Uncle Sam's boot crushing a small camper trailer Stop DMRA Stop the RV Park on Pedro Shoun Lane

Mountain City · Johnson County, Tennessee

A government agency should not compete with the family business next door.

We sold Doe Mountain Recreation Authority 80 acres for a lodge and training center. Now the agency has been awarded federal grant money to build a 20-site RV campground about 50 feet from our existing campground — Doe Valley Campground.

Here is the paper trail. Then please take two minutes and tell our elected officials what you think.

Take action Read the documents

Where things stand

In plain words

A government agency should not use your tax dollars to build a business that competes with a local family business right next door. We believe that is what is happening here, and the papers on this site explain why.

We built Doe Valley Campground with our own money and our own hands, starting in December 2022. It has 21 RV sites with full hookups. In 2024 we sold Doe Mountain Recreation Authority (State of Tennessee) 80 acres of our land. Everything we were told pointed to a lodge, a training center, and an event space. On April 7, 2026, the agency's board voted to commit matching money for a federal grant to build “20 RV sites and a bathhouse” on that land.

We are asking one thing: do not use your tax money to build a campground 50 feet from ours.

A busy weekend at Doe Valley Campground.

About fifty feet

How close it is

An aerial photograph looking down on Doe Valley Campground's gravel loop and RV sites, with the open field of the adjoining 80 acres directly beside it. Text on the photograph reads: DMRA's proposed campground here.
An aerial photo of our campground and the adjoining 80 acres we sold to Doe Mountain Recreation Authority. The label on the photo is ours, showing where we understand the proposed sites would go. This is not a survey or an official site plan, and the 50-foot figure is the distance from our property line as we understand it.

What we relied on

What the plan showed when we sold

An excerpt from DMRA's 2024 adopted master plan showing a map of the Doe Mountain Recreation Area. A red box highlights the Pedro Shoun parcel next to Doe Valley Campground, labeled 'Proposed Lodge and Training Center.'
2024 DMRA Adopted Master Plan Map Excerpt. This is one of the documents we relied on when we sold the 80 acres to Doe Mountain Recreation Authority. The parcel directly next to Doe Valley Campground (in the red box) is labeled “Proposed Lodge and Training Center.” No RV sites, no campground. The full master plan is on the documents page.

The parties

Who’s involved

Doe Valley Campground
A small, family-run RV campground at 271 Pedro Shoun Lane in Mountain City. 21 RV sites, full hookups. Owned by Andrew Livingston and Brent Fowler. They broke ground in December 2022 and built it from nothing.
Doe Mountain Recreation Authority (DMRA)
A government agency created by the State of Tennessee. It runs the Doe Mountain Recreation Area. It is funded mostly by federal and state grant money. Its executive director is Charles Ridlehuber.
The 80 acres
In 2024, Doe Valley Campground sold DMRA 80 acres of land right next to the campground.
The ARC grant
The Appalachian Regional Commission is a federal agency that gives money to Appalachian communities for economic development. DMRA has applied for and was awarded ARC money for this project. The state agency TNECD handles the application in Tennessee.
LWCF
The Land and Water Conservation Fund. Federal money, handled through the National Park Service and Tennessee’s TDEC, that helped pay DMRA back for buying the land. DMRA received $159,000 of it.

The heart of it

Our five concerns

Five short versions are below. Each one links to the full explanation, with the records behind it.

  • 1. The State of Tennessee would become a taxpayer-funded competitor

    DMRA has been awarded federal grant money to build 20 RV sites and a bathhouse about 50 feet from our property line. We built ours with our own money. We pay property taxes.

    Read concern 1 →

  • 2. The land was sold for a lodge, not an RV park

    Everything we were told, and the plan itself, pointed to a lodge and training center. The plan labels our parcel “PROPOSED LODGE AND TRAINING CENTER.”

    Read concern 2 →

  • 3. DMRA already owns one campground bought with public money

    In June 2025 its board approved buying Roan Creek Campground, an existing private campground, for up to $350,000. This would be its second campground.

    Read concern 3 →

  • 4. DMRA’s own meeting recorded this same worry

    At a public focus group in November 2023, local business owners said they did not want campgrounds on park property because of the competition.

    Read concern 4 →

  • 5. The need was never shown, and the neighbors were never asked

    ARC’s own checklist requires letters of demand from local businesses, proof of regional demand, and a real gap in capacity. None of that is in the record here.

    Read concern 5 →

What you can do

Please take two minutes

The most helpful thing a neighbor can do is send a short, polite email to our elected officials and ask them to look at this before any money is spent. We have written the letter for you. You can change any word of it.

Send the letter