The sprawling land developments of John “Thunder” Thornton stretch from Tennessee to Hawaii, but even Thornton was surprised two years ago when he started getting property tax bills from two county assessors for the same lots on the Cumberland Plateau.
“We feel flattered to have them fighting over us,” Thornton said Friday. “But we’d just as soon have a judge or mediator determine who the winner is so we know which county these lots are located in and where people should vote and pay taxes.”
Thornton’s Thunder Enterprises asked a county chancellor this week to decide whether 650 acres atop South Pittsburg Mountain is in Marion or Franklin county. Although Marion County planners approved the initial subdivision for The Ridges at Franklin Forest, Franklin County’s property assessor claimed three years ago that the sites were actually in Franklin County. Since 2007, the developers of the sprawling residential community have received property tax bills from both counties for the disputed portion of the mountain.
“We’re caught in between and we can’t get them to decide, but we’re not going to pay taxes to both counties for the same property,” said Bill Horton, an attorney for Thunder Enterprises who asked a Marion County Chancery Court to settle the dispute.
Marion County attorney Billy Gouger thought the issue had been resolved in the 1990s when the counties agreed on a border for the development that began as the Cumberland at Sewanee and has continued as Thunder Ridge or The Ridges at Franklin. The timberland subdivisions straddle the Franklin-Marion county line west of state Highway 156.