County Commission Should Not Give Up Zoning Authority
County Commissioner Courtney Durrett is proposing what appears to be a slight change that could potentially have big consequences should it be adopted. Durrett proposed the change after a comment from a member of the county law director’s staff of attorneys. Durrett proposes to hand over the commission’s authority to hear appeals pertaining to mining and airports, not exactly monthly or even regular occurrences. The comment came after the county commission approved expanding the Dixie Lee Quarry in West Knoxville. Presently, the county commission hears all zoning and rezoning decisions outside the city limits. Durrett’s proposal would defer the regulatory power to its Board of Zoning Appeals, which is a body of citizen appointees.
The Focus agrees with Commissioner Justin Cofer, who was not supportive of Durrett’s proposal, and said, “I believe that we are slowly giving up our authorities piece by piece.” Cofer noted the commission was far more likely to be sympathetic to citizenry as an elected body. That is quite true and has been demonstrated when the former Knox County Health Department went out of its lane, discussing trying to force regulations upon another county. Generally speaking, it is a bad idea and a poor precedent for any legislative body to surrender any of its responsibilities to another branch of the government. It is worse still to hand over powers to an unelected body not directly responsible to the people who vote.
Terry Hill Should Stay In Her Lane
Some of the county commissioners may have buyer’s remorse for installing Terry Hill as their chair. The elbowing, grasping and bargaining for the chairmanship of the commission has always been much ado about nothing, as any prestige and power of the position is largely a self-delusion of its occupant at the time. The chair is merely the presiding officer of the county commission. The chair has never been the spokesperson or leader of the commission, and is as far removed from a position like speaker of the house as Pluto is from the Sun. In fact, Terry Hill tried her best to create a controversy when then school board member Betsy Henderson testified before a state legislative committee on behalf of vouchers. Henderson has always been a vocal proponent of parents being involved in the education of their children. Hill pitched a hissy fit; she squalled Henderson had no right to speak to the legislative committee as the chair of the Knox County Board of Education. Henderson happened to be the chair of the board at the time and was speaking as one member of the board. Yet Terry Hill has inserted herself into now-Mayor Henderson’s veto of “incentives” given to a developer that have not been given to other developers. Nor is the proposed development in Hill’s district; quite to the contrary, it is in South Knoxville and far removed from her own district. Nor did Hill separate her comments about the developer as the commission’s chair when she had publicly found fault with Betsy Henderson for speaking out. Hill all but seemed as if she was shilling for a developer who was seeking to have the taxpayers subsidize his project. Mayor Henderson’s point was made when the incentive was removed and the developer pulled the project.
Let’s just call it like it is: Terry Hill has never much liked Betsy Henderson and likes her even less now than ever before. It seems Hill is moping because Henderson doesn’t court her or consult her on every facet of county business. The truth is Hill has tried to block Henderson at every step of her public service. Most normal people don’t go first to their avowed enemies for advice.
Reopening The Gay Street Bridge To Vehicle Traffic Should Be A Top Priority Of City Leaders
Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon’s office has released a press release announcing there will be a meeting downtown. Among those attending are the city’s Engineering Department staff, the city’s Urban Design & Development staff, CDM Smith representatives, and “advocates and enthusiasts of Downtown and South Knoxville.” The purpose of the meeting is the launch of the City of Knoxville’s Downtown/South Knoxville Connectivity Study. They are bragging about having an “open house and online survey” for folks to get their “perspectives.” I can save the city folk a lot of trouble and expense for a matter which requires more common sense and less group planning. In fact, South Knoxville appears to be the poster child of the city’s planning department if it is true that Woody Woodpecker is the chief engineer. The deputy chief appears to be Wile E. Coyote, hatching elaborate plans to catch the crafty Road Runner with predictable results as seen in the famous cartoon.
If South Knoxville were a heart patient, she would have died from heart disease already, as the City of Knoxville has dithered and allowed constant development in and around the three main arteries into downtown, only one of which can even come close to accommodating traffic. Evidently, Chief Engineer Woody Woodpecker closed the Gay Street Bridge to traffic, except foot traffic and bicycles, of course. That leaves the Henley Street Bridge, which has become the very clogged main artery coming from South Knoxville into downtown. You see, the brilliant Woody Woodpecker and Wile E. Coyote have allowed literally hundreds and hundreds of new apartments to be built in clusters all around the Gay Street and Henley Street bridges. Is there a moratorium on development in and around the two bridges? Nope, apparently Woody and Wile E. have everything under control as the city is busy considering adding even more traffic to pour out onto the congested Chapman Highway coming into downtown at the Henley Street Bridge.
Goodness knows South Knoxville needs some advocates and enthusiasts, as it is presently suffering like a heart patient whose arteries are blocked while the doctor dithers. To be fair, there is indeed a third artery, but city residents would have to circle back through the recesses of the county and come down Alcoa Highway to get to downtown.
Those wizards in the city’s engineering and planning departments want to know, “When traveling between Downtown and South Knoxville, what’s most important – – – travel time, community character? Walking/biking connections?” Really? Does anybody in the city government think about the necessity for working people to actually arrive at their work destinations on time? Resolving congested traffic should take top priority over anything and everything else.
Do the staff in the city’s engineering or urban planning departments care at all about how people get from point A to point B on those roads – to work, to church, to school? Or how much time they are spending in traffic – not moving? It doesn’t look like it. Build it and they will come and they sure did, but it has paralyzed traffic at a critical point and there is little or no discussion about when we are going to try and make the Gay Street Bridge safe for cars and buses once again. There are a lot of suspicious people who don’t believe the city ever intends to reopen the Gay Street Bridge to anything but foot traffic and bicycles. The people of South Knoxville are the only quadrant of the county who are separated from the rest of Knoxville and Knox County by the river and they have to cross bridges to come downtown. Apparently, they should feel well blessed to travel on foot or on bikes with two whole pedestrian bridges if they want to come downtown, all courtesy of Mayor Turkey Lurkey, Chief Engineer Woody Woodpecker, and Deputy Chief Engineer Wile E. Coyote and the ACME Products Company.
