“The goal of this comprehensive plan is to make sure our city is affordable and competitive. We can make the most efficient use of our tax dollars if we plan carefully instead of letting things happen chaotically.” -American Planning Association
“Human habitation as it is referred to now is restricted to lands within the Urban Growth Boundaries of the city. Only certain building designs are permitted. Rural property is more and more restricted on what uses can be on it.” -Rosa Koire, Behind the Green Mask
In East Tennessee, the UN Agenda 21 Smart Growth plan is the five county local “Regional ” program called Plan East Tennessee (Regional Plan for Livable Communities), a plan which will eliminate private property rights in these five counties. (Link) It is the plan for Smart Growth.
The City of Knoxville applied for a federal grant from Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, while Governor Bill Haslam, a Republican, was Mayor of the City of Knoxville. Link
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R)
These grants, part of the Obama administration’s Partnership for Sustainable Communities, bring together HUD, Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Two types of grants were awarded — those to update existing plans, and those to develop sustainability plans from scratch. Knoxville’s Plan ET is from scratch and Knoxville received $4.32 million from the HUD grant. Another $2.5 million came from a Consortium of partners which includes non-profits. (As an aside, the Knoxville Utilities Board, KUB, received a $3.6 million grant from DOE, Department of Energy, to install smart meters.)
The Architectural firm, Wallace, Roberts, and Todd, (WRT), headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the Plan ET partner chosen to head the forums. They were paid $1.7 million to accomplish the pre-determined outcome of these forums through facilitation of the Delphi Technique. The Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC), another unelected commission, has $1,591,000 of the HUD/Plan ET monies in their account as of June 14, 2012. Another $100,000 was given to the MPC for the costs of the forum locations and refreshments. This leaves approximately $3.4 million in the City of Knoxville’s coffers, it is believed, since they are the ones who’d applied for the grant.
Governor Haslam has proven he is an EPA, Agenda 21 proponent, not only by allowing the application for the Smart Growth grant from HUD, but by his actions since becoming governor. Haslam has also refused to sign a resolution against Agenda 21, even though a Resolution has absolutely no binding power of law. Link
In my previous article on NewsWithViews, “Mind Control and Smart Growth,” I explained that Knoxville is also a dues paying member of ICLEI since 2007. From Tom DeWeese’s article, “Agenda 21 in One Easy Lesson” on ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability (formally, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives): “Communities pay ICLEI dues to provide “local” community plans, software, training, etc. Additional groups include American Planning Association, The Renaissance Planning Group, International City/ County Management Group, aided by US Mayors Conference, National Governors Association, National League of Cities, National Association of County Administrators and many more private organizations and official government agencies. The Foundation and government grants drive the process.”
On Thursday, March 21st, 2013, three of us attended a meeting of the Farragut City Council. About 20 people were in the audience at this meeting. The 2010 Census recorded 20,689 population for Farragut, which is part of Knox County. Knox County is the largest of the five counties in Plan ET Smart Growth with a population of nearly 500,000. Total population in the five county “region” of Plan ET is 700,000. Obviously, very few people in the area go to their council or commission meetings, and this is where the damage is done to our freedoms.
The first person that spoke was Matt Barney, the developer of 52 acres, and he kept expounding on the Green Spaces they were developing, with fruit trees and gardens. He stated his whole development was a “green community.” According to the zoning laws of the Town of Farragut, 35% of any development now has to be given over to green space. For this developer, that means 17.74 acres of this 52 acre development. It was originally 96 home sites, but was reworked to be 49 home sites for more “green space.”
So, developers in the Town of Farragut must give up more than one-third of their property for “green space” rather than building homes on all of the property they’ve purchased. How would you like to buy a piece of land you intend to use, but then be told by the local politicians that more than one-third of that land cannot be used for the purpose you desire. Just a little fascism sprinkled in for enjoyment.
Check out Farragut’s Planning Division. The Division has their own Vision 2025 Smart Growth project, and they’ve already implemented bike lanes in their community. They even have a Code Enforcement Division that reviews all commercial, office, and residential construction plans, grants permits and sets fees, does inspections and licensing and fees for plumbing/gas and mechanical contractors. None of this sounds onerous. However, once Smart Growth is part of the City’s plan, all of this can become draconian in nature. It is happening via zoning and codes by these council and commission members. Remember, this is a very small community of 21,000 people. Yet, here is Smart Growth, which is in nearly every small town and city in the country.
After the council meeting, there were perhaps a dozen people left. A presentation by the Knoxville Metropolitan Planning Commission regarding Plan ET was scheduled for the council members. Three of the ten members left, so the presentation was given to the seven who were left.
Jeff Welch, Knoxville’s Regional Transportation Planning Organization Director, was there along with Metropolitan Planning Commission‘s, GIS (Geographical Information Services) manager, Tim Kuhn, to present the results of the Plan ET Smart Growth project thus far. (GIS is the mapping of all the counties’ properties.) Tim Kuhn actually used the Delphi Technique on the Town Council members, just as was done at the Plan ET Forums we attended in 2012. The council members were asked questions about the community, but were provided only multiple choice answers from which to choose. This was to decide what was important to them for their community and how it should “grow” in the next 30 years. Most of the people on the council will not even be here in 30 years. During his presentation, Tim Kuhn made the statement that 500 people in this five county “region” had given their “input” at the two series of Plan ET forums regarding what was important to them for their communities in the next 28 years. So, from a population of 700,000 people, 500 people are deciding our future, without an election, by unelected members of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, and the architectural firm, skilled in the Delphi Technique, (video) who was hired to help them with the predetermined outcome. Link
At the 2012 series forums, where the “public” was invited, the majority of those present were local government employees who had a vested interest in seeing these Smart Growth plans accomplished. If those of us against UN Agenda 21 Smart Growth had not attended the forums, the only people giving “community input” would be the invited government shills. Since they have a vested interest in Smart Growth they shouldn’t have even been voting at these Delphi meetings as it is a conflict of interest! At one meeting, one of the invitees admitted she was a paid participant. Of course! They were all paid to go because they worked for the city, the county, the university, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, etc.
