Your Input Helps Shape our City

Anyone who has been reading my columns for a while knows how much of an advocate I am on public input. After all, it’s our job to create and manage a city that you want to live in! We now have another opportunity for you to give your input.

The Elizabethton Regional Planning Commission has been working hard to update the City’s Major Thoroughfare Plan. Essentially this is a plan that classifies every road in the city and helps determine where future roadways need to go. We use this plan to work with developers to dedicate the appropriate rights-of-way and it also serves as a basis for working with the regional transportation planning agency to get new transportation projects completed. Needless to say, this plan serves as the bones and arteries of the city.

In the proposed plan, the subcommittee is proposing some improvements to Southside Road to make it more of a throughway. This will help provide better connections for residents on the southern side of the city and provide another east to west corridor in the city to help alleviate traffic congestion on West Elk Avenue/Broad Street and G Street. The subcommittee has also proposed some improvements to Milligan Highway to help make it safer for vehicles using the road and bicyclists.

One thing that is new to the Thoroughfare Plan is the inclusion of pedestrian and bicycle trails. The subcommittee has reviewed and considered where existing trail systems are located and where new potential trial systems should be located. Additionally, this plan includes redesigns of streets to better allow for bicycles and better buffering between roadways and sidewalks (so you don’t feel like you’re walking in traffic while on the sidewalk). These new elements really speak to the emphasis the Planning Commission has placed on making Elizabethton a more pedestrian and bike friendly community.

You input on this plan will help guide the Planning Commission and the city as it develops over the next 10-20 years. You input doesn’t have to be long or lengthy and the format is open-house style so you don’t have to speak in front of anyone and can come and go as you please. Just stop by on your way home from work, learn a little about how road systems work, review the proposed improvements, and provide us with a comment as to whether you like it, don’t like it, or would rather see something else. By providing feedback now, you can help us make this community grow into exactly the community you want to live in. Let’s talk about it!

If You Live In a City, Expect Development

NIMBYs is probably not a term most people are familiar with, but urban planners are all too familiar with this term. NIMBY stands for “Not In My Back Yard” and is often used to describe residents in a community who object to a development or improvement near their property, but not elsewhere in the community. Every city has them and, I would argue, that almost all of us have been a NIMBY at one time or another.

An example of NIMBYism would be if a new apartment complex was proposed off Mary Patton Highway and the back of the complex would back up to Golf Course Acres. Residents of Golf Course Acres would be highly opposed to the complex being located on this site, but would alternatively suggest it be moved to the other side of the highway or further down the highway. They don’t mind or may even encourage it be in the city, just not immediately adjacent to THEIR property – put it in someone else’s back yard just not mine. (Just to clarify, this is not planned and cannot even happen under existing zoning code in that area.)

Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I want to encourage all residents to participate in the planning process, ensure that your concerns are made known to city staff and the Planning Commission. Additionally, get involved in the planning process in general. Know what zones are located near your property and what, if any, development plans are proposed for property near you. In planning, there is a concept call by-right development. This means if you purchase a piece of property that allows a Dollar General to be located on it no matter how much the citizens oppose the new building at that location, the Planning Commission and City Staff cannot deny the building be built, because the zone allows it to be built. Therefore, it’s important to get involved before you hear about the development coming in.

City staff and the Planning Commission have implemented regulations and negotiate closely with developers to help ensure that new developments do not negatively impact existing developments. We, for example, may require tree buffers to minimize light and sound impacts, we may require improvements to existing roads to be able to accommodate higher levels of traffic, or we may get creative with aesthetics to ensure the new development doesn’t look out of place with the existing development.

At some point, most of the neighborhoods we live in today were opposed by NIMBYs. When the upper portion of Golf Course Acres or Whitney Estates were developed, I’m sure there were people in adjoining neighborhoods claiming higher traffic volumes would make streets dangerous for children, adding more homes would decrease their property values, and the need for traffic lights or speed bumps. These are all things we look at when we see a new development come into our city.

If you know of a new development that may happen near your neighborhood let Planning Commissioners or Planning Staff know your concerns and we will work to minimize or address your concerns. Get involved in planning when we ask for public input or hold public meetings. Ultimately, however, when you live in the city you must expect new development to inevitably occur and sometimes it might be in your backyard. Let’s talk about it!

A Thriving Future Depends on Recruiting Young Professionals Today

Part of my job as a planner is to always be thinking about the future of the city 10 or 20 years from today and how the various decisions I, the Planning Commission, City Council, and City Administration make will impact the city in the future. This is like how a business plans strategy and sales over the next 5 years. Jointly with my tasks as an economic developer, I also consider workforce and economic impacts on the city which brings me to my topic today – young professionals.

Simply for the sake of statistics for this article, we’ll say professionals under the age of 45 meet the “Young Professionals” category (not that 45 is old by any means). This gives us an easy split of a little over 20 years for an early portion of one’s career and a little over 20 years for a later portion of one’s career. When we look at Carter County’s labor force (those working or looking for work), there is a significantly higher concentration of people over the age of 62 and a significantly lower concentration of people between the ages of 22-34 when compared to the rest of Tennessee. Additionally, there are almost 5,500 people or 22 percent of the work force who will be eligible to retire in the next 10 years – that’s more than 1 of every 5 people who are working or looking for a job today – and we must be ready!

If these statistics aren’t startling enough, think about this – we’re already hearing from businesses and industries in Elizabethton and throughout the Johnson City area that they are having a hard time filling certain professional level positions. Not only will young professionals help fill the gap left by older Carter Countians retiring, but they will also fill a workforce need and help keep our business and industry from leaving to go elsewhere to find the workforce they need in the future.

We therefore must work to make our community an attractive place for young professionals to want to locate, live, and raise a family. Amenities that this group often look for are walkable communities, communities with high quality of life, affordable communities, and diverse communities. Many young professionals (just under 80 percent) prefer to live in a community where most daily trips are walkable rather than driving a car. On top of affordability, young professionals also expect high quality of life such as good park systems, art, cultural, and entertainment events/festivals and venues, and lively social areas in the community. What do we need to do in our community to encourage more of these types of activities?

A group of us are working in Elizabethton to restart our young professional’s group – Young Elizabethton Professionals (YEP!). We hope that this group can provide an opportunity to young professionals to meet each other, network with each other, and get involved in our community to make it a more attractive place for young professionals to be! Erwin has been highly successful with their young professional’s program and if we want our community to grow and thrive in the future, today’s young professionals are the way forward. Let’s talk about it!