By: tnbumblebee on 8/19/08
Seems the Shelton family is upset with not getting millions of dollars from the bible park not coming in. They didnt care for their neighbors as long as they got their money and got out of town. They know their land will not bring anything close to what the bible park was offering them. You dont put an amusement park in a neighborhood,get real!!!!

By: PreSold on 8/19/08
Fact is, its the Sheltons land, they should be able to do what they want with it. If they could gain millions from the sale of the property, Great. Blackman will be begging for the Bible Park when a LaVergne Distribution center decides to move down I-24. Thats when everyone will realize, we missed the boats. Hope the Shelton family wins this one. Blackman deserves it.

By: diddlede on 8/19/08
Sure good to hear the news that witnesses will be allowed. This is not what the Shelton's wanted to happen. Hope they end up having to pay their lawyer and all the court costs on this when the lawsuit is lost. Greed will not get you anything but more grief.

By: peri_winkle on 8/19/08
My, my, PreSold. Such animosity toward ordinary people, trying to raise their families, live the American dream, and exercise their constitutional and statutory rights! Never in this country, or in England for that matter, has anyone had the right to do absolutely anything they want to with their property. It has always been the case that landowners call upon government officials, first judges and now local legislative bodies, to referee landowner vs. landowner disputes. What you're witnessing is the time honored, ordinary course of events. You are entitled to take sides, of course, but judges and county commissioners have to rely on law and rules to decide disputes of this nature.

For my part, the Bible Theme Park proposal presented to the county was a fiscal loser even more than it was a land use dispute, and it was a perfectly legitimate land use dispute. It would have been foolish indeed, as the majority of commissioners voted, to divert two decades or more of revenue from improvements to that property to the private cost of developing it. They were saved, as were county taxpayers, from their own poor judgment by the 2/3 majority requirement, and we all should be grateful.

I note, because it is often brought up in discussions about great tax giveaways, that the Speedway is not making money for Dover Downs, that the revenue Wilson County foolishly devoted to repay the private debt issued to build it is not enough and that there has been no noticeable net gain to the county coffers from that deal. If they want to make the same foolish bargain with the Bible Theme Park developers, then let them. And let Rutherford County save its tax giveaway deals for jobs that will raise income levels in the county, not lower them.

By: Macgyver on 8/20/08
Winkle, you need to publish that comment. That's the best way to sum up the whole bible park mess.

By: RafeHyatt on 8/20/08
Yeah, uh.....PreSold? The Sheltons CAN do whatever they want with the property as long as it complies with zoning requirements.

See, the people who want to BUY the land, it's THEY who can't do what they want with it, because it violates the county's zoning requirements. See how that all works?