The Farragut Council was then told the results, all of which were scripted for their pre-determined outcome via their use of Rand Corporation’s mind-control Delphi Technique. RAND developed the Delphi method in the 1950s for the U.S. Department of Defense. It was originally intended for use as a psychological weapon during the cold war. Remember, these people from the MPC and Wallace, Roberts, and Todd, also went into schools and used this same “exercise” on children who are not taxpayers!
Kuhn stated the community challenges were, lack of good jobs, highways and side roads needing repair, more public transportation, empty commercial buildings, improved education, protection of natural resources, and drug abuse problems. He asked the Council members to rate these problems in how the region responds to same. Kuhn stated the desire was to get people closer to their jobs, more transportation and transit services, more housing for the elderly in urban areas, and to contain “sprawl.” Instead of population expanding further out in rural communities, he suggested their “results” from the forums stated this needs to be changed.
The entire meeting continued with how the “region” would grow in the next 30 years. Kuhn then discussed the different “regional growth” concepts and went through several different scenarios. He said this is “how we’ll grow and what the range of alternatives will be.” He explained that these concepts came from the 500 people questioned in the Plan ET forums and then repeated almost word for word what is on the Plan ET website.
1. The first “Trend concept” is “Business as Usual” – the way East Tennessee been growing for the last 30 years. Kuhn states this is a “kind of grow out” in suburban areas pattern, following major roads, mostly suburban apartments and suburban single family home neighborhoods, and private vehicles are needed.
2. The “Spread Out” or “Grow Everywhere” pattern – closer to nature, more rural, embraces that growth can occur everywhere in the “region.” Growth occurs mainly in suburban and rural areas, with minimal growth in the region’s cities and towns. New development is car-friendly and grows primarily into undeveloped areas. New homes are largely developed in suburban neighborhoods and on rural lots that were once farmland and open space.
3. Corridors – growing along the regions highways, interstates, and major roads, in more of a linear form, keeping employment in the same areas as shopping, and outside of these areas is suburban housing, different types of subdivisions, and apartments.
4. Centers Concept – The centers concept focuses on growing the region’s cities and towns, as well as creating identity in today’s suburban places by redeveloping aging commercial areas with both businesses, homes and adjacent neighborhoods that are a short walk or bike ride away. Regional transit connects the centers and local transit is improved.
5. Cities and Towns Concept – Literally using the cities and towns in the regions where most of the growth would occur in a reinvestment and redevelopment of the cities and towns. Using some of the corridor concept to have more compact shopping, employment, neighborhood development, and other forms of housing which is smaller and within closer proximity to business/shopping/etc. Also bigger investments in local transit with high frequency transit moving throughout the most populace parts of the region. Creating an environment that is supportive of a variety of ways of getting around (car, bike, walk and transit).
All the above scenarios sound pretty innocuous, don’t they? The final plans however, intend the elimination of private vehicles and travel to be only by local transit, bike, or your feet, and you will live in high density housing. How do they accomplish these goals? Zoning, annexation (Babelay Farm in Knoxville), codes, taxes, etc. ad nauseum, are all accomplished through your local county commission, and city or town councils. The local planning commission people are unelected…they are appointed. In Knoxville, the City appoints seven members and the County appoints 8 members to the Metropolitan Planning Commission. We cannot get rid of them because they are not elected!
The propaganda campaign to keep us in the dark starts with the American Planning Association (APA). From page 34, of APA’s, “The Planning Commissioner’s Guide,” A number of communities across the country have integrated sustainability into their Comprehensive Plans. Examples include:
- Fort Collins, Colorado: Plan Fort Collins
- Boise, Idaho: Blueprint Boise
- Austin, Texas: Imagine Austin
- Keene, New Hampshire: 2010 Comprehensive Plan
- Marin County, California: Countywide Plan
- Albany, New York: 2030 Plan
- Burlington, Vermont: Legacy Plan
Here are some links to Smart Growth high density housing in Issaquah, WA; Pasadena, CA; High Density housing developed by the Puget Sound Cottage Housing Development Zoning Ordinance; Harrison, NJ; Del Mar, CA; Pasadena, CA; and dozens more.
If you want to stop the takeover of our property, culture and freedoms by the United Nations Agenda 21/Smart Growth/Sustainability, you need information. Here are important resistance sites and information, and here is a special report on Sustainable Development by the American Policy Center.
How many people are attending their local council and commission meetings? This is where it all happens people! Are you sitting at home thinking someone else will go and protect your rights? Are you thinking it won’t happen in your lifetime? It’s here! It’s happening NOW! If you want to retain your God given liberties, you’d better get off your fannies and get down to these meetings, and find out what’s going on in your community. Familiarize yourself!
Like the developer who had to give up 35% of his purchased land for “green space,” how much land are you willing to give up that already belongs to you? Guess what?! They’re going to incrementally take all your land, all 100% of it, and it’s happening right now! Are you ready to give up everything you’ve worked for all your lives? It will be too late when you are marched off to the FEMA camps. Either you put forth some effort now, just as our founders did then, or you’re just as guilty as the perpetrators.
KJLN
