ED limps into Knoxville

The ED problem that Nashville is having is now coming to Knoxville. No oversight by elected officials once it is passed to an outside group. In Knoxville's case it is KCDC that is given the power and does the dirty work of ED. More is now coming out that makes this smell worse then it already does.

From the WATE article.

Saroff's redevelopment plans for two buildings at 517 and 519 West Jackson Avenue were approved by the city's Building Inspections and Permits Office on Monday.

However, KCDC and the building inspections office are separate and KCDC has the final say....

...."I have provided architectural and engineering plans for the redevelopment of the McClung Warehouses to the city of Knoxville. They have been approved by the city as of today and are now available for permit, and my contractor is now working to pull the permit.

It should be even more obvious now to anyone but the casual observer that the city, through KCDC, has proven not only unwilling to work with me, but has worked against my redevelopment of the McClung Warehouses. And now that I have provided architecturally approved plans to complete the project, they are acting to steal my property through the use of eminent domain and give the property to another private developer.

"I'm saddened by the KCDC decision. Members of the city administration and my architecture and engineering team have been working arduously to certify the plans that will return the McClung Warehouses back to their original prominence.

KCDC's decision today spits in the face of all the hard work the city and I have spent to establish a solid, acceptable and certified plan. It is sad to know the taxpayers are paying for KCDC to do this.

Sadly, in America you can lose your property if a few people on a board decide they know best. I don't know what this city and county are coming to."

Word on the street is that the Nashville projects funding has fallen apart but they are going through with the ED anyway...

It is sounding like it could end up like the Kelo house where the developer went all the way to the supreme court to steal the land miss Kelo had her little pink house on and when they did they never ended up never building on it any way.

From the Institute for Justice

Like so many other projects that use eminent domain and rely on taxpayer subsidies, New London's Fort Trumbull project has been a failure. After spending $78 million in taxpayer dollars, the city of New London and the private developer have engaged in no new construction since the project was approved in 2000. Indeed, since the property owners disputing the takings owned less than two acres in a 90-acre project area, the city has always had a vast majority of the land available for development. Yet, no new development has occurred. The preferred developer for part of the site, Corcoran Jennison, recently missed its latest deadline for securing financing for building on the site and was terminated as the "designated developer."