Westmoreland Hills

06/28/2021

COME JOIN YOUR NEIGHBORS OF
​​​WESTMORELAND HILLS
​​FOR A HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION
​​ GET-TOGETHER AND MEETING



When: Monday, June 28th at 7:00 pm for some socializing with a short meeting to follow

Where: Gordon and Cynthia Smith’s
​ 903 Westmoreland Boulevard
We will be gathering under a tent in the Smith’s side yard


Please feel free to bring your own chairs/BYOB- Snacks will be provided- everyone welcome!


This is a great opportunity to meet new and old neighbors!!

* If you are driving please make sure you park only on one side of the road

10/14/2019

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a315ac4f86ffc223e1003fdd3/images/870744a7-dd3a-4b25-9bc3-e87fa04a187b.png

09/04/2019

Westmoreland Hills Homeowner's Association,

You may already be familiar with Keep Knoxville Beautiful, but as the new outreach coordinator I wanted to touch base and say hello!

Through a variety of education initiatives, various events, and a whole slew of volunteer engagement, we are able to work on keeping Knoxville clean, green, and beautiful. Our primary goals are focused on eradicating litter, reducing waste, and maintaining and encouraging beautification projects.

Because community involvement is such a big driving force in what we are able to achieve, it is so important to us that various neighborhood groups and associations are aware that we exist and are comfortable using us as a resource for community involvement and education. If your neighborhood is interested, we are always more than happy to facilitate a group cleanup, as well as prepare presentations for your group that discuss our work and community impact.

I have attached the website here and the list of upcoming events here so that you have access to all of our information.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, want to go through some details of our work/programming, or if you're interested in having us come sit down with your group to chat.

I look forward to hearing from you!

All the best,
Sierra Motiee-Moore

05/06/2019

COMMUNITY FORUM ALERT ----- MAY 5, 2019
URGENT UPDATE ON RECODE KNOXVILLE----ACTION REQUESTED

Community Forum is writing to request your help. Please contact all City Council members to ask that they POSTPONE their consideration/vote on Recode Draft 5 at a Special Meeting on May 14, 2019, at 3 PM. Recode re-writes the entire Knoxville Zoning Ordinance and affects the use of every piece of property in Knoxville. Draft 5 is 425 pages long, and was only made available to the public online on May 1, 2019. There is not sufficient time to Review Draft 5 and offer comments on many new changes in Draft 5 before May 14, 2019.

BACKGROUND:

Community Forum, founded in 1987, is an organization with members from many neighborhoods in the City of Knoxville and Knox County. The purpose of Community Forum is to promote community improvement via neighborhood/community associations, and to encourage full citizen participation in community planning and governmental processes. We advocate for protecting the integrity and character of our neighborhoods.

Community Forum previously sent an Alert to the City’s neighborhood associations about Recode on July 10, 2018. That Alert provided some introductory information about Recode and specifically about Draft 1, which was released on March 21, 2018. The Alert identified seven specific issues, including accessory dwelling units, planned developments, hillside and ridgetop protection. These issues were addressed as part of Community Forum’s comprehensive Response to Draft 1. Community Forum submitted similar responses for the next 3 drafts to City Council and Recode Knoxville.

RECODE UPDATE:

On April 23, 2019, a Special Meeting of City Council was called by Mayor Rogero for Tuesday, May 14, 2019, at 3 PM, to consider and vote on Recode on first reading.

On May 1, 2019, Draft 5, along with the latest version of the Maps, were released on line to the public and City Council members at Recodeknoxville.com. Some people reported they could not access it on line for a few days due to technical problems with the site. A few people now have hard copies of Draft 5.

PURPOSE OF THIS ALERT:

On April 29, 2019, Community Forum wrote a letter to City Council members requesting that at the Special Meeting on May 14, 2019, City Council should immediately vote to POSTPONE consideration of Recode for a minimum of 30 days after the hard copy of Draft 5 was available to the public, and to request a Workshop to discuss Draft 5. SEE ATTACHED LETTER which details the reasons for this request to Postpone.

