Bringing Main Street to Downtown Elizabethton

You may have heard more recently about the national Main Street Program. This is a program founded by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a way to help historic downtowns and commercial neighborhoods revitalize. The program has been used across the county with much greater success than most other revitalization program. As a matter of fact, there are over 1,600 current Main Street communities nation-wide, 34 Main Street cities in Tennessee, and 58 Downtown cities (Main Street’s program for smaller towns) in Tennessee.
 The Main Street program helps communities organize and develop a community vision for their downtown. This is essential to ensure that we make sure we’re moving our downtown in a consistent direction forward. The program also looks at market capacity. What types of businesses do we need that would do well in the Elizabethton market. That information is then used to help develop a realistic vision for the future of the downtown and to help recruit new businesses to downtown.
 The program then utilizes the community vision and market information to help transform a downtown. During the transformation phase (which is never-ending), the program utilizes four areas of focus to ensure that community goals and the vision are being accomplished – economic vitality, design, promotion, and organization. Commonly, each of these four points have their own sub-committee of the larger Main Street board which oversees the program. Each of these sub-committees would contribute to the vision by focusing on their point. As time moves on and each of these points gain a clearer focus, and downtown development will begin to improve.
 A working committee of people with a range of ages made up of city councilmen, downtown businesses, downtown property owners, and chamber of commerce representatives, have been working and considering options for downtown revitalization and enhancing our downtown to take it to “the next level.” The committee has heard from some national and state speakers on the topic, visited other communities to see what they’re doing, and studied options that the State of Tennessee has to offer.
 At this point, they are considering recommending that Elizabethton become a Main Street community but are still looking for input. They’ll be holding a public meeting Wednesday, November 7^th at 5:30pm and another on Thursday, November 8^th at 8:00am at the Coffee Company to present this idea and gather input from the community to see if there is enough support locally.
 Elizabethton becoming a Main Street community brings a lot of positives for our downtown, but there are also some challenges. The Main Street program requires a full-time staff person, funding, volunteers, and, most importantly, downtown business and community support! This is not a program that the city can just create, and the success will happen. The most successful programs are usually independent of city government with their own funding sources and volunteers. In short, the most successful programs involve you. The program will not be successful if citizens who want to see success in downtown do not participate, attend meetings, and volunteer for events. We all have busy lives, but volunteering on the board or sub-committee for a few hours a month or giving your time to a downtown summer event is the only way success will happen. Are you in? Let’s talk about it!

A Quick Lesson in Historic Preservation

In Elizabethton we have a historic preservation commission. The job of this Commission is to oversee the improvements and development of the historic districts in the city. I am aware of a lot of misinformation that exists about being in a historic district, so today I want to take some time to help you better understand how this process works.

In every request brought before the Historic Zoning Commission there are two major questions they ask about the proposed change. First, does the proposed change affect or impact historic or original materials. Historic or original materials means any type of material that would have been original to the building. Often times this is windows, doors, or exterior materials such as brick.

Once a determination is made, the Commission will move on to a second question – does the project affect or impact the defining characteristics of the building, its site, or the surrounding environment? In this question, defining characteristics include the most noticeable elements of a building, such as the windows or door types, roof line, roof materials, exterior materials, and porches or balconies. I often tell my board imagine driving by the building after the change has been made and ask yourself is it noticeable or does it stick out. If yes, then it’s probably a defining characteristic. Additionally, the Commission also has the authority to review changes to a site or it’s environment such as the installation of fencing or other permanent changes to a site.

If the answer to either of these questions is ‘Yes,’ then the Commission will review the project to ensure that it does not violate nine different historic standards. If the answer to both of these questions is ‘No,’ then the Commission will likely approve the changes or the project.

I frequently hear a rumor that property owners don’t want to be in a historic district because they have the authority to regulate paint color. I am here to tell you this is absolutely not the case! You could paint your house or building hot pink with lime green trim if you want to and there is absolutely nothing the Historic Commission can say or do about it. The one exception is if the building currently has unpainted brick, in which case, the brick cannot be painted, but painted trim can be any color desired.

Lastly, being in the historic district does not mean that you will immediately be required to take your building back to how it looked when it was first constructed. Additionally, since many of the downtown buildings have been revitalized at some point, the Historic Commission will probably not even require any changes you want to make to be 1920’s appropriate so long as the building has had a more recent face-lift completed to it. The Security Federal building is a prime example. The Commission would only require changes to the building to be appropriate to the last major renovation (which would’ve been the 1980’s) and not require the building look like a 1920’s downtown commercial building.

