Crossville Files “Friendly” Lawsuits Against Two Businesses

Crossville has filed condemnation lawsuits against Travel Plaza and Crossville Ceramics.

City Attorney Will Ridley said the lawsuits stem from disagreements over land needed for an Interstate Drive construction project.

“I will point out that these are friendly condemnations. This is not a situation where the city and the business owners are in a big dispute,” Ridley said. “This is where we have some minor issues that we weren’t’ able to work out, mostly on the language of the agreements, and the state wasn’t willing to change those things.”

The city and the state need two tracts of land in order to move forward with plans to make Interstate Drive into five lanes. Ridley said the city unsuccessfully tried to reach agreements with both businesses for several years.

Councilman J.H. Graham said he made the motion to file the lawsuits with deep embarrassment.

“It’s just awful that we have to do this because we just can’t come to an agreement, but we’ve got to go on,” Graham said.

Crossville filed the lawsuit in the name of Tennessee because of agreements to provide funding to require the property.