I had a chance to review the materials that you provided on January 13, 2023. After reviewing such materials, my position remains unchanged. Loudon County, Tennessee Parcel Nos. 009 118.00 (owned by Belle West Pointe, LLC and referred to herein as the “BWP Tract”) and 009 111.00 (owned by WNW Properties, LLC and referred to herein as the “WNW Tract”) were not annexed by the City of Lenoir City in compliance with applicable Tennessee law or in compliance with the Interlocal Agreement (defined below). The City of Lenoir City’s purported annexation of those properties by Resolution Nos. 2020-05-11-2252BR (relating to the BWP Tract) and 2022- 11-14-2345-A (relating to the WNW Tract) were void from their inception and official action must be taken by the City of Lenoir City to invalidate such Resolutions and the purported annexations, zoning designations and plans of services provided for therein.

Tennessee law on the City of Lenoir City’s annexation authority is crystal clear. Tenn. Code Ann. § 6-58-111(a) provides that “[a] municipality possesses exclusive authority to annex territory located within its approved urban growth boundaries…” The enclosed Loudon County Growth Plan adopted on June 5, 2000 (the “Growth Plan”) clearly outlines in purple the approved urban growth boundaries for the City of Lenoir City. The Growth Plan applied at the time of the purported annexations of the BWP Tract in 2020 and the WNW Tract in 2022 and still applies today. A separate drawing enclosed herewith clearly shows that the BWP Tract, identified as “A” and outlined in red, and the WNW Tract, identified as “B” and outlined in blue, both clearly lie outside the urban growth boundaries. Therefore, it is clear that the City of Lenoir City had no exclusive authority to annex either the BWP Tract or the WNW Tract.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 6-58-111(c) provides that “[p]rior to a municipality annexing by ordinance territory outside its existing urban growth boundary … [and] within … a county’s planned growth area or rural area, it must first amend the growth plan by having its desired change to the urban growth boundary submitted to the coordinating committee and then receive a recommendation for… the amendment from the coordinating committee [and then] the coordinating committee then must submit the proposed amendment with its recommendation to all the legislative bodies for approval … as outlined in § 6-58-104 and the criteria for establishing an urban growth boundary as delineated in § 6-58-106 … [or] … [a]s an alternative … by referendum only and not by ordinance [and] [t]he municipality must follow the referendum process as provided for in §§ 6-51-104 and 6-51-105.” Neither the BWP Tract nor the WNW Tract were submitted to the coordinating committee, nor did either of the properties go through the referendum process for annexation.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 6-58-118 provides that “[a] municipality may expand its urban growth boundaries to annex a tract of land without reconvening the coordinating committee or approval from the county or any other municipality if: (1) the tract is contiguous to a tract of land that has the same owner and has already been annexed by the municipality; (2) the tract is being provided water and sewer services; and (3) the owner of the tract, by notarized petition, consents to being included within the urban growth boundaries of the municipality.” As the BWP Tract and WNW Tract are each outside of the urban growth boundaries, and absent the involvement of the coordinating committee or the utilization of the referendum process, I presume that the City of Lenoir City purported to annex the BWP Tract and the WNW Tract under this statute.

While the BWP Tract and the WNW Tract are both contiguous to land within the City of Lenoir City’s urban growth boundaries, even assuming that at least one of the contiguous properties had already been properly annexed by the City of Lenoir City at the time that the applications for annexation for each tract were submitted, neither of the applicants were the owners of those contiguous properties lying within the urban growth boundaries.

The BWP Tract

- The owners of the BWP Tract at the time of the purported annexation were the following tenants in common: Gary C. Ross, as Trustee of the J.C. Ross Family Trust dated April 15, 2004; Gary C. Ross, individually; Kathy Ross Wilson, individually; Robert S. Baumgardner Sr., as Devisee under the terms of the Last Will and Testament of Ernestine Ross Baumgardner; Michelle Harris Fritz, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Carole Ross Harris and Devisee under the Last Will and Testament of Carole Ross Harris; and Melanie Harris Robinson, as Devisee under the terms of the Last Will and Testament of Carole Ross Harris.

- One of the two tracts lying within the urban growth boundaries that is contiguous with the BWP Tract has been owned by Crisp & Crisp Inc. since 2011.

- The other of the two tracts lying within the urban growth boundaries that is contiguous with the BWP Tract has been owned by Hiwasse Land Co. since 1955.

The WNW Tract

- The owner of the WNW Tract at the time of the purported annexation was WNW Properties, LLC.