The Historic Commission is a little know body, but it has great powers. I will say, working with our local commission that they desire to work with the applicant to come up with an appropriate solution rather than forcing a drastic change on a property owner. If you are in a historic district, I will be more than happy to visit your building and discuss with you how we can best accommodate your desires while still achieving the goals of the commission. Let’s talk about it.

Bonnie Kate -- A Next Step for Downtown Revitalization

I have only met a few people who have said in their opinion the purchase of the Bonnie Kate Theater by the community foundation was not a good idea. There are many valid reasons for putting the building into private hands – it could generate property taxes, the private sector takes on all of the risk, and, some would argue, the private sector could do a much better job of operating a business in that space.

While all of these benefits of the building being in the private sector may be true, we must equally weigh them against the benefits that the facility would provide when in the public sector hands. Some of these benefits include, bringing a new restaurant downtown, adding just one more destination to downtown, and creating a new asset for our community.

Talking with the foundation and the persons who have supported the preservation of the Bonnie Kate, they have already lined up a restaurateur to come and start a restaurant in the former café and bar spaces. I excited about this prospect because, while we already have many great restaurants downtown, we need more that will be open during evening hours.

The types of uses that have been discussed for the Bonnie Kate will make it another destination to our community and our downtown. This will serve as a revitalization tool to our downtown. One factor that we always consider in downtown revitalization is the number of destinations (think anchor tenants in a mall) in the downtown open during the day and during the evening. If the Bonnie Kate come to full realization, this will be a big addition to evening downtown destination.

Lastly, having the Bonnie Kate in the hands of the Foundation will create one more community asset to our city and county. The Foundation has intentions to bring in theatrical productions, musical concerts, and various other entertainment options. This provides something to this city and county that we have not had in the recent past. Community assets such as this bring people to our community from outside the area (like Johnson City, Bristol, and surrounding areas) and introduces them to our community. It also serves as a recruitment tool for people who are looking to move to East Tennessee and for business and industry.

Yes, the Bonnie Kate in the hands of the private sector could accomplish a lot with potentially similar outcomes. However, I would argue that with the vision and the building in private sector hands, it can become a permanent, historical institution to this community in the decades to come. Let’s talk about it.

Preserving the Places that have Meaning

Historic Preservation is an idea that has been given a bad rap in Elizabethton. Many people, rightly, associate Historic Preservation with the Historic Zoning Commission here in Elizabethton. Many assume that this Commission will freeze everything in place, stripping the property owners of the right to do as they wish with their property.

Yes, the Commission does regulate some aspects of the exterior of buildings, but this generally is just ensuring that the materials and style of the building remain true to when it was originally constructed and still allow a property owner to make changes as needed. While the interior of all buildings can be completely modernized, one goal is to keep historic structures and neighborhoods in our community, well, looking historic!

Another reality our Commission faces is that an occupied historic building is better than an unoccupied historic building. An occupied building is maintained much better that one that is unoccupied, so limiting the regulation on these buildings to some aspects of the exterior allows the business to modify the interior of the building to however they see fit in order to ensure the success of their business. Franklin, Tennessee and Asheville, North Carolina have done an excellent job of doing this!

The ultimate goal of the Historic Zoning Commission and other preservationists is to preserve the unique and historic places in Elizabethton. In other-words, to preserve the places that have meaning to our community. I often hear from people who tell me the Lynnwood Hotel was so beautiful and such a treasure to this community. I wish I would have been able to experience it as well and I’m sure many of you wish you children and grandchildren could experience it. This is an example of Historic Preservation at its core.

If other buildings that had meaning in our community fell in the name of progress, I would argue, years later, many would feel homesick for those buildings and scenes just like I see for the Lynnwood Hotel. Had the Historic Zoning Commission been around at the time, the Lynnwood Hotel might still be with us, rehabilitated back to its former beauty for another use.

I can understand frustrations with an extra layer of approvals, but take a moment to reflect on the alternative.

What are the places in Elizabethton that have meaning to you? Share with us your pictures of a place and a short sentence about why that particular place has meaning to you. Use this as an opportunity to begin the conversation about preserving places that have meaning in our community. Let’s talk about it!