1) This is possibly the most scenic view of a rural holler with a wide-bottom end that one can still glimpse from Chapman Highway across Highland South Cemetery.
Except for some homes along the fringes and a small, reasonably compact industrial area, this view is relatively little disturbed and has remained so since the nineteen-fifties!
2) Very few soils in this part of Knox County are suitable for commercial crop production.
A substantial portion of the area under consideration for rezoning, i.e. the more level and moderately sloped extent, is the best area within miles for future community gardens or community-supported agriculture (CSA) endeavors.
Such initiatives have been trending nation-wide. They produce more nutrition and revenue per acre than grazing or the more common field crops. They increase cummunity resilience by providing residents with fresh, high-quality, healthy local food. That also reduces its carbon footprint and it stregthens the regional economy because we don’t have to pay far away producers and for long-distance transportation.
3) We must not waste our scarce scenic and natural resources.
Particularly not, when plenty unfilled space -- already zoned residential -- remains in the surrounding area!