- One of the two tracts lying within the urban growth boundaries that is contiguous with the WNW Tract has been owned by Bowater Incorporated since 1999.

- The other of the two tracts lying within the urban growth boundaries that is contiguous with the WNW Tract has been owned by Red Heaven LLC since 2017.

It is clear that the applicants lacked standing to even submit applications to the City of Lenoir City for annexation of their respective properties, thereby rendering the applications themselves void, in their entirety, before even being considered by the City of Lenoir City for approval. Further, the documents that you provided are devoid of a notarized petition for either the BWP Tract or the WNW Tract. In fact, the petition for the BWP Tract was submitted only in the name of the J.C. Ross Family Trust, only one of the tenants in common, and wasn’t even signed. Additionally, the minutes from the September 13, 2022 Lenoir City Regional Planning Commission meeting shows that only three (3) of the seven (7) Commissioners voted in favor of the purported annexation of the WNW Tract. It also must be noted that Loudon County Resolution No. 040405-A and the City of Lenoir City Resolution No. 2005-4-11-1678A (the “Interlocal Agreement”) provided that “[a]ny property parcels requesting annexation by Lenoir City which are located outside of the Urban and Planned Growth Boundaries … shall be written request to be approved first by the Loudon County Commission, and then secondarily approved by Lenoir City Council in order to be annexed…”[sic.] The Loudon County Commission neither received any request relating to the annexation of the BWP Tract or the WNW Tract nor did the Loudon County Commission ever approve of such annexation by the City of Lenoir City.

Notwithstanding the blatant disregard for the applicable statutory framework noted above, the preapproval rights of Loudon County as provided in the Interlocal Agreement, the fatal defects in the applications for each of the tracts and, with respect to the WNW Tract, failure to achieve a majority vote of approval, the City of Lenoir City proceeded with passage of the aforementioned Resolutions, in which the BWP Tract and the WNW Tract were purportedly annexed, assigned purported zoning designations in accordance with the City of Lenoir City Zoning Ordinance (R-3 High Density Residential for the BWP Tract and R-2 Medium Density Residential for the WNW Tract) and plans of services for each of the tracts were purportedly approved. The Resolution approving the purported annexation of the BWP Tract even went so far as to state that the BWP Tract was located within the urban growth boundaries, which is clearly false.

The Loudon County Commission met on January 17, 2023 to discuss the purported annexation of the BWP Tract and the WNW Tract, during which I was instructed to demand that the City of Lenoir City take official action invalidating the Resolutions containing the purported annexations of the BWP Tract and the WNW Tract, zoning designations and plans of services for each of the tracts. This letter shall serve as such demand. The Loudon County Commission will meet again on February 6, 2023, at which time a vote will be held on approval of the filing of a lawsuit against the City of Lenoir City seeking declaratory relief invalidating the purported annexations, zoning designations and plan of services relating to the BWP Tract and the WNW Tract.

I understand that the City Council for the City of Lenoir City is to meet on January 23, 2023. It is my sincere hope, and that of many of the Loudon County Commissioners, that action will be taken at this meeting to invalidate the Resolutions which contained the purported annexations, zoning designations and plans of services at issue. Absent such action being taken, the limited resources of Loudon County and the City of Lenoir City will undoubtedly be expended on what I believe to be unnecessary litigation relating to blatant violation of Tennessee law and breach of the Interlocal Agreement. While the Loudon County Commission would prefer to not utilize its resources on such litigation, several of the Commissioners have made it clear that they will not tolerate illegal annexations, now or in the future. Those Commissioners take their responsibility to Loudon County residents seriously and believe that they owe them a duty to not sit idly by and allow illegal urban sprawl of this nature.

In response to your prior statement that the situation at hand is “political,” I will once again state my disagreement with characterization of the situation as such. To the contrary, it is an issue that is purely legal in nature. That said, I have advised the Loudon County Commissioners that they are welcome to partake in any City Council meetings in which the purported annexations at issue are discussed, but I have also informed them, and I will pass along to you, that any discussions had, agreements reached or actions taken at such a meeting other than to invalidate the Resolutions and purported annexations, zoning designations and plans of services provided for therein will have zero bearing on the legal status of the situation. The purported annexations, zoning designations and plans of services for the BWP Tract and WNW Tract will remain illegal, void and must be invalidated, either by official action of the City of Lenoir City or by court order.

I will be available prior to the January 23rd meeting if you wish to discuss this matter further.