We are a unified coalition of local families, neighborhood homeowners, and passionate outdoor lovers. From families who enjoy our quiet neighborhoods to local hunters, fishermen, and boaters who rely on the pristine beauty of the Hiwassee River corridor, we are standing shoulder-to-shoulder to stop this reckless development. Our homes, our beloved natural recreational spaces, and the peace of future generations who inherit this county are simply not for sale. The Threat to Our Community An $11.3 billion heavy industrial energy campus called Project River is attempting to exploit a city annexation loophole to force its way into Bradley County. To pull this off, the developer has split the application into a highly calculated, deceptive multi-part strategy. They are asking the City of Cleveland to annex a combined 1,235 acres of rural land located north of the actual city limits along the Hiwassee River: • The 385-Acre Trojan Horse:  The developer is fast-tracking a 385-acre annexation near Exit 33 by marketing it as an innocent, uncontroversial "travel center" filled with hotels, restaurants, and gas stations. In reality, this parcel is being used as a geographic stepping stone. Under Tennessee's Non-Contiguous Boundary Laws, the city cannot legally leap 7 miles out into the county. This 385-acre commercial zone is intentionally designed to close the 7-mile gap, establishing the continuous boundary the city needs to absorb the heavier industrial zone next door.  • The 850-Acre Heavy Industrial Site:  Once the 385-acre commercial bridge is approved, it opens the legal floodgates for the city to annex the main 850-acre industrial site. This is where they intend to build the massive, unproven biomass power plant and the continuous-drone data center campus. By using the promise of hotels and restaurants to anchor the first phase of annexation, developers are trying to trick local leaders into approving a bridge that lets an $11.3 billion industrial powerhouse completely bypass the strict data center protections unanimously passed by the Bradley County Commission. Why We Must Stop Project River Developers are attempting to use city annexation as a legal shield to completely bypass the strict data center regulations that the Bradley County Commission unanimously passed earlier this year to protect local residents. If allowed to move forward, this project will permanently degrade our community through devastating environmental and logistical footprints: • Massive Co-Firing Gas Power Plants: The developers intend to connect to the Enbridge-owned East Tennessee Natural Gas pipeline to fuel a 1,000-megawatt methane gas plant. This massive facility will require a staggering volume of fossil fuels annually, effectively locking Bradley County into massive fossil fuel pollution just to feed an on-site corporate data center.  • Biochar Combustion and Fly Dust Pollution: While the developer claims the project is "carbon-negative" due to wood pyrolysis, public presentations reveal a dangerous twist: they intend to burn the residual biochar in their boilers to maximize power generation. Burning biochar completely defeats its purpose as a carbon sink. This process will release toxic fly dust, soot, and chemical particulates directly into our local air shed, settling on surrounding properties and poisoning local crops and soils. • Threats to Nearby Wilderness Refuges: The proposed site sits directly along the ecologically sensitive Hiwassee River corridor, just downriver from critical state and federal conservation zones, including the Hiwassee Refuge. The massive industrial footprint, chemical runoff, and heavy utility extraction directly threaten the vulnerable wetlands, bald eagle nesting grounds, and migratory sandhill crane populations that rely on this pristine river environment. • Severe Erosion and Siltation: Constructing a massive industrial campus across rolling rural acreage will strip topsoil and destroy natural root structures. Without native vegetation, rainstorms will trigger severe surface erosion, washing massive amounts of sediment, heavy industrial runoff, and pollutants straight into the Hiwassee River. This heavy siltation will choke out local fish populations and permanently damage our recreational boating and fishing waters. • An Unproven, Experimental Concept: The proposed 500-megawatt biomass facility is entirely experimental. There is not a single plant of this scale operating under this methodology anywhere in the United States. Cleveland must not be the guinea pig for a massive industrial science project.   • Exploiting the Federal Roadless Rule Repeal: To feed the plant, developers intend to harvest 6 million tons of timber annually from a 250-mile radius. This creates a terrifying synergy with current federal actions: the U.S. Department of Agriculture has officially proposed to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, threatening to strip protections from 85,000 acres of remote public land right here in the Cherokee National Forest. Scrapping this rule will open up East Tennessee's wildest backcountry to commercial logging and heavy bulldozers. Project River is perfectly positioned to devour these newly vulnerable forests, logging centuries-old ecosystems and choking our secondary roads with 500+ heavy log trucks a day. It takes 30 to 50 years for these forests to regrow, leaving our public lands permanently scarred just to power a private tech campus. • Severe Air Quality & Health Hazards: Burning natural gas and biomass at a 1,500 MW scale will introduce massive volumes of dangerous sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide (NOx), VOCs, and fine particulate matter (\(PM_{2.5}\)) into our airshed. Until the developers release comprehensive atmospheric dispersion modeling, the community fears these emissions could reach hazardous levels. Furthermore, public health science proves that fine particulate matter has no safe level of exposure and is linked directly to increased rates of asthma, heart disease, and strokes for families living downwind. • Severe 24/7 Noise Pollution: The cooling infrastructure for the massive data center complex generates a continuous, low-frequency drone of 70 to 80 decibels running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, directly adjacent to established family neighborhoods. • Astronomical Infrastructure and Utility Costs: Because of the 7-mile geographic gap, extending city sewer lines, water mains, high-voltage power lines, and emergency services out to this isolated site will require an immense, multi-million-dollar capital outlay. Stretching our local utility grids thin across miles of unincorporated county land severely compromises utility pressure and service reliability for existing customers. Our local infrastructure should be maintained to serve the residents who built this community, not exploited and strained to subsidize a private developer’s heavy industrial energy project. Our Strategy to Win An online signature is just the first step. We have the legal upper hand under Tennessee's Non-Contiguous Boundary Laws, but we must convert our digital numbers into overwhelming public pressure to force our elected leaders to act. Our grassroots coalition is executing a coordinated mobilization strategy: Mass Community Comment Campaign: We are writing our opposition directly into the permanent public record, flooding the official inboxes of our local city and county representatives with unified community demands. In-Person Public Mobilization: We are packing the upcoming public forums and voting sessions en masse, wearing bright red shirts to show a unified, undeniable wall of local resistance for the tracking news cameras. Certified Petition Submissions: We are formally downloading and delivering our certified signature data sheets directly to the planning staff to guarantee our thousands of voices are placed physically inside the commissioners' voting packets ahead of the September 14th and 15th vote. We are calling on the City of Cleveland to deny this annexation and respect county protections. We are urging Bradley County Mayor D. Gary Davis and the County Commission to initiate a Growth Plan Amendment to shrink the city's future growth boundary and block this loophole permanently. Sign this petition today to protect our environment, safeguard our community, and demand a vote of NO. ** Any contributions made to this Petition do not fund this campaign, all donations go directly to Change.org.