ACTION REQUIRED: Mass Comment Day is Wednesday, Sept 9th!

Hi everyone,

Our community movement has officially crossed 3,400 signatures, this is great momentum, let's keep sharing! Local leaders are feeling the pressure, and now it is time to make sure our objections are written into the permanent, official public record.

Today Wednesday, September 9th, we are launching a unified Mass Comment Day.
Below is a template letter. We need every single one of you to copy the text, fill in your details, and email it to both our City and County leaders. We want to completely pack their inboxes on Wednesday so they know our community is standing firm.

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• Paste this exact text into the "TO" line:

kbrooks@clevelandtn.gov, szius@clevelandtn.gov, gdavis@bradleycountytn.gov, dbeaty@bradleycountytn.gov, mhughes@bradleycountytn.gov, lalford@bradleycountytn.gov, tmurray@bradleycountytn.gov, mblake@bradleycountytn.gov, dcollins@bradleycountytn.gov, tommyledford@bradleycountytn.gov, tmason@bradleycountytn.gov, sbeasley@bradleycountytn.gov, rasble@bradleycountytn.gov
planning@clevelandtn.gov

• Paste this exact text into the "CC" line:       planning@clevelandtn.gov

• Paste into the Subject line: Public Record: Formal Opposition to Project River Annexation Loophole

• Past this into the body of the message: ( Don't forget to add your signature at the bottom)

Dear Cleveland Planning Commission, City Council, Bradley County Commission, and Mayor Davis

I am writing as a local resident to voice my absolute opposition to the 385-acre land annexation loophole being utilized for Project River, as well as the broader 850-acre annexation and Planned Unit Development rezoning request. Exploiting this city loophole to bypass proper oversight and force this industrial development into our community is entirely unacceptable.

Our family neighborhoods, our scenic natural spaces, and the health of our student populations are not for sale. This massive heavy industrial energy campus does not belong inside a residential growth sector. It sits in dangerous proximity to established family subdivisions, Walker Valley High School, and the soon-to-be-constructed middle school. Forcing an industrial project of this magnitude next to school zones completely undermines student safety, clean air standards, and our community's well-being.

Furthermore, I am deeply concerned about the severe lack of transparency from the developers. Wright Brothers Construction has been highly misleading about their actual designs, presenting a bait-and-switch narrative to our community. They have greenwashed this development, falsely marketing it as a "clean, green, eco-friendly" facility. In reality, it centers on an entirely experimental 500-megawatt woody biomass plant. There is not a single facility of this design operating successfully at this massive scale anywhere in the United States. Similar biomass facilities across the country have a documented history of technical failure, financial insolvency, and severe air quality violations. Cleveland should not act as an unproven testing ground for a multi-billion-dollar corporate science experiment disguised as environmental stewardship.

Worse yet, the true scope of this project extends far beyond biomass. This proposal includes a massive, 1,000-megawatt methane natural gas fossil fuel plant. Adding a heavily polluting fossil fuel facility directly contradicts any claims of this being a green project. To support this massive industrial load, the developers are planning a major TVA power tie-in that will permanently scar our local landscape and burden our community.

If allowed to move forward via this city loophole, the environmental, financial, and quality-of-life impacts will permanently degrade our county:

• Skyrocketing Local TVA Costs: Massive, power-hungry industrial campuses place an unprecedented strain on our electric grid. To build out the infrastructure required for the TVA power tie-in and the 1,000MW plant, local families will face skyrocketing utility rate increases from TVA and Cleveland Utilities to subsidize grid upgrades for a single private developer.
• Massive Deforestation & Traffic: Feeding this plant requires harvesting 5 to 6 million tons of timber annually from our regional ecosystem. This massive logging operation will strip our local forests and flood our narrow roads with an endless caravan of heavy trucks.

For all these reasons, I formally declare my absolute opposition to every facet of Project River. I stand firmly against the 385-acre land annexation loophole, the overarching 850-acre annexation and PUD rezoning request, the destructive TVA power tie-in, and the massive 1,000 MW methane natural gas fossil fuel plant. Our community refuses to accept the misleading designs put forth by Wright Brothers Construction or the false claims of a clean, green, eco-friendly biomass plant that masks a dirty industrial reality. I urge our local leadership to reject this deceptive proposal and protect the future of Cleveland and Bradley County.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
Cleveland, TN
[Your Email/Phone Number]