CARTER COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) – A couple’s plan to bring what they say is a couples’ retreat to Carter County is facing public backlash on social media.

Originally from California, Bastian and Marisol Yotta traveled around the country before deciding to settle in Carter County. The couple said their goal is to build a spiritual retreat called Hidden Harmony to help couples reconnect.

“We want nature, we want to have peace, and we want to start a new chapter, and now we are told we are not welcome?” Bastian Yotta said.

The Yottas left California and traveled for three years before settling in Carter County.

“When we visited this property, we just felt right away the love for it,” Marisol Yotta said.

The Yottas said they planned to build 11 domes on property they bought in Poga as part of a couple’s retreat called Hidden Harmony.

Much of the public backlash surrounds Marisol’s posting on adult content websites as a way of income.

“With COVID, I couldn’t see my clients in person anymore,” she explained. “I used to cook and give nutritional advice for the elderly. So, with that, I switched into social media and into other ventures.”

However, the Yottas said they are ready for a change in their life.

“The setting Hidden Harmony should have been our new chapter where we said, you know what, now, after a few years, we move on,” Bastian Yotta explained.

A Change.org petition has been created by Poga locals with the goal of stopping the construction on Hidden Harmony.

Part of the petition reads: “I call home the same community where the ‘Hidden Harmony’ project is planned to take root – a development scheme that threatens the integrity of our environment and rural Christian values. While it is every individual’s right to choose their source of income, these kinds of businesses clash with our community’s long-held traditions and values that have served to shape our livelihoods.”

Bastian Yotta said he is surprised to receive this reaction from people in what he calls the ‘Bible Belt.’

“Christ did not come to call the righteous, but the lost or wounded and the judged ones,” Bastain Yotta said. “Jesus said, ‘Let he who is without sin costs the first stone,’ and I got stones thrown at me and us every single day. I don’t understand it.”

Carter County Commissioner Angie Odom received many messages from concerned citizens. She started looking into the proposed retreat.

“They’ve only received like a little drawing that was not to the point of what is needed to even issue any type of permits,” Odom said. “With the state they are registered as a business. With the IRS they are registered as a business. But that doesn’t mean that you can go ahead and start digging of the business until you know the right permit.”

The Yottas say they have fulfilled what was needed to get permits.

“They told me, you need a permit for a campground and a permit for septic,” Bastian Yotta said. “I ask, ‘what are their requirements?’ I fulfilled every single requirement.”

The Carter County Planning and Zoning Committee will meet Tuesday in Elizabethton and will discuss the matter.

The Yottas say they plan to be in attendance.

“It’s good that we finally see face to face and they can approach us to ask questions,” Marison Yotta said. “I feel like it has been a game of telephone over social media and just starting rumors over rumors about what Hidden Harmony is and isn’t whereas they haven’t approached us directly.”

News Channel 11 did reach out to the creator of the Change.org petition but have not heard back at this time.