Higher Density Could Bring Positives for Elizabethton

Density -- the word itself brings to mind large high rises in the middle of a large bustling city. But I want to convince you that density does not just apply to large metropolitan areas, but can be extremely beneficial, useful, and even bring more life to our city.

I was recently reading the Urban Land magazine when I came across an article entitled, “Density is Critical for Cities to Realize Advantages and Avoid Decline.” The article summarized a report recently released talking about the importance density plays in the success or failure of a city or community. The article gave me four takeaways that we can apply to Elizabethton.

First is finding the right locations for mixed-used development. Often this terms confuses people. Mixed-use development is development that accommodates multiple uses such as residential and commercial. Downtown is a great example of mixed-use development. We need to identify areas in our community that can viably utilize mixed-use development and create regulations to accommodate and encourage this type of development.

Next, we must have a plan to accommodate higher density levels in our community and share those plans with developers. We must develop a plan for higher density and work to improve infrastructure create more accommodating land-uses. We also must share this information with developers which will help encourage them to create higher density development in areas of the community that can accommodate it.

We must also look at density on a regional scale. We must not confine our planning and views to only the city limits, but look beyond those limits to observe the type of development that is occurring there. We must work with our county officials and neighboring cities to ensure that our development can be compatible with other development within the region.

Lastly, we must reimagine our community. Elizabethton is a great small city with many benefits that our surrounding communities do not have, but we must step back to look to the future of our community. One where higher density and midsize building developments occur. This doesn’t mean we lose our identity as a small city, it means that we look for ways to increase our sustainability as a city and ways to grow and become more attractive for others to move here.

Higher density provides many benefits to our city. Promoting more businesses and residences already within our city limits mean property taxes are shared between more property owners, utility expenses are shared between more customers, and more houses means more retail and shopping opportunities will be attracted to Elizabethton. We are already starting to see the effects of low density development in our community. How should we proceed in creating higher density locally? Let’s talk about it!

Less Fighting About Economic Development...More Working Together!

City Officials and Carter County Tomorrow (which I will refer to as the Carter County Joint Economic and Community Development Board) Officials were interested to hear this past Friday that the Carter County Commission would hear two resolutions at the next meeting Monday morning. One creating the Carter County Economic and Community Development Board and another creating various Adventure Tourism Districts within the County.

While these moves were not necessarily a surprise, we felt frustrated that Carter County felt the need to prepare a resolution to create such a board. Both city and the Carter County Joint Economic and Community Development Board (JECDB) officials have extended our hands to the County ready and willing to partner with them and move forward. We recognize that in a county with less than 60,000 people it will be difficult for either entity or even the Carter County JECDB to afford to tackle large Economic Development projects alone.

We encourage the County Mayor or a representative of his and County Commissioner Representatives to attend the JECDB meetings and take an active role. Set aside what has happened or who was involved in the past and let’s work together to move forward. There is a lot of work to be done, and no time to argue about what has happened in the past.

If improvements are needed, make the suggestion. If changes must be made, start the dialog. Either way, economic development will come to a slow if city, county, and JECDB officials are all not working together to move our entire county forward in one direction. We all may not agree exactly on the structure of the organization, but that can be changed. We may not agree on the effectiveness of the organization, but the board and city officials have been taking a hard look at alternatives to make it more effective ever since Mr. Anderson left.

There is one thing we all can agree on, and that is we all want to bring more jobs to Carter County. Let’s make this our focus and all work together on the JECDB to achieve this goal. I applaud the Carter County Commission for taking a step in the right direction by creating Adventure Tourism Districts. Now let’s all sit down together and determine what the next step we need to take is to bring more jobs to our community. Let’s talk about it!

Street Level Activities Helps Downtown Businesses

This past Sunday I went downtown to visit some of the businesses at the Annual Downtown Open House. As I drove into downtown to find a parking place, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how many people were walking around, darting in and out of shops, and driving around (probably looking for a parking spot like me). I stopped in and talked with many of the open businesses and everyone was talking about how positive their businesses had be impacted by the day. One owner said, “If nothing else, the people walking past and into my business can see what I sell so when they need it I’ll be here.”

How true that is. Events like this not only get shoppers excited, but also get the business owners excited. Having people and activities downtown generates excitement and interest. The staff and commissions in the city are working to change regulations in order to encourage street activities just like what we saw on Sunday to get people out and walking on the streets. More street activity by pedestrians generates more people walking by and dropping in to local downtown businesses...even if they don’t purchase anything the first time.

The excitement that is generated off of pedestrian activities makes it more attractive for other local businesses to move to the downtown district. The same is true for potentially interested developers.

Big national and regional chains look at four major components when selecting a new location. One of those is traffic counts, the number of cars that pass by the business everyday. For downtown, this translates a little differently. Because of the nature of a downtown, most buildings are only 25 feet wide and our concrete canopy additionally blocks the view of the business. The key for a downtown district and our downtown businesses isn’t going to be cars that pass per day, but rather people that walk pass per day.

As we continue to work to make downtown a better place, what other ideas do you have to help get people to stop their cars and walk through downtown? Let’s talk about it!

