the president of Blount County Board of Realtors with Realty Executives, said that the U.S. 411 widening has definitely made that one of the real estate hot spots in the county. It is also a contributing factor to the popularity of the William Blount school district, she added. What you can do:
3. Three new schools will be using 411N/Sevierville Road in the coming years The City of Maryville is building a new school on Sevierville Road in the John Sevier area. Blount County is purchasing land for a new school off of Sevierville Road in the Prospect area. At the Feb. 19, 2008 TDOT meeting, County Mayor Cunningham announced a plan for another Blount County school to be located between the existing Porter Elementary (in Wildwood) and Prospect. All of these schools will add traffic to Sevierville Road/411N. Imagine the number of school busses and parents driving two-lane shoulder-less Sevierville Rd/411N to deliver students to these schools in the morning and pick them up at the end of the day – along with the teachers and staff of all three schools. Now imagine all the drivers who will use Sevierville Road/411N to get to or from the PPE/Sevierville Road interchange to travel to work, shopping, and health care in Knoxville. What you can do:
4. TDOT is not going to provide projections of the impact of the PPE on the County budget. In July 2006 CAPPE requested that TDOT include, in the economic analysis that is part of the EIS, a projection of the impact of the PPE on the County budget. The accelerated growth that will follow the highway will put new pressures on our County resources to provide schools, teachers, law enforcement, road maintenance and other services. The Blount County Growth Strategy developed by Hunter Interests, Inc. states that one outcome of the PPE will be “acceleration in the rate of residential development.” Gary Hensley, former City Manager of Maryville, said in a January 29, 2002 Daily Times article that the PPE will spur residential growth. In the same article Alcoa City Manager Mark Johnson said: “New roads create growth. . . . Our theory is you'll see people who are moving to the area that might normally choose to live in West Knoxville will find it just as convenient to live in Blount County. . . .We think there will be development pressure from a residential standpoint." At the Feb. 19, 2008 TDOT public meeting, Ed Cole of TDOT said the agency is not going to get involved in ‘Blount County’s future finances.’ For example, the County will decide how many schools to build and what they will cost. (See #3 above.) However, TDOT is already committed in its Project Data Summary to complete an EIS that will “consider the indirect impacts resulting from the project that would occur later in time or further removed in distance,” and “those impacts may include growth-inducing effects or other effects related to changes in the pattern of land use, population density, or growth rate and related effects on air, water and ecosystems,” and “cumulative impacts on the study area’s resources that would result from this project in combination with other past, present and reasonably future actions by public and private entities.” What you can do:
5. TDOT is not considering improvements to SR 33 among the alternatives SR 33 (Old Knoxville Highway/East Broadway) is a two-lane state road lined with businesses and driveways and no turn lanes. This road fronts the new Pellissippi Centre at the current terminus of the Pellissippi Parkway. TDOT has encouraged Blount County to apply for a TN Industrial Access grant of $4.525 million to redesign and build the entrance to the Centre at SR 33. This will aid traffic flow in the area around the Centre (Sam Houston Schoolhouse Road, Clayton headquarters, Jackson Hill subdivision and onto and off the PP) but will do little to aid bottlenecks on SR 33 west of the Centre (for example, Wildwood/Lincoln Road intersection). Among the alternatives to the PPE being considered by TDOT is ‘upgrade existing roadways’ but SR 33 is not listed as one of the roads to be improved under this alternative. What you can do:
6. The PPE is not needed for the success of Pellissippi Centre A story in the Feb. 20, 2008 edition of Blount Today quotes Maryville City Manager Greg McClain saying “the park is positioned “wonderfully” to be successful whether Pellissippi stops or goes through it.” What you can do:
7. Alternate Route B is not a credible alternative TDOT is required seriously to consider feasible alternatives. The proximity of Route B to important historic sites, a school and the Little River make the selection of this alternative highly unlikely. Large numbers of residents of subdivisions in the path of Alternate Route B came to the Feb. 19, 2008 TDOT meeting to protect their homes and neighborhoods. Having heard that Mayor Cunningham prefers Route A, the people in the path of Route B have now gone home relieved that their residences are safe. What they don’t understand is that even if the PPE doesn’t go through their subdivision, the PPE will affect their quality of life because this new highway and the Southern Loop will affect the entire County. The Southern Loop will have interchanges at U.S. 321 (West Lamar Alexander Parkway) near William Blount Drive, U.S. 411 east of the intersection with U.S. 129 (Calderwood Highway), Montvale Road between Ridge and Raulston roads and U.S. 321 (East Lamar Alexander Parkway) across from Paine Mobile Home Park. In 1999 the City of Maryville disclosed their intention to include all four interchanges within the city’s Urban Growth Boundary. What you can do:
8. The safety and interests of tourists and commuters are being promoted at the expense of residents Making Blount County a bedroom community for Knoxville and Oak Ridge may benefit commuters but we will all pay the price in costs of services, losses to businesses in Maryville and Alcoa, more cars on our unimproved roads and loss of the rural character of the County. Building roads that encourage and accommodate longer commutes in an era of declining oil reserves is short-sighted. What you can do:
Project Comments
Tennessee Department
of
Transportation OR by e-mail to mike.russell@state.tn.us
Your letter must be postmarked or e-mailed by March 11, 2008.
State Senator
Raymond Finney
State
Representative
Joe McCord
State
Representative
Doug Overbey
Mayor Jerry
Cunningham
Mayor Joe Swann
Mayor Don Mull You can send e-mail to one or more Blount County Commissioners at: http://www.blounttn.org/comm/contact.aspx
Send letters to
the Editor of
The Daily Times
to:
http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/pellissippi/pdfs/021908presentation.pdf to view the presentation from the Feb 19 2009 meeting http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/pellissippi/pdfs/021908corridormap.pdf to view preliminary alternative corridors map presented at Feb 19 2008 meeting http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/pellissippi/pdfs/021908handouts.pdf to view handouts from Feb 19 2008 meeting http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/pellissippi/pdfs/021908commentcard.pdf to print comment form from Feb 19 2008 meeting |
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The Knoxville-Oak Ridge Regional Network! |