Last Thursday John King and Jared Garceau of LT Knoxville won a major victory in the Tennessee Court of Appeals in a land rezoning case. The defendants had applied to rezone property in west Knox County from agricultural to planned-residential and sought approval of a development plan for a dwelling project consisting of 312 apartment units. John King was the lead counsel in a long, contentious and very adversarial zoning process, winning approval of the proposed rezoning before Knox County legislative and administrative bodies. On appeal, the plaintiffs challenged whether the rezoning approval by the Knox County Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals complied with state law and were supported by material evidence. Jared Garceau wrote an excellent brief to the Court of Appeals, culminating in last week’s appellate decision affirming the trial court’s decision that the rezoning was in compliance with Tennessee law.
We congratulate John and Jared on a great victory!
John King is a senior shareholder in Lewis Thomason’s Knoxville office. He is a preeminent AV rated lawyer having been AV rated over 30 years. He has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® for the past five years. Mr. King has substantial experience in tort and commercial litigation in both state and federal courts. Mr. King’s current primary practice areas are in zoning, land use, governmental contracting, business transactions and administrative law. He represents clients in waste disposal, manufactured housing and residential/commercial development businesses. Mr. King represents clients on regulatory matters at the state and local levels and also represents clients on legislative issues at the state level.
Jared Garceau is an associate in the firm’s Knoxville office practicing in the areas of business and commercial law, construction, and general civil litigation. As a law student, Mr. Garceau was a two-year member of the National Professional Responsibility Moot Court Team. He also received the 2014 Chancellor’s Citation for Extraordinary Professional Promise as well as Certificates of Academic Excellence for receiving the top grade in Legal Process I, Civil Procedure II, Torts II, Legal Profession, Fundamental Concepts of Income Taxation, Constitutional Law, American Jurisprudence, Investigatory Criminal Procedure, Jurisprudence, Secured Transactions, Trial Practice, and Workers Compensation.