Future Of Property Parcel Dominates H'ville Meeting

September 29, 2005

HUNTSVILLE — Discussion related to the future of a piece of undeveloped property located here dominated Monday’s regular session of the town’s board of mayor and aldermen.

The property, referred to as the “Cane Creek property,” and of which the town owns a one-seventh interest, has been a source of on-going discussion between the town and Jim and Angela Morrow, who own the remaining six-sevenths of the property and hope to develop it.

Angela Morrow, whose husband is currently serving in Iraq as a member of the 278th Regimental Combat Team of the Tennessee Army National Guard, presented the board Monday with a proposal to purchase the property, offering to pay the town $20,000 for the property.

The board ultimately acted without accepting or declining the proposal, approving a motion by Alderman Wes Riggins to defer legal action on the property until Sgt. Morrow has returned to the U.S. in the coming weeks, at which point interested parties will gather for a workshop to try to “hash out” the property’s future.

Morrow had told the board that she and her husband, had purchased an additional four-sevenths of the 108-acre tract of property, which she said has been in her family for generations, in addition to the two-sevenths the couple previously owned. The remaining one-seventh was given to the town by her cousin on the advice of a tax attorney, she said, and the town had nothing invested in the property.

“The property was given to the town for tax purposes, and the town has nothing invested in it other than some contact with an attorney,” she said. She added that the town had “repeatedly desired that the property be developed,” and added that the property would “already be developed if not for the situation between us.”

Mayor George Potter has maintained throughout that the proper way to dispose of the property is by public auction. But Morrow has disagreed, and presented the board Monday with a written opinion by an attorney for the University of Tennessee’s MTAS, which stated that the town could dispose of the property “through any commercially reasonable methods.”

Morrow said that a decision to auction the property would “force us to pay an auctioneer’s fee on our own property.”

She added that “there is no guarantee that another owner would develop the property in a manner that would benefit the town or Scott County residents; there is no guarantee that they would develop it at all.”

In her offer, Morrow promised to pay the town $20,000 for its share of the property, which she said has been valued at $10,000, in four payments that would begin in January 2006. She added that easements for a walking trail, built by the town on a portion of the property using a state grant, would be conveyed back to the town, and that the surrounding property would be developed in a timely manner.

After Morrow presented her offer, Riggins suggested that the board “defer any court action on this until Jim Morrow can come back from Iraq and participate, and we can continue to negotiate until a favorable deal is worked out for all parties.”

Alderman Robert Smith provided a second for the motion, followed by an all-aye votes.

Using her strongest wording yet in a public forum in the on-going debate over the property, Morrow told the board prior to Riggins’ motion that she feels “betrayed,” pointing out that she and her husband have lived in the town for many years and have served in multiple capacities, from her husband’s tenure as the town’s mayor and a member of the fire department to her tenure as a town alderman.

“This has just flabbergasted us both,” she told the board. “It is a difficult thing to give a good bit of yourself to your community and then to feel almost betrayed.

“It hurts me deeply to be rewarded with resistence and an attitude of no confidence and disregard for the service we have given to the town,” she added. “There are some that have repeatedly expressed that we don’t have the financial means or experience to develop the property. This is both an insult and, frankly, irrelevant to the problem.”

Morrow added that the board shouldn’t stop her from developing property that has been in her family for decades.

In other business Monday, the board:

• Passed the first reading of Ordinance 05-09-01, which would provide a tax break for persons paying their town taxes on time. The ordinance would provide a two percent discount for persons paying their taxes in full on or before 30 days following the first Monday of October each year, and a one percent discount to persons paying their taxes in full on or before 60 days but after 30 days following the first Monday of October. The reading passed by an all-aye vote;

• Passed the first reading of an ordinance amending town code regarding off-premises municipal signs. The language of the revision would require that signs be no more than six square feet and be limited to four per business. The reading passed by a 4-0 vote with Riggins abstaining; and,

• By an all-aye vote, passed a resolution authorizing Mayor Potter and the board to take steps necessary to redeem sales tax and revenue deemed by the town to be lost to the county as a result of the state’s “Tiny Town Law.” The law, passed in 1998, is the source of pending legal action between the town and Scott County and the State Department of Revenue.

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