Thanks for the report. Very interesting.

That's the best definition of form-based zoning I've heard. I wish I had had it to use while we were working to pass the code for the south waterfront.

Randy, you did a great job in your BlountViews blog summarizing Mr. McMahon's excellent presentation yesterday. I want to bring him to Knoxville because I think he does a better job explaining quality growth (and its corollary "dumb growth") better than most I've heard. We considered bringing him in as a speaker for the "Plain Talk on Quality Growth" conference in March, but decided that since he had spoken in the area before and would be comming again soon, we wouldn't try to bring him in for the conference. That said, though we had some incredible speakers of international renown, he does as good a job as any of them with the critical material he covers.

Joe Hultquist

I have asked our Mayor to bring Mr. McMahon to our county.

I believe our leaders should use every available resource to assist in the formation of a long term plan. They stopped participating in the Tennessee Growth Readiness project after the initial assessment by David Taylor (our ex county planner) resulted in a score of 6 on a scale of 0 to 100.

The comprehensive growth plan consists of a map. Every day we lose more of the aesthetic beauty of our mountain environment.

TACIR reported that "we" are hundreds of millions of dollars in the hole with regards to infrastructure. Mayor Waters claims that the numbers aren't relevant because he fudged them by adding a request for a monorail. Our property taxes are being raised partly because our county has given thousands of dollars to pet/pork charity projects (much like Knox County has).

Our streams that flow out of the GSMNP are on the 303(d) list after they pass through the county. Many are posted unfit for human contact.

Roughly half of our private wells (most supply drinking water to commercial rental cabins) are contaminated with bacteria. There isn't even a designation for commercial rental cabins to help protect our tourism industry.

We have no fire inspections, no building codes/inspections or certificates of occupancy.

State fire officials have asked our county to establish fire safety codes/rules/guidelines. They have refused or at least they haven't acted on the recommendations. Our county leaders have exposed themselves to potential lawsuits if or when someone is killed by a fire and it's shown that officials did nothing to protect their citizens or tourists.

If any one can benefit from a planning presentation, it's Sevier County.

That was my "short list!"

Would you like to hear about a commissioner (Warren Hurst) who told me at a meeting "I'm about sick and tired of you people. You pay one little tax and you think you can tell us what to do?"

He really did say this. Of course I wasn't quick enough to come back with a snappy reply. I simply stated:"I'm sorry you feel that way, I'm simply offering suggestions to help Sevier County."

Our streams that flow out of the GSMNP are on the 303(d) list after they pass through the county. Many are posted unfit for human contact.

Roughly half of our private wells (most supply drinking water to commercial rental cabins) are contaminated with bacteria. There isn't even a designation for commercial rental cabins to help protect our tourism industry.

We have no fire inspections, no building codes/inspections or certificates of occupancy.

Ah, the beauty of small government ...

Yes, sounds like the inevitable result in the southern (mostly) race to be the reddest county, and many there would probably be proud to agree.