The City of Alcoa, in cooperation with Maryville, Blount County, and Knox County, has announced a major new R&D office park/retail/residential development on Maryville Pike (Or Old Knoxville Highway if you're in Maryville) at its intersection with the I-140/Pellissippi Parkway.

(He never got back to me to answer my question about it, but I guess this is why State Sen. Raymond Finney introduced legislation to remove the 35 foot building height restrictions along Pellissippi Parkway within the city limits of Alcoa.)

The project was mentioned in the paper last week, but no details were given. We were talking with Blount Co. mayor candidate Joe Gallagher about it last Saturday, and he said he didn't know anything about it, either. He also said that he had attended a planning commission meeting just a couple of days before and there was no mention of it.

Anyway, this seems like a pretty big deal, and actually could be a Good Thing for Blount County and the metro area in general. I don't know why they need to be so secretive about it.

One interesting aspect is that Knox Co. will invest in the development and share in the property tax revenues.

Hopefully it will be as described, and not turn out to be Turkey Creek South. It sounds similar to how Heathrow, FL developed into a world-class technology/office park and a brand spanking new town center with retail and condos. It's pretty nice except for being a little sterile and Stepford-like.

But given our area's past history, somebody will probably figure out a way to screw it up, and either way the developers will make a lot of money, some of it courtesy of taxpayers.