News and events in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Those who protest the drafting of a five-county regional development plan are concerned about losing their property rights.
There has been disagreement in East Tennessee over whether local governments and officials ought to be working on a five-county regional development plan known as PlanET.
A Saturday forum will allow residents to hear from both sides. Two officials helping to develop the plan are scheduled to take part and so are two speakers who plan to discuss the “pitfalls of central planning for sustainability.”
“What we really want is for people who are undecided about it all to come, and listen to the two groups on the panel presenting their views, then taking questions from the general audience,” said Oak Ridge resident Robert Humphries, who provided information on the five-hour forum.
An unusual collection of 10 local boards and agencies will meet at the Oak Ridge Civic Center Wednesday to discuss a sometimes-controversial five-county regional development plan known as PlanET.
Boards and agencies invited to take part in the Wednesday evening meeting at the Oak Ridge Civic Center include the City Council, Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Municipal Planning Commission.
Officials helping to develop the three-year plan say they are asking East Tennesseans to share their vision for the future of the region, but opponents say they are concerned about losing their property rights.
Regional leaders rank community issues during a recent PlanET forum at the Flatwater Grill in Oak Ridge.
Union County Mayor Micheal Williams wants the county to withdraw from a regional planning organization that recently held a series of public forums and drew some opposition from property rights advocates, including in Oak Ridge and Anderson County.
Named PlanET, the five-county organization includes Anderson, Blount, Loudon, Knox, and Union counties. Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan is chair of its board of mayors.
“Union County is a rural county and is much smaller, as far as demographics are concerned, than the other counties which make up PlanET,” Williams wrote in a May 1 letter to the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization. “I feel that Union County would be better served if we promote ourselves as an individual county instead of grouping with the larger ones and being left behind.”
The lack of jobs that pay well is the most serious community problem, Anderson County residents said in a recent telephone survey.
Fifty-five percent of those responding rated it as a major problem, according to a survey summary released Monday by PlanET.
But 76 percent of those surveyed in Anderson County said the quality of life in their community is good or excellent.
Residents discuss their vision for a five-county region that includes Anderson, Blount, Loudon, Knox, and Union Counties during a Tuesday forum at Anderson County High School in Clinton.
CLINTON — Although the two sides appeared to engage in a civil discussion, a Tuesday forum again pitted planners and property rights advocates against each other.
The property rights advocates oppose the drafting of a five-county regional development plan known as PlanET.
“I am concerned more about freedom of choice and personal property rights,” said Lynn Byrge, an Anderson County resident and owner of Active Electric in Oak Ridge. He attended a PlanET forum on Tuesday at the Anderson County High School in Clinton.
Those who protest the drafting of a five-county regional development plan are concerned about losing their property rights.
Opponents of the three-year plan, funded with help from a $4.3 million U.S. Housing and Urban Development grant, draw a connection between PlanET and an international resolution passed in 1992 that was designed to encourage nations to use fewer resources and conserve open land by steering development to already dense areas.
“It’s Agenda 21, straight out of the United Nations,” Byrge said.
That resolution has drawn greater scrutiny as activists across the country tie it to a range of local and state efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy, according to The New York Times.
But the officials helping to develop the local plan, and currently collecting public input in a week-long series of forums, say they are only asking East Tennesseans to share their vision for the future of the region.
“We have no preset goal,” planner Rob Kerns said. He works for Wallace Roberts and Todd, a planning and design firm based in Philadelphia that was hired to run the PlanET project.
Emily Woodle, City of Knoxville Community Development project specialist, left, and Jim Dickson, YMCA of East Tennessee president and chief executive officer, help rank top regional issues during a PlanET forum Thursday.
Their mission challenged by protesters, several dozen regional leaders who met in Oak Ridge on Thursday said poor air quality, drug abuse, and the large number of low-skilled jobs are among the issues that ought to be addressed as a new five-county plan is developed.
Other top-priority issues include improving regional school quality, reducing the obesity rate, and providing access to affordable housing and more transportation alternatives.
Knoxville resident Kevin Desmond protests outside a PlanET meeting at Flatwater Grill on Thursday.
Thursday’s forum was organized by PlanET, and about 75 people attended, including an estimated 30 protesters inside and more outside. The protesters were concerned about property rights and wanted to know, specifically, what PlanET might propose.
Some also tied the planning process to Agenda 21, a United Nations resolution passed in 1992 that was designed to encourage nations to use fewer resources and conserve open land by steering development to already dense areas.
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