Community Forum urgently requests that your organization and your members join Community Forum’s effort and immediately contact all 9 City Council members to urge them to vote on May 14, 2019, to postpone consideration of Recode. This is necessary in order to allow adequate time for the public and City Council to review all the changes made to December’s Draft 4, which are now included in Draft 5, along with many totally new items in Draft 5. We urge attendance at the Special Meeting on May 14, 2019. If you live in Councilman Andrew Roberto’s West Knoxville, second district, you are invited to attend his Town Hall meeting to discuss Recode, on Thursday, May 9, 2019 at 6 PM at Holly’s Gourmet Market, 5107 Kingston Pike.

The public must have reasonable time to analyze Draft 5, and offer comments to City Council members. Few people even know about the Special Meeting on May 14 or what is in Draft 5. Likewise, City Council members should not be rushed into voting until they have sufficient time to meet with their constituents and to draft and distribute amendments to Draft 5.

Before approving the Recode Zoning Ordinance, which controls all zoning matters and future development in the City of Knoxville, the public and City Council must understand exactly what the rationale is for any significant changes from our existing Zoning Ordinance. It must be clear what the impact would be on all 73,000 parcels of land in the City of Knoxville, as well as on adjacent properties and entire neighborhoods. There has been too little discussion to date on these issues, and almost no explanation for why drastic changes are being made throughout Recode.

Community Forum is working hard to put together a preliminary Response to Draft 5. In just the few days we have had access to Draft 5, we have already identified many important additions that have appeared out of the blue, literally in blue ink, for the first time. Where did they come from? Who decided to add these things? Don’t they need to be discussed?

This rushed process is not transparent at all, and is legislating at its worst. It is not fair to try to rush this vote before people even know what has been changed or given reasonable time to submit a response by the deadline of May 10, in order for it to be considered by City Council on May 14. Those new additions and revisions in Draft 5 have not yet been discussed or debated by City Council or the public at any public meeting. It is absurd and outrageous to expect anybody to understand all of these new changes in two weeks’ time, not to mention for our legislative body, the City Council, to be expected to make an informed decision on how to vote on this 425 page document or amendments to it. This document requires legal vetting by City Council’s counsel to be sure it is enforceable and does not conflict with state or federal laws.

Please do not be fooled by erroneous statements that claim the City can always fix mistakes in Recode at a later date without negative consequences. Due to the State of Tennessee’s law on grandfathering, development applications, once approved under the Recode Ordinance, cannot be reversed. The City just can’t force the tearing down of a new building, or an accessory dwelling unit, or stop a new subdivision under construction, just because the Ordinance is amended later to fix a problem in it. They are grandfathered in.

Please do not be fooled by statements that we have already spent two years on Recode, so it is time to vote on it. Draft 1 was only published 13 months ago on March 21, 2018. Most people had no idea what was in it for many more months. Subsequent drafts, each with significant revisions, came out in July, October, and December 2018. City Council held three lengthy workshops on February 7, February 20, and April 4, 2019, several weeks before Draft 5 even came out. These were the only times City Council could publicly discuss specific Recode issues as a group due to the Sunshine Law. Only occasionally in these workshops was there an obvious consensus among City Council members on a subject, and not all Council members were present for portions of the workshops.

Recode, with continuous major revisions, has been a moving target for the past year. Some sections have been changed in numerous drafts in small and large ways. Some sections have had total replacements. Most important for today’s situation is that new changes in Draft 5 were seen by nobody until May 1, 2019. It makes no sense to rush this through in two weeks’ time when there is no justification or necessity for doing so on this timetable. We already have a Zoning Ordinance that can be used a little longer.

We need City Council to take whatever time it takes for them to get this right. They, not Mayor Rogero, should control their timetable and process. Please spread the word about this very important issue with others. We need you to share your concerns with City Council members. It takes 5 votes to get a Postponement. City Council members need to hear from their constituents immediately. Your message can be very short and direct to respectfully request a postponement on May 14, 2019.

If you have any questions about Recode, you can contact Community Forum at [email protected]. Please contact your City Council members with your questions and concerns about this process/timetable or the substantive content in Recode. Please attend the special meeting on May 14, 2019, at 3 PM.

