Supporters of the purchase, neutral voices have their say
Eric Johnson is one of the Town of Farragut founders and a former alderman who has lived in what is now Farragut for 49 years.
“I’m thrilled with the parks that we have,” he said. “...But if you go through Farragut today, tell me where else there’s a large parcel of land available for parks, and there aren’t.
“... I think the Town is taking advantage of a parcel of property that’s available, and there aren’t anymore out there,” Johnson added. “I think preserving land for parks is a thing that we must do. We need to be responsible adults and have property available for children.
“... All children in the future should have parks available to them. I think it is extremely important to have this parkland preserved — even if it isn’t developed — because that land needs to be there in the future. ...”
Jeremy Brewster, a new Farragut resident, thanked the Board for the letter of intent to purchase the 55 acres for a park.
“I’ve lived a lot of places, and I can tell you in different states developers are running amuck,” he said. “(The Board’s action) is sending a message … you’re buying land in order to preserve nature and preserve walkability.”
He asked if the Town considered escalating that purchase with bonds.
“Certainly, it’s always an option,” Smoak answered. “The Board has been very conservative in the way it’s always processed our budget and looked at our priorities and try to make sure we have the cash on hand. ...”
Citizen Jeanne Brykalski. a resident here for 51 years, said, “I love living in Farragut, and I appreciate the interaction that our Town officials and staff give to us.
“I am here primarily tonight to stand up for the residents of McFee Park and the McFee Road area, because no matter what happens to that piece of property, they are the ones who are going to be most impacted,” she added. “If the Town does not buy this for a park and more and more houses are built there, the roads are going to be impacted, the schools are going to be impacted, traffic will, of course, increase. When I say roads are not going to be impacted, I’m not just talking about traffic. I’m talking about wear and tear.”
Also, “... There are 40 acres of trees on this piece of property,” she added. “That would be a great area to wind through walking paths, bike paths, maybe put a little pavilion here or there. There are ways those trees can be salvaged....”
Sue Stuhl, former Town Parks & Recreation director and Town employee for more than 30 years, said, “There’s been a lot of information here and other places on Nextdoor and the (local) paper about not having enough public process, but in fact” there has been an analysis “with four focus groups, an insider survey, which went to all the staff and all the committee persons, and the intercept survey at three different events, a citizen survey that was very well done — there were lots of the responses — four public hearings before the plan was written and then another public hearing after the plan was written. So that’s pretty good public input.
“One other thing as far as parity for the areas of Farragut: In 16 square miles, it’s not that hard to get to many of the parks. ... For many, many, many years, the north side had all the parks except for a little bit of Anchor Park, 15 acres. They had Campbell Station Park and Mayor Bob Leonard Park. ... We would love for anyone to donate any property, and I think the Town would be thrilled to have a bunch of little pocket parks around.”
Citizen Diane Hall said, “I just want to say that (Alderman) David White didn’t vote against the park. All he voted for it was to get input. And that was on June 22. And here it is, three months later.
“So thank you to the Town. ... I think it’s important to step back every once in a while. I hate to say it, but going on your process, you didn’t have to do that whole briefing. You could have gotten up and said, ‘you all have the information available. Did you look at it?’
“But you took the time to explain it to us, and that means so much, and that’s so helpful. I just ask that in the future, as we go forward, these little sessions would mean a lot. ...”
Citizen James Mark Horton said, “I actually just bought a property on McFee Road about a month ago. I had no idea what I was signing up for.
“It’s been really interesting, and this is my first event here. ... I just relocated from Park City, Utah, and my community there was, I would say, almost decimated by development. It was a beautiful small Town, with parks that, fortunately, they didn’t try to preserve some of the land, but not quick enough.
“Developers have come in and almost completely changed the landscape of Park City, Utah. It’s something that when I heard about this, I can agree with some of maybe the technicalities of only having three people vote on such a big vote and the mayor being the deciding vote. That’s something that is a little strange.
“However, I think if we get caught up in the technicality the land will be gone,” he added. “I can see that I have good faith that the Town is doing the right thing ... And there’s always going to be technicalities. I actually work in contracts, too, so there’s a lot of technicalities that happen in contracts. ...
“But from what I’ve seen, I appreciate the information. I actually went in with more of the skeptical perspective coming into this, but coming out of it I definitely see the vision there. I appreciate the talent and energy, trying to make sure that everybody understands what’s happening and that there’s nothing sneaky or malicious happening in the background. I appreciate that.”
Local developer David Pfizer said, “You all need to know this: I was the developer that had the property under contract when the school was putting together” an offer.
“If you all don’t agree to put this park here, I’m still here and I’m still going to buy it,” he added. “I didn’t come here to speak, but I think you ought to know that.
“I get your opposition to the home building, but it’s unfair for other people that want to move here,” he added. “But you all need to know is if you don’t do this, there’s going to be a separation.
“It may not be me, but it not it will be somebody else.”
