All requested developments have to go through the Lenoir City planning commission. The planning commission is bound to apply the zoning regulations that have been adopted by the city council. So, it's not the planning commission's fault.

The city council is the legislative body for the city. They are the ones who have adopted the policies that the planning commission must abide by. So the blame could lie with the council, maybe? Unfortunately, everybody knows there's not a single council member that will ever vote against anything issue Lenoir City mayor, Tony Aikens, tells them to vote for. That's not speculation, that's fact. No council person has voted NO on any significant agenda item put forth by the mayor for many, many years.

So Mayor Tony Aikens get's the bulk of the blame for the utter disastrous mess he's created. The city council's blame is that they're all afraid to oppose anything the mayor wants. But the mayor is the man who has caused all of these problems. He calls all the shots. And why would he want to turn Lenoir city into a rental slum town? That's exactly what it will be in just a few years. There are city officials that are very concerned about the direction the city is going, but none will call the mayor's hand on it. Even councilman, Eddie Simpson, said back during his campaign, he felt the city is growing a little too fast. But there's not a chance Simpson would ever call the mayor out.

In less than two years, the mayor's policies have approved more than 2,600 new residential units in the city. Nearly 2,000 of these are apartments, low income to high income. Yet the mayor/council have taken no steps to address the impact thousands of new residents, coming into the city, will have on every aspect of the city from schools to roads. Sadly, the mayor/council's policies don't just impact the city, but will also have devastating impact on county schools, infrastructure and operations. The city is already deeply in debt and it's citizens are heavily over taxed and the overdevelopment is just getting starting and will make things much worse.    

The city council could stop all this at their next meeting if they wanted to. They could do what the county has done and place a moratorium on any new developments till they get a handle on what they need to do going forward. Obviously, they have no plan to address the massive over growth that they have caused.  Does anybody think the council would take any such action?

In November, there will be a city council election. Half the city council seats will be on the ballot. The ballot box may be the only way to stop the madness going on in the city.