How Farragut changed under Williams
As Williams plans to leave office in August, he recounted how the Town looked in 2016, when he entered the Town’s political arena, first as alderman and then as mayor.
“Years ago, when the Town was first founded, all of Kingston Pike had been zoned commercial … all the way to the Loudon County line,” the mayor recalled. “Even though you may have had a church or something … it was still zoned the way the group [of founders] did this.”
“We are fixing to go through another phase of [Future Land Use Plan updates],” Williams noted.
When he came into office, the mayor recalled, “We had a town that appeared to be in decline.”
He remembered the Town had 13 empty buildings, three burnt-down houses and a barn, an old gas station in the center of town, an old restaurant in which the roof caved in and the Avery-Russell House [now Campbell Station Inn] that “was falling down around itself with a dog pound right next door to it.
“Two of those houses were in Fox Den,” Williams recalled. “One block to the east, you had the old Kroger’s that was a graffiti palette for the skaters, and then if you went the other direction, you had the old Ingle’s that had been abandoned when they built the new one.
“This is what we inherited,” he observed, referring to himself and former Vice Mayor Louise Povlin, who is seeking election as mayor.
“As two retired engineers, we rolled up our sleeves and worked with David Smoak,” setting to make changes. Also, he said a group went to Las Vegas and recruited Costco and other businesses into the Town.
“That’s what built out Parkside Drive in Turkey Creek,” Williams said.
Since then, the old Ingle’s building was renovated, the burnt-out buildings were replaced; the Pilot gas station made way for 35 North; Kroger’s made way for Biddle Farms at Town Center; and the Avery Russell House was restored as Campbell Station Inn and Mayor Ralph McGill Plaza.
While Williams said he focused on the developments, Povlin worked on ordinances.
“One that we were really involved with was Biddle Farms,” the mayor said. “That was something where they actually, for years, had tried to get a vertical town center, but we could never get a developer buy on that. They said, ‘No, that don’t work in suburbia.’
“Finally, we did have one [developer] who was a Farragut graduate,” Williams said, adding he developed Biddle Farms.
He also referred to safer roads, smarter infrastructure, parks and recreation enhancements, “balanced growth and housing and investments” made for the future.
Before coming to Farragut. Williams was born and raised in Powell, Knox County, a “farm kid,” he said. After graduating from University of Tennessee, he went on to be an engineer, working with three different companies before he retired in 2015. In the meantime, he moved to Farragut and ran for office in 2016.
