The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) follows a strict, federally compliant right-of-way (ROW) acquisition process to secure land for infrastructure projects. For the Pellissippi Parkway Extension (State Route 162), which will connect State Route 33 to US 321, TDOT’s standard acquisition sequence dictates how property is appraised and purchased. Both the TDOT and Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) plans currently call for the right of way phase of the project to begin in Fiscal Year 2026 with construction start estimated to begin in Fiscal Year 2036.
Is a legal challenge about to happen?
One citizen has demanded that Blount County immediately cancel a $5 million contract for the Pellissippi Parkway Extension. They claim that Commissioner Scott King unfairly voted to approve the project during the July 9th Commission Workshop meeting without telling anyone that he recently acquired title to land rights in its path. Because the government will have to buy a portion of that land for the new road, King stands to personally profit from his own vote. The citizen points out that King’s vote was the exact deciding vote needed to move the project forward, making the whole approval process unfair and invalid. By Commission rules 11 yes votes are required to pass. The Resolution received 11 votes including King’s. They asked the County Mayor and Commission Chairperson to stop the payment and cancel the contract by July 31st.
The county’s Citizens Against the Pellissippi Parkway Extension (CAPPE), led by Dr. Jay Clark, raised concerns about generational farms and family homes being lost to the right-of-way as well as the sprawl the extension could encourage in that part of the county. CAPPE leadership, including Vice President Elan Young, said the group intends to keep opposing the project as it moves through the ROW phase.
The recent criticism is that LOCAL TAX MONEY should not be used to take farms and family land for right of way. The contract between the Cities and County and State is one sided in favor of the State. It offers no guarantees the money will be used for the right of way acquisitions or even that highway will ever be built.
What the Extension Involves
The project would build roughly 4.4 to 4.7 miles of new four-lane highway, extending Pellissippi Parkway from its current terminus at SR 33 (Old Knoxville Highway at the IDB’s Pellissippi Place Technology Park) to East Lamar Alexander Parkway (US 321/SR 73) near the site of the new Maryville Walmart under construction, with an additional interchange planned at Sevierville Road (US 411) between Nina Delozier Road and Davis Ford Road. TDOT selected a preferred route alternative back in 2012, and the Federal Highway Administration signed off on the project’s environmental review in 2017. Supporters have pitched the extension for more than two decades as a fix for congestion on Alcoa Highway and a way to improve connectivity between Alcoa and Maryville; opponents have fought it for almost as long citing that TDOT’s own traffic studies show no traffic improvement.
TDOT’s Sequential ROW Acquisition Process
- Notice of Proposed Acquisition & Title Work: Once final design plans are released, TDOT sends a Notice of Proposed Acquisition to affected property owners. The state conducts title searches to determine exact ownership, existing easements, and mortgage liens, while land inspectors perform environmental and zoning research.
- Independent Appraisal: Appraisers establish the Fair Market Value of the land, calculating per-acre value, improvements (like fences or structures), and potential damages to the remaining property. By law, this valuation relies on recent bona fide land sales in the area to establish a base price.
- Appraisal Review & Written Offer: After an internal review of the appraisal, TDOT presents a formal written offer to the landowner. TDOT generally prioritizes tracts that require the relocation of an owner or tenant before moving on to remaining parcels.
- Negotiation and Agreement (or Eminent Domain): If the owner agrees to the compensation, an agreement is signed and a deed or easement document is prepared, with payment typically issued within 45 to 60 days. If a negotiated agreement can’t be reached, TDOT may invoke eminent domain, moving the compensation dispute to the courts.
Unrelated, there was a Court Case concerning the Pine Lakes Golf Course and TDOT. TDOT’s initial offer for the land was $4.1 million. The final $7 million payment was ordered by Judge Duggan in 2019 following a condemnation action filed in Blount County Circuit Court (Case No. E-27763). The land was part of the RT 129 Alcoa Highway road improvements and the building of the AMAZON TYS1 distribution center.
Current Status: A Contentious Local Funding Fight
While TDOT is not scheduled to begin physical construction until 2036, the right-of-way acquisition phase is being accelerated — and the local funding fight over that acceleration has played out publicly over the past several months.
TDOT asked the local governments along the corridor to help speed up land acquisition, according to Jeff Muir, communications director for the Blount Partnership, the regional economic development group. That request produced a cooperative funding package spread across several local entities:
- City of Alcoa: $2,070,000 total, paid at $517,500 annually
- City of Maryville: $3,900,000 total, paid at $975,000 annually
- Blount County: $5,000,000 total, paid at $1,250,000 annually.
- Blount County Industrial Development Board: roughly $6,029,700 in donated land counted as right-of-way. Part of the same land that taxpayers funded in a $20 million purchase for the Pellissippi Place Park land.
Alcoa and Maryville approved their shares of the arrangement first. Blount County’s piece proved far more contentious. In May 2026, the $5 million measure was pulled from the county’s Budget Committee agenda twice before it could reach a vote — a procedural move tied to the requirement that funding resolutions pass through committee before going to the Commission workshop and regular full Commission.
The measure returned in July 2026, and after hours of public comment — all of it opposed — the Blount County Commission approved the $5 million funding agreement by a vote of 14 to 7. Several commissioners voted against it even as they voiced frustration with the process, and Republican mayoral nominee Jared Anderson also voted against the measure after being absent from an earlier workshop vote on the issue. For a second time Commissioner King voted for yes the resolution.
County officials emphasized that the vote authorized funding for land acquisition only — not construction — and does not itself decide whether the extension will ultimately be built.
Because state and local funds are now being actively allocated for these early acquisitions, the documentation generated during Steps 1 and 2 of the TDOT process — title work, appraisals, and property impact reports — becomes subject to public records tracking.