Harkins outspoken to stop greenway path; Neal to handle any legal issues
Shirley Harkins is one outspoken homeowner, among a handful, fighting a Town staff-recommended Turkey Creek Road Greenway extension planned to go through their front yards and take about 25 feet across.
If carried out as planned, her home and others alongside Turkey Creek Road just east of this road’s intersection with Virtue Road will “absolutely, without question” lose value due to factors including esthetics, with the extension to include “ugly” retaining walls, she said.
“There’s six property owners that the trail would cross ... and we are adamantly opposed to it for a number of reasons,” Harkins added.
About the greenway extension being before Farragut Municipal Planning Commission during its Thursday, May 16, meeting (see related story), “It was interesting that they had it. It was the first time on the agenda, and it was just straight out to be approved (and sent to Board of Mayor and Aldermen), period,” she said, as FMPC delayed action as a handful of citizens spoke against the extension.
“The only way that we knew what occurred at the meeting was because of Tammy Cheek’s article (May 17, 2023, in farragutpress),” added Harkins, who along with two other families has hired Bearden attorney John Neal.
“We didn’t find that out until the summer, when in June, when I decided that maybe I should look at the archives of the newspaper just to see what I had missed and what was going on in the Town. And so when I looked at the archives and I saw the article that she wrote, it was shocking because we knew nothing about anything being planned.”
“But I’m not against greenways as a concept,” she said.
Neal said he also represents David Galbraith and Howard and Bobbie Tipton, also along the north side of Turkey Creek Read near Virtue. “Let’s just say that they are really displeased about having 25 feet of their front yards come off,” Neal said. “Of course, they’re all extremely opposed to the project.”
Though Jason Elliott, principal engineer with LVA Engineering in Alcoa, noted “a slight increase” in driveway slope angle at the meeting, “I’ve been out there and stood in their driveways and looked, and I’m convinced it’s going to make their driveways so steep that, for instance, in snow and ice, it’s going to be just impossible to get in and out,” Neal added. “It’s certainly impossible to go down and check mail.”
Legally, “There’s two or three issues,” Neal said.
Back in 2005, “When Mr. Galbraith sold property for Sheffield subdivision, there was a request that there be a waiver of the Town requirement for a sidewalk in front of his house,” he said. “When the Sheffield subdivision was approved, staff recommended that the city deny that request and the Town insist on a sidewalk. But instead, the Town decided against the sidewalk.
“... I think there’s a contract between Mr. Galbraith and the Town, and he’d be entitled to an injunction if they try to build something in front of his house because i would be a breached contract,” Neal added.
As for value considerations, “The Town’s argument will be that having a greenway in front of their houses will actually raise the value,” Neal said. “... Well, the Town admits these cuts that they’re going to have to make are deep enough that they’re going to have to put retaining walls all along.’”
To pay for the extension, “when they started it out (in the 2022 fiscal year budget), it was budgeted at $370,000. Now, it’s budgeted at $2,500,000 … for 1,782 feet of sidewalk because this isn’t really a greenway, this is sidewalk,” Neal said.
Harkins said the $370,000 included a greenway section, as part of an extension option that was rejected, that would have added a section going as far north as Sheffield subdivision’s clubhouse. Yet without that, it’s still $2.5 million as of the FY 2024 budget.
About FMPC delaying action, “I think that was the right decision because there are significant legal issues that need to be ironed out,” Neal said. “Because the Town attorney (Tom Hale) has a conflict, they’re going to have to go find a lawyer and get an opinion from that lawyer as to whether he agrees with me that there’s a problem or not.”
