Sharon Hayes and Tom Orle trekked along winding dirt trails along the branches of Sugar Creek on a cold December day through rolling hills of old growing trees.
Hayes, a commissioner of Haywood County, said the forested gully stands out as a respected feature in the typical flat plains of West Tennessee.
Rockin’Roll Hatchie Trails It lies about 20 miles northeast Blueoval CityA large electric vehicle manufacturing campus that produces batteries and new all-electric pickup trucks from Ford Motor Company.
Hayes and Aura, directors of Main Street Brownsville Haywood County, will save as many trails as possible as the city and county prepare them to level out some of their land and make them more attractive to future industries. It claims that.
Purchased by Haywood County and Brownsville 160 acres of land A few years ago, they intended to transform from farmers into a speculative industrial park near Highway 70 to extract more jobs to the rural community.
Now, the Brownsville Haywood Economic Development Corporation has granted the Tennessee Valley Bureau at a local $300,000 game to clear a 13-acre mature tree canopy and level 500,000 square feet of concrete slab land. I’ve secured it.
The trail is good. The park is amazing. Although purchased by taxpayers, it was properly zoned as an industrial park rather than a constructionable area.
– Aaron Stewart, Brownsville Haywood Economic Development Corporation
The conversion surprises about a third of the trail, eliminating the dirt roads that currently lead to a small parking lot at the trailhead, and raises concerns about the future accessibility of the remaining two-thirds of the trail.
According to Aaron Stewart, executive director of Brownsville Haywood EDC, the small parking lot will remain intact, with the new entrance road being built further south and connected to it, but the exact location is unknown. The development will also respect the conservation easement that requires buildings to be retracted from Sugar Creek, which flows into the Hatchee River.
Stewart and the Industrial Development Board hope that the portion of the trail to be destroyed will be rebuilt elsewhere, but are uninterested in how local governments can achieve it. The board approved $50,000 to cover the cost of relocating the trail.
“The trails are good, the park is great,” Stewart said. “It was purchased by taxpayers but was properly zoned as an industrial park rather than a constructionable area.”
But Hayes and ORR question how feasible it is to travel the trail. Orr pointed out that the land is being sold for up to $50,000 per acre for Blue Low. The cost of replacing 10 acres is substantial, he said.
ORR is willing to compromise as long as the public has access to the rest of the trail.
“It’s good to be able to save everything, but it’s hard to say, that means if they can maintain their designs and attract business, they’ll save trails and make them attractive industries. I don’t know because it’s difficult to save. We need to compromise,” he said.
Hayes would rather see cities and counties preserve them all.
“You can’t move a big tree,” Hayes said.
The state emphasizes the proximity of the land to Bruval City
The land in question, where the trail is located, was certified by the state as the 2024 industry “shovel response.” Select the Tennessee Certified Site Program. it is”I-40 Advantage Industrial Parkwas named “because it is proximity to the interstate.”
The site must meet criteria aimed at making it attractive to potential private investments in order to qualify for the program and the grants it offers.
Another 122-acre plot of land near the industrial park trail was certified through one of the first rounds of the 2013 state program. Korean companies Enchem America Inc. It announced that it would build a new electrolyte manufacturing facility on the package in 2023, bringing 190 jobs and a capital investment of $152.5 million. Electrolytes – solutions that allow ions to move within the battery – are used in batteries in electric vehicles.
Tom O’s points to a map of the Rockin’ Roll Hatchee Trail in Brownsville, Tennessee. He is depicted on a potential location on the road at the new entrance to the trail that remains after being demolished for industrial pads to attract future tenants. (Photo: Cassandra Stephenson)
Since 2018, the state has dedicated nearly $4 million in site development grants to the entire industrial park, according to Kirby Lewis Gill, director of site development at the Department of Economic Development. .
The vacant 160 acre plot, home to the trail, has the right utility infrastructure and capacity for electricity, water and wastewater, Lewis Gill said. It is priced at $35,000 per acre “negotiable.”
“If the company is not on the scene at Blueoval City, but they’re going to supply it, they want to be as close as possible, so those are good indicators for EV companies going there,” Lewis-Gill said. The site is “set to attract local people to what brings great jobs and great wages to their tormented communities.”
Blueoval City is expected to bring more than 176,000 people to West Tennessee over the next 25 years, but the population of Haywood County, where the factory is located, is yet to grow. Haywood County from 2022 to 2024 We lost about 1.3% of the population.
By 2035, 7,446 people need to be attracted to meet the 42.4% growth forecast from the Tennessee Department of Economic Community Development.
Lewis Gill said the trail is considered to be any asset that companies out there may find.
“We’ll hope that these trails will continue to be available to the public,” he said.
Trails advertised as county amenities
Rockin’Roll Hatchie Trails is listed as an amenity Haywood County Website – “A perfect place to spend the afternoon.”
The trails were built by local mountain biker Mark Yoder, and each trail nods to the prominent parts of the area as it shaped Tennessee’s music culture.
The trees are dotted with bird shops built and installed by Boy Scouts, which have also been built as part of the Eagle Scouts project over the years, as well as trail signs, tree identification placards and bridges. Trail marketing was supported by a $4,500 grant Recently in 2023 from the Tennessee Tourism Bureau.
In the untouched trail section, it is a bridge funded by Ford Stretch, located in the Sugar Creek branch, made with two electronic poles provided by a local utility.
“This stream runs all the way from downtown to Hatchee, and the ultimate goal is to connect the downtown to the Hatchee River,” Hayes said. “It’s just a great feature and appeal to our county.”
Stewart said the intention would never be “just wipe out everything.” Counties and cities choose to adopt the rest of the trails into the park system, or use IDB’s $50,000 set-aside as local games if local leaders want to seek state grants. can.
Haywood County Mayor David Livingston and Brownsville Mayor William Rawls did not respond to requests for comment.
Hayes and Orr also fear that the public will barely know how the industrial park plans will affect the trails. There will be no public hearings on this issue. Stewart said he spoke to the county commission and that the IDB meeting was open to the public, but the TVA grant (which remains during ongoing federal review) does not require public opinion and the land was already zoned for industrial use.
Apart from writing a $50,000 check for the trail relocation, the rest is left to local governments, as far as Stewart is concerned. IDB “had always been intentional” for appropriate funding that would help offset the effectiveness of destroying about 32% of the trail. The impact he said was “minimal.”
“It hinders the development of the land. It can cause safety issues for pedestrians,” Stewart said. “A good, safe, more permanent place so that others can use these trails and perhaps even make it part of the official park system if the county and the city feel it’s appropriate. Let’s find it.”
Get the morning heading.
