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Seven Days

Wednesday, November 5
When UT's powers that be try to reverse an earlier decision and have the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute into Neyland Stadium for the Mississippi State game on Nov. 15, they're told it's too late. Phil Scheurer, UT's vice president for operations, says security policy that formerly banned the fly-over has been rescinded in this case, even though, he says, "The safety of fans is parametric to security policy." Parametric, Phil? Do you mean parachutric, or what? Make up your mind.

Thursday, November 6
An Associated Press account of 22 Tennessee bridges deemed unsafe in TDOT inspections lists more than half of those bridges as being in Weakley County. That's the home of former House speaker and Gov. Ned McWhirter. Guess His Nedness wasn't as adept at directing pork into his own barrel as most politicians are.

Friday, November 7
The state releases its annual report card on public schools. The account says some of the schools reported "discrepancies" in certain academic-area grades, and the grades were removed. Any parents ever hear a similar tale from their kids?

Saturday, November 8
UT's football team defeats then-6th-ranked Miami on the Hurricanes' home turf in the Orange Bowl. Caught them looking ahead to Rutgers, huh?

Sunday, November 9
The AP reports from Nashville that the national "do-not-call" law has forced some companies there to resort to old-timey door-to-door sales calls. Relatively speaking, if you had your choice, would you rather hang up on a telemarketer or slam the door on the foot of a huckster? It's worth some thought.

Monday, November 10
The new TDOT commissioner announces that the controversial Knoxville beltway will be built, come hell or Hardin Valley. The controversy is over whether Knoxville will be classified as "inside the beltway" or "outside the beltway."

Tuesday, November 11
Al Gore tells an MTSU audience that television is a medium that limits debate to a chosen few on issues of importance and "pushes toward the lowest common denominator." It's been pushing that way for more than 50 years now, Al. How low can it go?

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
Well, last week we were reaching for a joke. To someone on our staff, the intersection of Jones and High seemed somehow... funny. Apparently, not a lot of you share our sense of humor. Many missed (or else sensibly chose to ignore) the double entendre and simply identified the geographical location of the street corner. First to do so was George Daws of Knoxville, who notes there is a great view of South Knoxville from this intersection that's a couple of blocks up the hill off Sevier Avenue. Mr. Daws will be receiving a copy of Companions by Sheri S. Tepper.
Greg Houser of Andersonville was first to get the, umm... joke. He writes that the "oddisity" of the two signs relates to "what you feel when you've got some" and "what you're feeling when you're without."
Hmm.

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

KNOX COUNTY COMMISSION
Monday, Nov. 17
2 p.m.
Main Assembly Room, City County Building
The Commission will vote on the proposed "God Resolution"

KNOX COUNTY OFFICE OF NEIGHBORHOODS
Thursday, Nov. 20
6 p.m.
West Knoxville Library
100 Golf Club Road
Meet one on one with the county mayor to discuss issues of concern.

Rep. Bittle's Gloves Off
Orange Route still in for a fight

The Phil Bredesen gubernatorial administration won no friends in the Hardin Valley Tuesday, when Tennessee Department of Transportation commissioner Gerald Nicely announced that the Orange Route beltway would continue according to plan.

"I was ready to leave as soon as I heard the decision," state Representative H.E. Bittle of the 14th Legislative District said in disgust. "I was sick to my stomach, and my wife was tearing up."

Nicely held a press conference at the TDOT outpost in Strawberry Plains Tuesday to announce the fate of three controversial local highway projects, all three of which were placed under review when new Gov. Phil Bredesen took office earlier this year.

Nicely announced that a planned extension of the James White Parkway would be sent back for local review, and that an extension of the Pellissippi Parkway in Blount County is green-lighted pending the outcome of federal litigation.

But the Orange Route, which would cut through the Hardin Valley in connecting Interstate 75 near Lenoir City to I-75 north of Raccoon Valley Road, was approved by TDOT officials unconditionally, or so it seemed at first glance. In protest of that decision, Bittle and fellow state Rep. Tim Burchett refused to stand with other local officials during the announcement of the plan; Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, an outspoken critic of the beltway, also departed early when he learned of the outcome.

But there is a saving grace for Hardin Valley residents in that the beltway construction apparently won't take place anytime soon. In the meantime, Nicely announced the formation of something called a "context-sensitive solutions-resource team." Nicely couldn't give a very coherent definition of just what exactly a CSSRT is, but he did say its work would include taking second looks at some of the Orange Route specifics, from updated traffic estimates to possible route alterations to new environmental impact statements, and that it would involve some element of public participation.

The bottom line, Nicely concluded, is that Orange Route study will continue for at least another 18 months, and that construction likely won't begin for another three to five years.

Bittle has been a staunch opponent of the Orange Route since Day One; last year, he nearly came to blows over the issue with former TDOT Commissioner Bruce Saltsman at a public meeting in Karns. But while Bittle didn't stir up any fireworks Tuesday, he was already girding himself for further struggle by Wednesday afternoon.