03/22/2019

The City of Knoxville Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program (NTSP) has scheduled a kick-off meeting to discuss possible issues with vehicular traffic in our neighborhood and potential traffic calming devices. This meeting will be held at 7pm on Tuesday, April 30, 2019, at the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, located along Nubbin Ridge Road close to Westland. The meeting will feature City officials, including the Assistant Neighborhoods Coordinator and two city engineers. They will discuss the City’s “traffic calming” process and answer questions.

This is the first step prior to NTSP/Engineers conducting a study of the traffic patterns and speeds on neighborhood streets (which will be discussed at the meeting, with traffic studies conducted in the future).

Specific streets include, but are not limited to:
Westmoreland Blvd.: Btw Westland Dr. & Nubbin Ridge Rd.
Whitower Dr.: Btw S. Northshore Dr. & Nubbin Ridge Rd.
Nubbin Ridge Rd.: Btw Westmoreland Blvd. & Shandyland Dr.
Nubbin Ridge Rd: Btw Shandyland Dr. & where it turns to Westland

Should you want to learn more of the City’s process, please go to the following website:

03/08/2019

https://www.knoxtntoday.com/scenic-knoxville-urges-strong-tree-standards-for-recode/

(Note: This article has been updated at the request of Joyce Feld) Last spring Scenic Knoxville put together a landscaping coalition that included representatives from Trees Knoxville, the City Tree Board, ...

03/08/2019

The City of Knoxville’s annual Neighborhood Conference is fast approaching. In order to keep this event free and open to all Knoxville residents, the Office of Neighborhoods has created a “Neighborhood Challenge;” a fundraiser to support the Neighborhood Conference. The challenge will take place on Wednesday, March 13th from 5-10pm. One brewery from each of the 5 areas of Knoxville will be participating, with $1.00 of every pint sale going toward the Neighborhood Conference.

The breweries that will be participating are as follows:
East Knoxville – Last Days of Autumn
West Knoxville – Abridged Beer Co.
North Knoxville – Hexagon Brewery Co.
South Knoxville – Printshop Beer Co.
Downtown – Pretentious Beer Co.

The area that raises the most money will be recognized at the Neighborhood Conference. I have included the flyer for this event and can provide some copies if necessary. We also have created an event for each location on our page. The Office of Neighborhoods would greatly appreciate you forwarding this information on to your residents. It will be a great way to hang out with your neighbors and meet new ones all while supporting the Neighborhood Conference. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

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12/05/2018

There is a white male boxer hanging out in the cul de sac of Cherry Tree who is resisting all attempts at rescue. If you are the owner or know them, please let them know he's out and about.

10/13/2016

In today's paper and on TV it was announced that mosquitoes contaminated with West Nile Virus have been found in the Rocky Hill area. According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, Knox Country Health Department will be spraying between 9 p.m. and midnight tonight. Residents should keep their pets and children inside when this is going on. The streets listed do not include any in Westmoreland Hills -- however -- basically all of the streets on the west side of Morrell are included and will be getting sprayed. Follow-up spraying is scheduled for Thursday, October 27th, weather permitting.

10/13/2016

The last scheduled brush pick-up for WMH is next Wednesday, October 19th. It will start up again in February 2017. From November through January, most of the city trucks are changed over to pick up leaves. Your leaves need to be raked to the edge of your lot and will be vacuumed up. Also, do NOT put branches or brush on top of the leaves or the whole pile will be left. The workmen do not remove branches, etc. to get at the leaves. We used to be told that once a month the trucks would come through and pick-up the leaves, but there is generally no schedule for when they might do that. Occasionally throughout those three months, a brush truck might come through -- but again, there is no schedule. Therefore, it's best if you can take care of any trimming needed on your property before the 19th and get the brush out for pick-up by that date. Three month old brush sitting near the edge of the streets is not particularly attractive.

01/20/2016

PLEASE take a couple of minutes to fill out this broadband survey. Broadband is as critical as electricity and many of us who live in rural areas don't have equal access to this vital resource. This survey is a great first step in figuring out how to get broadband to all.

Thanks!
http://www.tn.gov/ecd/section/broadband-survey

The future of Tennessee’s economic success is directly tied to our broadband Internet access. Having broadband access leads to an increase in educational and entrepreneurial opportunities, which therefore helps our state build a better workforce and accelerate job creation. To ensure that every comm…