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Special meeting called next Thursday
Board will discuss Farm at Willow Creek
Heather Mays - Thu, Jul, 29, 2010
Farragut’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen is calling a special meeting for 6 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 5, to discuss The Farm at Willow Creek.
The meeting is open to the public.
Town Attorney Tom Hale has intimated at past Board meetings a developer is interested in purchasing the subdivision, located off Evans Road.
The Farm at Willow Creek, developed by Chip Leonard, has had a leaking storm water drainage system for more than four years. The leak has caused erosion and the collapse of a road in the subdivision and a sidewalk off Evans Road.
In May of this year, the Town closed Evans Road near the subdivision “indefinitely due to construction,” according to a press release issued at the time. The road opened up about a month later.
Other roads in the subdivision still are closed due to the possibility of more cave-ins.
The Town has been in litigation with Leonard and the subdivision’s contractors and designers for more than two years.
Leonard has blamed Blount Excavating for the faulty drainage system; Blount, in turn, sued Leonard for the cost of repairing the road collapse in the subdivision in 2006. Now, Blount Excavating, Leonard, and the designer of the system, Jordan, James and Goulding, are involved in a lawsuit over who should pay to fix the system permanently.
In 2008, the Town joined the suit to “facilitate [and] put pressure on all the parties” to come to an agreement over who is responsible, Hale said at the time.
“There’s no question there are leaks. What’s not clear is what’s responsible,” he said.
Earlier this year, Leonard declared bankruptcy.
The Town requires all subdivision developers to submit a letter of credit in case something goes wrong in a subdivision.
Leonard’s letter of credit with the Town is about $150,000.
But Town Engineer Darryl Smith has estimated it could cost much more than that to fix the drainage system in The Farm at Willow Creek, especially since no one really knows what is causing the problems.
Earlier this year, Smith estimated the cost to be upwards of $700,000.
In addition, the roads in The Farm at Willow Creek are not yet considered public roads, and as such, are not Farragut’s responsibility to fix.
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