Tom Orr crosses a wooden bridge on a portion of the Rockin’ Roll Hatchie Trails in Brownsville, Tennessee in December 2024. This path over a branch of Sugar Creek will remain intact, while about 1/3 of the trails will be razed for an industrial development. (Photo: Cassandra Stephenson)
Sharon Hayes and Tom Orr trekked down a winding dirt path through rolling hills of old growth trees along a branch of Sugar Creek on a chilly day in December.
The forested gullies stand out as a prized feature amid West Tennessee’s typically flat plains, Hayes, a Haywood County commissioner, said.
The Rockin’ Roll Hatchie Trails lie about 20 miles northeast of BlueOval City, a massive electric vehicle manufacturing campus that will produce batteries and Ford Motor Company’s new all-electric pickup truck.
Hayes and Orr, the director of Main Street Brownsville Haywood County, are advocating to preserve as much of the trails as possible as the city and county prepare to level a portion of the land to make it more attractive for future industry.
Haywood County and the City of Brownsville purchased the 160-acre plot of land near Highway 70 from a farmer several years ago with the intention of transforming it into a speculative industrial park to draw more jobs to the rural community.
Now, the Brownsville-Haywood Economic Development Corporation has secured a Tennessee Valley Authority grant of around $700,000 — with a local $300,000 match — to clear 13 acres of mature tree canopy and level out land for a 500,000-square-foot concrete slab.
Trails are a good thing. Parks are a great thing. Just not in the buildable area of what was purchased by the taxpayers and then zoned appropriately as an industrial park.
– Aaron Stewart, Brownsville-Haywood Economic Development Corporation
The transformation will raze about one-third of the trails and eliminate a dirt road that currently leads to a small parking lot at the trailhead, raising concerns about the future accessibility of the remaining two-thirds of the trails.
The small parking lot will remain intact, and a new entrance road will be built farther south to connect to it, according to Brownsville-Haywood EDC Executive Director Aaron Stewart, though the exact location is unclear. The development would also respect a conservation easement requiring buildings to be set back from Sugar Creek, which drains into the Hatchie River.
Stewart and the Industrial Development Board want the portion of the trails that will be destroyed to be rebuilt elsewhere, but they are indifferent to how the local government gets that done. The board approved $50,000 to help cover the cost of trail relocation.
“Trails are a good thing. Parks are a great thing,” Stewart said. “Just not in the buildable area of what was purchased by the taxpayers and then zoned appropriately as an industrial park.”
But Hayes and Orr question how feasible it is to move the trails. Orr pointed out that land is now selling for up to $50,000 an acre because of BlueOval. The cost to replace even 10 acres would be substantial, he said.
Orr is willing to compromise, so long as the public retains access to the remaining trails.
“It would be good to be able to save them all. But it’s hard for me to say, I mean, if they can keep their design and attract business, it’s hard to say, save the trails versus attract industries, so I don’t know. There needs to be a compromise,” he said.
Hayes would rather see the city and county preserve them all.
“You can’t move big trees,” Hayes said.
State highlights land’s proximity to BlueOval City
The land in question, where the trails are located, was certified by the state as “shovel-ready” for industry in 2024 under the Select Tennessee Certified Sites program. It’s part of the “I-40 Advantage Industrial Park,” named due to its proximity to the interstate.
Sites must meet criteria aimed at making them attractive to potential private investment to be eligible for the program and the grants it offers.
A separate 122-acre parcel of land near the trails in the industrial park was certified through one of the first rounds of the state’s program in 2013. South Korean company Enchem America Inc. announced it would build a new electrolyte manufacturing facility on that parcel in 2023, bringing 190 jobs and $152.5 million in capital investment. The electrolytes — solutions that allow ions to travel within a battery — will be used in electric vehicle batteries.
The state has devoted nearly $4 million in site development grants to the industrial park as a whole since 2018, according to Kirby Lewis-Gill, director of site development for the Department of Economic Development. .
The vacant 160-acre plot — home to the trails — has suitable utility infrastructure and capacity for electric, water and wastewater, Lewis-Gill said. It’s priced at a “negotiable” $35,000 per acre.
“If a company is not going to be on site there at BlueOval City, but they’re going to supply it, they want to be as close as possible, so those are some good indicators for an EV company going there,” Lewis-Gill said. The site is “set up for the locals to attract something that’s going to bring great jobs and great wages for that distressed community.”
While BlueOval City is expected to bring more than 176,000 people to West Tennessee in the next 25 years, the population in Haywood County, where the plant is located, has yet to see a population increase. From 2022 to 2024, Haywood County lost about 1.3% of its population.
It would have to draw in 7,446 people to meet the 42.4% growth prediction from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development by 2035.
Lewis-Gill said the trails are considered an asset to whatever company may locate there.
“We would expect to see those trails continue to be available to the public,” he said.
Trails advertised as county amenity
The Rockin’ Roll Hatchie Trails are listed as an amenity on Haywood County’s website — “the perfect spot to spend an afternoon.”
The trails were built by local mountain biker Mark Yoder, and each trail bears the name and history of a local musician in a nod to the area’s prominence in shaping Tennessee’s musical culture.
The trees are dotted with birdhouses built and installed by Boy Scouts, who also erected trail signs, tree identification placards and bridges as part of Eagle Scout projects over the years. Marketing for the trails was supported by a $4,500 grant from the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development as recently as 2023.
On a section of the trails that will remain untouched, a bridge funded by Ford stretches over a branch of Sugar Creek, made of two telephone poles provided by a local power company.
“This creek runs all the way from our downtown to the Hatchie, and the ultimate goal is to connect downtown with the Hatchie River,” Hayes said. “That would just be an awesome feature and attraction for our county.”
Stewart said the intention was never to “just wipe out everything.” The county and city could choose to adopt the remaining trails into the park system, or perhaps use the IDB’s $50,000 set-aside as a local match should local leaders wish to seek state grants.
Haywood County Mayor David Livingston and Brownsville Mayor William Rawls did not respond to requests for comment.
Hayes and Orr also fear that the public is largely unaware of how the industrial park plans will impact the trails. There haven’t been dedicated public hearings on the issue. Stewart said he has spoken to the county commission and the IDB meetings are open to the public, but the TVA grant (which remains under ongoing federal review) didn’t require public input, and the land was already zoned for industrial use.
Outside of writing the $50,000 check for trail relocation, the rest is up to local government, as far as Stewart is concerned. The IDB “always had the intention” to appropriate funding to help offset the effect of razing about 32% of the trails, an impact he said is “minimal.”
“It inhibits the development of the land. It can create safety issues for the pedestrians,” Stewart said. “Let’s just find a good, safe, more permanent location so that others can use these trails and maybe even make them part of the official park system, should the county and city feel that’s appropriate.”
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