lettertotheeditor
Citizen input needed to plan Town growth
With the dust from the COVID pandemic beginning to settle and the ability to find a new normal for public workshops, the Comprehensive Land Use Plan steering committee and Town staff have resumed the outreach to Farragut residents to review and update the future land use map in the Comprehensive Land Use Plan.
The Kingston Pike subarea, which includes the Boring Road corridor, is the next area on the future land use map to be reviewed. All Farragut residents are welcome to attend and provide their input.
The residents of Baldwin Park, Waverly Court, Fox Den, Village Green, Country Manor and Country Way are most directly impacted by potential development in the area being reviewed. Residents of these neighborhoods are highly encouraged to attend and provide their input.
The focus of the workshop is the undeveloped property in this area and what the community believes would be the best land use. The public workshop will be held on Monday, Nov. 15, at Farragut Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Drive in the Community Room. If you enter from the front doors, the Community Room is on your right through the double doors (the room where voting happens).
This workshop is offered in a drop-in format: show up anytime between 4 and 8 p.m. If you are interested in gaining a better understanding of the workshop itself, please go to my blog at www.farragutfyi.com and view the blog post entitled “Amending the Plan – Kingston Pike Subarea including the Boring Road Corridor.”
We, as a community, can adopt a general or comprehensive plan for the physical development of our Town and we can amend that plan. We can regulate land development through our Municipal Code of Ordinances, subdivision regulations, etc.
However, we cannot violate a property owner’s constitutionally protected private property rights. Property owners have the right to develop their property as it is currently zoned and the right to exercise their property rights at their discretion. We cannot leave a property owner without an economically viable use of his property.
Working within these constraints, we can shape the future growth of our Town. For instance, many residents who live along the Boring Road corridor value the ability to walk in that area; therefore, any future development in that area should include safe and attractive pedestrian walkways.
In short, we can’t prevent growth, but we do have the ability to plan for growth and shape it. I hope that Farragut residents who could be directly impacted by potential future development in this area attend the workshop.
~ Vice Mayor Louise Povlin