"My neighbors were just sick about it," Bittle said. "Some of the women were crying. But they were calling me today, asking me what I'm going to do next. I'd say there's still going to be a fight, and it will be a bad one."

—Mike Gibson

Annexation or No?
A primer on the state of the law

The city of Knoxville has fought business owners for decades over the incorporation of Knox County land into the city's boundary. The annexation policy has proven to be a time-consuming and expensive pursuit for the city. Because affected property owners are neither personally notified of a pending annexation nor given the right to a jury trial in its proceedings, the matter can be to an excruciating process for them.

A representative from the city, who did not wish to be quoted, explains property annexation this way: It allows the city to: a.) monitor growth and development on its borders, and b.) provide public safety assistance.

Citizens for Home Rule, Inc. works as a support network for those in the midst of annexation proceedings. Chartered in 1980, the advocacy organization provides the financial and legal means for homeowners and business owners annexed against their will to file suit and block annexation. "We have 200 suits pending on behalf of our members on a chancery court docket right now," says CHR President John Emison. "Our organization has sued the city of Knoxville without a doubt more than any organization in the 200-year history of the city, and we've never lost."

Annexation became even more of a hot-button issue in May 1998, when Tennessee passed the Urban Growth Law. The law requires municipalities to designate a planned growth area by defining urban and rural boundaries, and it dictates where a city can annex for 20 years. The city of Knoxville takes the position that the growth plan is necessary, because 90 to 95 percent of the area is already developed, and the undeveloped properties are either environmentally sensitive or on steep slopes. The city acknowledges that properties can be redeveloped, but its officials say healthy cities have a balance of new growth and redevelopment.

Citizens for Home Rule might soon challenge the Urban Growth Law in court over the law's controversial elimination jury trial when individual property appeal annexations. Under the new law, appeals are decided by a chancellor.

"We don't think that the legislation has the authority to limit trial by jury in this means." Emison says. "If we were to lose, and the chancellor would rule in favor of the city, we're going to appeal it. In the appeal process, we would appeal not only the verdict, but we would appeal the constitutional issue."

In response, the city says that a trial-by-jury provision has only been in effect for 20 years. Until 1978, a trial judge determined annexation cases. At that time, the Legislature changed the law to require a jury trial, and 20 years later it reversed itself. Because a jury requires a unanimous verdict for annexation, legislators recognized that when one property owner files a lawsuit, it effectively stopped any kind of reasonable annexation from occurring, the city official says.

Another point of debate has been the lack of notification given to property owners. A function of the CHR is to notify the property owners to be annexed and give them an opportunity to block it. "We write all those people. We take it upon ourselves to let people know what's happening. We provide that information to the public at no expense to the taxpayer, and the mayor spends quite a lot of city resources concealing it from the folks who are affected by it," says Emison.

The city publishes a list of annexed businesses in the News Sentinel classifieds, with a map, 15 days before public hearing. "They know what the street address of the property is, but they don't run that in the paper," Emison continues, "Instead of the name of the property owner or a street address, they assign a number...to it."

However, the city meets the requirements of law and the standard for cities across the country, according to an official, who says that the problem with sending letters is that people will claim that they did not get a letter, or if they did receive a letter, they did not understand it.

In addition, the city is required to send a plan of service to the Metropolitan Planning Commission where tax parcel numbers can be identified. The CHR searches through the numbers in order to find the property owner and contact information. "We go into the public records, search out and find out on our own all of the information that the city had on a property-by-property basis to start the process and, unlike the city, we write them and let them know what's going on," Emison says.

The CHR's says Ashe administration annexes properties for revenue, and the rise in the number of annexations is in direct correlation to the financial status of Knoxville. "It's only been a couple of months since the city made a $2 million cash payout to a hotel developer in exchange for dropping an annexation lawsuit, and the explanation that the mayor gave was that it was quick payback. It's not my opinion that they annex for revenue, it's the words that come out of his mouth as part of their rationale and justification," Emison says of the Crown Pointe Plaza on Clinton Highway at Callahan Drive.

The city position is that there has not been a rise in the number of annexations. The properties currently involved were considered for annexation in the early 1980s, and the process was stopped by individual property owners. The city's response is that there were two annexation studies done in 1980 and 1986. In both studies, the planning commission considered future growth where urban areas were anticipated to develop in the next 20 years and made recommendations on annexation.

The CHR is optimistic about the forthcoming administration. "Mayor-elect Haslam seems to be a reasonable person who has things he wants to accomplish. What we think would be a goodwill gesture of cooperation between the city and the county is for the Haslam administration to take the 200 annexations where suits are standing against them and rescind those." Emison says, "I look for much more amenable cooperation between the county and the city administration with Bill Haslam and Mike Ragsdale in the driver's seat[s]."

—Clint Casey