For three years now, Lenoir City mayor, Tony Aikens and council, have been on a slash and burn campaign, within the city, to bring in as much residential development as they can possibly cram in. Absolutely no consideration has been given to the impact that thousands of new residential development will have of every aspect of the city and the county. They either can't do simple math or they just don't care what they're doing to the city and it's residents. The only explanation Aikens ever gives is, if a city's not growing, it's dying. What an ignorant statement. Councilman Eddie Simpson said, the reason he's OK with approving all the new development is because half of them will probably never happen. That's his planning strategy.

In less than three years, Aikens and his dutiful council have approved nearly 5,000 new residential units through their zoning policies, 2,839 single family houses and 2,102 managed apartments and rentals. Yet, they apparently see nothing wrong and have taken no actions to address the impact of all the development. That's not exactly true, they did raise the property tax by 17% and now they want to raise the sales tax.

Long before the mayor/council went on the building spree, Lenoir City already had more than 800 managed apartments and rentals, several income based.

So, the million dollar question, WHY? WHY, is the mayor and council obsessed with overwhelming the city? WHY? WHY, are the mayor and council bent on destroying the city? At least four of the council members will do whatever Tony Aikens tells them to do. So the better question might be, why would mayor Tony Aikens want to bring such overwhelming development to the city. Can anybody think of any reason?

There's not a need in Lenoir City for 5,000 new residences, so most of the people that will fill these new residences will be coming from somewhere else and bring the associated costs.   

In the case of Lenoir City, if you build it, they will come, certainly isn't a Field of Dreams, but Acres of Nightmares brought to you by mayor Tony Aikens and council.