Creating Great Spaces in Elizabethton

What makes a great public space? Some might say that a great place can only be found in the eye of the beholder. But a professor at the University of Denver has studied American and European models of public spaces and has drawn some interesting conclusions about what makes a public space great.

The first component to a great public space is centrality. A great public space must be central to the people which are intended to utilize the space. Popular right now in the Planning world is the concept that citizens should be able to reach about 90 percent of their daily activities within a 20 minute walk time. This serves to identify a central area in a neighborhood which would be ideal for a great public space.

Secondly, a great public space must be connected. By this I mean a great public space should be well connected by transportation networks. This specifically doesn’t mean cars either. A great public space should be well connected to other street networks, trail networks, transit routes, and sidewalk networks. It needs to be easy for citizens to access on multiple levels from walking to driving and should be an area hard to avoid when leaving your neighborhood or community.

Lastly, having cachet is a vital component of a great public space. Cachet, in this context, means having a distinction or a uniqueness about the public space. Think about what would make one public space different from any other. It may be a fountain, a statue, a mural, unique architectural facades, or other elements. In many European cities civic buildings or churches surround the public space creating beautiful, unique “walls” to the public space each uniquely different from the other. In New York City, the “walls” of Times Square are animated with fluorescent and flashing lights displaying larger-than-life advertisements providing something unique to to Times Square visitors.

Great public spaces don’t only have to be squares in the middle of a city, but can be specific, tight areas that incorporate these elements, such as our downtown or the West G Street commercial district near Kiwanis Park. We need to think about how we can incorporate centrality, connectivity, and cachet into areas in our communities to take them from public spaces to great public spaces. Let’s talk about it

City and County Must Work Together for Economic Development

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Governor’s Conference on Economic Development in Nashville. It was a very exciting conference and the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TN-ECD) unveiled a series of new programs in order to help Tennessee communities and counties. Some were simply technical assistance while others were lucrative grant programs.

There are three big programs I want to discuss. The first is the Drive to 55 program. This program is a part of TN-ECD and the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development and is associated with programs such at Tennessee Promise, Tennessee Reconnect, and Tennessee LEAP. The overarching goal of this program is the large need for the Tennessee workforce to attain higher levels of education either in the form of college or job certifications. The point of this program is that by 2025 it is estimated 50 percent of the workforce must have some type of college or vocational training in order to be an attractive place for businesses to locate. For ages 25+ years, Carter County currently stands at 41 percent so over the next ten years we need to increase this number to 50 or preferably 55.

Another program is the Main Street program. This is a popular program used around the nation with the purpose of helping small businesses on “Main Street” in every community prosper. This program was originally started to help communities revitalize their downtowns and served as a model to help make downtowns a destination and attractive in a community. The model and techniques used have proven to be highly successful in a range of communities. This program also comes with additional grant funding opportunities. Elizabethton does not currently participate in the Main Street program, but city staff have encouraged Main Street program guidelines to various downtown organizations.

The last program for today is the Select Tennessee program. This program helps counties in Tennessee identify and prepare properties prime for industrial development. These properties must then be provided with utilities, have environmental studies completed, be provided with transportation options, and owned or optioned by a governmental entity. The state will then certify such a site and help market the site to potential industries. Grant funding can also be provided to counties wishing to help pay for these expensive process.

This is just a glimpse of the programs the state has to help and encourage cities and counties in the state. The key, though, is that we must work together to accomplish these things. Many are expensive or require a combined effort at the state level. The city cannot do it without the county, and the county cannot do it without the city, but together we can make our county economy better. Let’s talk about it!

High Density Residential Could Breath New Life into Downtown

The last few weeks I’ve talked about transportation options for Elizabethton’s future, but one major element of the conversation has been left out -- land use. Land use is a term used in the planning community which tells us how specific pieces of property are being used by our citizens and businesses. For example, I would categorize most of the Blackbottom neighborhood as a single-family residential land use or the West Elk Avenue area as a retail commercial land use.

Land use gives us an idea of what types of uses the property currently is and commonly a descriptor lets us know what the density or category it is being used as. Land use is critical to transportation. If there is a high density residential land-use, for example, cities need to create wider streets for more cars, wider sidewalks for more pedestrians, and bike lanes for people to bike.

As we look to the coming year, the Planning Commission has shown interest in moving forward with creating higher densities in and around the downtown area. This type of density would allow for small condo buildings, townhomes, and apartments. Unlike other parts of residential we’re encouraging in downtown, this area will be strictly residential. With higher densities of people come the need for more and better sidewalks, the installation of bike lanes, and the need to make our streets more user friendly for multiple people, not just cars. Even golf carts can have a role to play in helping create this higher density residential district.

This type of land use will impact the types of transportation infrastructure we, as a city, offer and could result in narrower roads with different parking arrangements for Elk Avenue and E Street, the addition of bike lanes to Sycamore Street and Main Street, one or two transit bus stops in downtown, and don’t forget the addition of golf carts.

Now, all of this will certainly not happen at once and it may even take a decade to put all of the infrastructure in place. But higher density residential areas can bring a lot of positives to our community. The more people who live here, the more ways the city taxes are split, the more ways utility infrastructure costs are split, and it can help bring life back to our downtown buildings and businesses. Let’s talk about it!