Forty-five property owners along State Route 81/107 in Unicoi and Washington, Tennessee Counties got a little surprise when they saw their names published in local newspapers related to action that the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) announced on October 11, 2024.
The state filed documents in The Circuit Court of Unicoi County, Tennessee to take property by eminent domain for what they describe as an “EMERGENCY CONSTRUCTION EASMENT” The filing notice occurred fifteen days after Hurricane Helene devastated northeast Tennessee.
“I think the state people probably had good intentions trying to repair the road as soon as possible, but the process used with emergency powers and eminent domain was terrible. Property rights and due process are fundamental rights, and an executive order shouldn’t be able to take them away. Some of these folks just lost their homes to the flood, and the judge had already signed the order of possession for the state before we even knew about it. We didn’t find out until almost three weeks later after a notice was in our local newspaper.” – said Robert Tester, Landowner
