letter to the editor
Ivey Farm/alderman ‘conflict’ view
As a resident in Saddle Ridge Subdivision, I have been following the deliberations on the Ivey Farm rezoning requests.
Two days before the Planning Commission’s vote on the rezoning request, Alderman Bob Markli replied to an e-mail from one of my Saddle Ridge neighbors.
In this e-mail Alderman Markli, who is also a local home builder, strongly advocates the rezoning of the farm. As such, this action should disqualify Alderman Markli of profiting from the Ivey Farm rezoning action in the future by acting as a possible builder on that property – the e-mail could possibly constitute a “conflict-of interest” breach if he is trying to use his Alderman position to push for the rezoning decision.
Here is a brief excerpt from Mr. Markli’s lengthy e-mail: “The Ivey family has suffered patiently for over 14 years now trying to sell their farm, so it could be developed only to have every potential buyer (and there have been many) walk away discouraged when they learned that the Town had suddenly decided to make Mr. Ivey responsible for upgrading Union Road to a new standard that the Town had arbitrarily decided to mandate.
“This sudden shift in Town policy was enacted without referendum or even vote of Board of Mayor and Aldermen and it should shock the conscience of any fair-minded citizen. As a result, your neighbors in Saddle Ridge and Fox Run have enjoyed (at the Iveys’ expense) the pastoral rolling farmland surrounding many of you for the last 14 years.”
Not only should this e-mail disqualify Alderman Markli from profiting from the Ivey Farm rezoning in the future, it is a fantastic distortion of the past.
Previously, prospective developers of the Ivey Farm asked that the Town make unacceptable guarantees prior to them purchasing the property.
The Town never made Mr. Ivey responsible for upgrading Union Road, as in the past that would be on the developer and it would be based on a simple formula on the number of houses and the trips per day.
This is not a sudden shift in Town policy as Alderman Markli claims; if I recall the Split Rail & McKinley Station road improvements were both by this formula.
Fortunately, the practice of denying rezoning requests when they create unacceptable hazards on public roads has been a standard practice in every township in America for many years.
I am grateful for this practice.
As for the residents of Saddle Ridge and Fox Run — the clear majority of us have homes with no view of the Ivey property and have never even heard the term “Ivey Farm” until recently.
We are completely undeserving of Mr. Markli’s contempt. We are guilty of nothing more than buying homes in Farragut, raising our families and living our lives. Literally, we were “just in the neighborhood.”
Seemingly, the only mistake that Fox Run and Saddle Ridge residents made was to vote for Bob Markli to be our representative to the Town.
I doubt we will make that mistake again.
Gordon Michaels
Farragut
