This evening from 6-8 pm at the Farragut Community Center Assembly Hall, a couple representatives of Hy-Vee were on hand to present a preliminary concept for a store, minimal additional retail and residential.
Hy-Vee is an employee owned chain of supermarkets based in the Midwestern area of the United States. According to their website, the chain have been planning to expand into Tennessee and Kentucky. They had identified Spring Hill, TN (in the south central area of the state) and Knoxville (in the eastern area of the state). They have a pending contract on the property of former Farragut Mayor Eddie Ford property on Kingston Pike in the Town of Farragut (an adjoining suburb of Knoxville, inside the county of Knox).
Around 75-100 people attended the open house (when I actually counted heads in the room there were 68) However, some had left and others arrived. Hy-Vee wanted to let the event be a mix and mingle, give feedback the the representatives or fill out a feedback form. That did happen, however many came in and sat down and thus ensued about a 35 minute session of John Brehm, Hy-Vee’s Director of Site Planning attempting to explain the concept to the larger group.
The majority of those in attendance appeared to be opposed for a couple of reasons. One they feel like there are enough grocery stores in the town and also because they are not in favor to more homes, same or greater density without proper infrastructure (which is traffic, that is a Town of Farragut and TN Department of Transportation issue NOT a Hy-Vee issue, my opinion)
Here is the 28 minute video that I captured, the audio will surely not be good as no amplification was available because the meeting was not planned to be conducted in this manner. Here is a short video of a couple ladies discussing the traffic challenges, that are Farragut.
