The board voted to forward their recommendation for annexation to the city council. Ultimately, it will be the council's final decision to or not to annex.

The property owner, last name Fields, is asking for the annexation to be able to have greater density than would be allowed under county regulations.

The process will take a couple of months to process and there will be public hearings when the public will have an opportunity to voice their concerns with the annexation.

This is a bad deal for everyone. The land owner will see an immediate 75% increase in his property tax plus he will have to pay the Lenoir City Rain Tax and get no services. There's no way the Lenoir City can provide city services two and a half miles out of the city. High density development in this area will be a disaster to traffic and other infrastructures. But worse of all, we county residents will be stuck with this little island of Lenoir City out here in the middle of our county way of life, and we don't want it.

I'll keep you posted as the process develops.