Vulcan Materials is asking Knox County officials to sign off on a roughly $20 million expansion of its Dixie Lee Quarry that would tack on 58 acres directly behind homes in the Hickory Meadows subdivision in west Knox County. Neighbors say the scale of the plan blindsided them, and they are especially worried about blasting, dust, and what it could do to their property values. The company has set a neighborhood meeting for Thursday night so it can walk residents through the design and promise safety measures.
What the company told the station
In a statement and interview with WVLT, Vulcan representatives said blasts at the site happen about once or twice a month, last less than half a second, and are tightly controlled. "Our blasting events are highly engineered," company spokesperson Carol Landrum told the station. Vulcan said the expansion would create a buffer zone between active mining and nearby homes and that quarrying in the new area would go roughly 80 feet deep. The company described the project as a regional investment meant to supply aggregates for local construction.
Planning records and local context
Knox County planning documents place the Dixie Lee operation along Buttermilk Road and show decades of mining in the Hardin Valley area, with the quarry marked as a major land use in the northwest county's plans. A rezoning report notes that the Vulcan Materials Dixie Lee quarry sits about 0.36 miles west of the parcels at issue, according to Knox County Planning, and the county's sector plan lists the operation among the largest mining uses in the sector, Knox County Planning records show. Taken together, those documents help explain why recent residential rezonings and new subdivisions nearby have raised the stakes for residents now living next to the long-running industrial site.
Neighbors say they were misled
"We were led to believe that the 58 acres behind our property would not be developed," a Hickory Meadows resident told WVLT, summing up the shock several homeowners described. Residents told the station they want enforceable protections in place before any work begins, including clear setbacks, continuous monitoring, and binding limits on blasting. Many said their top worries are potential structural damage from the blasts and the long-term hit they fear to home values in the subdivision.
Past expansions came with conditions
When Dixie Lee expanded in the past, zoning approvals came with strings attached that were supposed to soften the impact on neighbors. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that a 2009 expansion cleared the planning process only after Vulcan agreed to steps such as building berms, planting hardwoods, installing seismic and air-blast monitoring, and paying for engineering surveys of homes within 1,000 feet. Local leaders say those kinds of concessions are likely to be front and center again if this latest proposal moves ahead.
What’s next
With the community meeting set for Thursday evening, the proposal is still in an early public review stage, and any formal permits or zoning changes would go through the county process that includes staff review and public hearings. Residents are being urged to watch Knox County planning agendas and show up at the meeting to push for monitoring requirements and written protections. If Vulcan moves forward with formal applications, that county review will give neighbors additional chances to weigh in on what happens behind their back fences.
