Turkey Creek greenway vs. property rights argued: BOMA votes 4-1
Despite objections from a few residents along Turkey Creek Road, Farragut Mayor and Aldermen voted 4-1 to enter into a professional services agreement with LDA Engineering Inc. to design an extension of Turkey Creek Greenway during its meeting Thursday, Sept. 28.
The extension would run from its western terminus, 1,850 feet west of Brixworth Boulevard, to Virtue Road, Town engineer Darryl Smith said.
“The idea is to keep (the extension) more or less along the roadway with a little divergence in the area on the eastern end,” Smith said. “The terrain is pretty difficult.
“You remember, LDA presented three alternative routes back in May, and this is the one that was chosen,” the Town engineer added.
The contract to LDA Engineering Inc. to develop project plans and design the extension would cost $122,000.
Mayor Ron Williams said the professional services agreement, among a few other items on the agenda, was a “testament to our staff’s hard work.”
However, Turkey Creek Road resident Shirley Harkins objected to the extension because it takes part of her property in front of her home.
“We are being forced to experience great sacrifices so a few may be able to cross in front of our homes,” she said.
Harkins first learned about the extension project around mid-June and looked up articles online.
“It is important to note that none of the residents along the route of this proposed project were ever made aware of this project ‘directly’ until Jason Elliott with LDA Engineering put flyers in our mailboxes, informing us that surveyors would be coming onto our properties,” she said. “This occurred a few weeks ago.
“Tonight is the first time an agenda item related to this project has come before the Board of Mayor and Aldermen since I learned of this pending project in mid-June,” Harkins added.
She cited a May 25 meeting action on first reading, which she quoted the project was “to be retrofitted along Turkey Creek Road in front of five individual homes.
“We are concerned about the liability accruing to us, as homeowners, for the safety of persons who decide to proceed across our driveways without regard to our personal rights to enter and exit our driveways safely from and onto Turkey Creek,” Harkins said. “There is much potential for pedestrian, bike and motorized wheelchair collisions.”
Likewise, Kent Galbraith, who spoke on behalf of his father, David Galbraith, contended there was a specific variance on his father’s property not allowing a sidewalk to go across his driveway.
“I spoke to Darryl (Smith) about it, and he said, ‘Oh, I was not aware of this variance.’ I said, ‘You do not have permission to build anything on our property,’” Kent Galbraith said.
“…I don’t understand how you can propose this greenway go across our property when we specifically denied permission,” he added.
Also, Steve Williams proposed the Board spend the $2 million cost of the extension project to create a Town police department and tell Knox County to give the Town money because the Sheriff’s Office is not covering Farragut.
On the other side of the coin, Kyle Ball, who lives directly behind where the trail would be extended, said, “My family and I, as well as many neighbors and people I have talked to in the southwest area, are very excited for this trail extension.
“The trail system here in Farragut is a huge asset to this community,” Ball added. “It’s unfortunate that (the trail currently) ends right there at the western part of our neighborhood.”
“One of the main things Farragut is known for is connectivity, greenways and being able to get through the entire Town,” Alderman Drew Burnette said at the meeting.
“(The extension project) is a great, great thing, and I think that’s what people move here for,” he added. “I understand this affects a few homes in this area. I do wish they would have been notified immediately when we’re talking about this because they are so affected. I hope we can do that in the future.”
Concerning Galbraith’s property, Smith said he was not aware of an easement to not allow a sidewalk on the property.
“I believe if there was a variance, it was to allow (the developer) to subdivide without having to build that sidewalk,” Smith explained. “It doesn’t mean, in perpetuity, there wouldn’t be a sidewalk there.”
Burnette said the gap in the greenway “keeps us completely disconnected. The reason it hadn’t been done is it’s a hard section.”
While Williams, Vice Mayor Louise Povlin, Aldermen Scott Meyer and Burnette voted in favor of the contract to design the extension, Alderman David White voted against it.
“I certainly agree with the lady who’s upset that they weren’t notified,” White said. “That’s a terrible mistake on our part, when we’re going to affect somebody’s property and we don’t notify them.
“I was at the meeting where we had three choices,” he added. “I don’t remember being at the meeting where we picked one.”
