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.

The Twins are a Contributer to Elizabethton

Author's Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author's alone and do not represent the views of the City of Elizabethton administration or City Council.

As many of you know, the City of Elizabethton is faced with a dilemma. The Minnesota Twins are requesting a large amount of money be spent to improve the facilities where the Elizabethton Twins play – Joe O'Brien Field. Because of the amount of money that would have to be spent, this puts our elected and appointed officials in a difficult position. Do we spend the money on the Twins facilities and forgo some other improvements for yet another year or spend the money on other community facilities and projects that desperately need to be completed and risk losing the Twins to another community? I vote for the former.
 
Many times we hear government must be run like a business, yet here is a prime example of why a local government cannot be run like a business. The Elizabethton Twins provide more to this community than monetary or economic return alone. The Twins only return about $10,000 per year to the City's General Fund coffers and provide minimal amounts in the form of economic impact, yet the Elizabethton Twins provide something for the entire community to rally around. When we see the Elizabethton Twins featured on the news we are proud to be from Elizabethton. When the Twins yet again win the Appalachian League Championship we are sure to tell others that our hometown team is the most winniest team in the nation. This team fosters much community pride so that we can say we're proud to be from Elizabethton.

The Twins also serve as a destination for our community. You wouldn't believe the number of people who travel from Minnesota or other parts of the county just to sit in a small stadium and watch a good game of baseball. Dedicated baseball fans will travel to watch a game. Using a standard tourism model, we likely attract people from 45 minutes to an hour away from Elizabethton per game to come and watch a game. These are people who may not of otherwise drove to Elizabethton. And, it's likely, they will get gas, eat at one of our restaurants, or just grab a bottle of water from a convenience store while they're here (this is where the small economic impact comes in).

While the Twins alone may not drive tourism in Elizabethton, they do serve as just one more thing to do while you’re visiting, just like the golf course does. Standing alone neither entity may lure people to our community, but when paired with other activities it become a reason to visit. Having these multiple different tourism assets serves as the foundation to a tourism driven economy.

These are many different perspectives both for and against investing in the Twins stadium. But no matter how you feel, be sure to let your elected representatives know! This is a difficult decision for them to make and the more input they have, the easier it will be for them to make the decision that the community supports. Let's talk about it!

The Need for a Comprehensive Plan

Urban planning is centralized on one major tenant – preparing for and helping communities avoid problems. And just like you, city planners must think ahead to the future and calculate what types of problems may occur if different decisions are made. One of the most common ways of doing this is adopting what is called a comprehensive plan.

Comprehensive plans are an important component to running a city and keeping it moving forward. The comprehensive plan serves as the community’s guide to moving the community into the future. Imagine if you built a house without blueprints. We know we need a foundation, but don’t know what type of material to use because we don’t know if the house will have one, two, or three stories. Do we put in a basement, crawlspace, slab, or build the house on stilts? Without that good foundation the rest of the house may be a waste.

The comprehensive plan provides us with the blueprints of how to build the city over the next 10-20 years. Sure, circumstances may change, funding may decrease, or a new major employer may come into the community causing a change in the plan, but this would be no different than asking a contractor to move a wall a few feet or add an additional closet to your blueprint. Tweaks can easily be made along the way. Even with the changes made, in the end you still have a well-laid out and constructed house that thought was put into and wasn’t simply pieced together.

Comprehensive planning also impacts many elements of our community. This type of planning incorporates areas such as historic preservation planning, economic development planning, tourism planning, and land use planning. This encourages an interdisciplinary approach to ensure that all of the different elements of a community are completing one another. Maybe economic development planning has identified we need more business land. The land use planning can then address where new business land can be identified and ultimately rezoning property to create more business land in the community.

Ultimately, a comprehensive plan gets the community to a place they desire to be. The key component in all of this is you, our citizens. Part of our job as appointed officials is to provide you with a community and city services that you desire to have. As we start looking at developing the first components of a comprehensive plan this summer, I encourage you to participate at every opportunity you can. Your input is vital to ensure the house we build is the house this community desires.

Elizabethton: Residential Suburb or Employer Community?

It seems today, there is a small battle going on and it plays into almost every political fight we have locally. What role does Elizabethton and Carter County play in the larger region? Some argue Elizabethton is an employment center for the people of Elizabethton and Carter County and, as such, want to push for better and more robust economic development activities. Other say they are resigned to the fact that Elizabethton is a suburb. They may not view economic development as a primary driver for the community, and would rather focus on our schools, housing, and quality of life to make Elizabethton the best place to live in the region. So, which is it – suburb or industrial community?

One indicator we can look at is the worker/employer base in Elizabethton – in other words, how many workers live in Elizabethton verse how many workers actually work in Elizabethton. As of 2014 (the most recent data available), Elizabethton has approximately 5,298 workers over the age of 16 that live in Elizabethton. Looking at the number of jobs in Elizabethton, as of 2014 there are approximately 8,296 people who work in Elizabethton. What this illustrates is that Elizabethton must bring almost 3,000 people from outside of Elizabethton to fill jobs.

If Elizabethton has to bring more people into the city, where are they coming from? Let’s look at another indicator – commuting patterns. We’ll start by looking at where workers who live in Elizabethton work. To make it easier we’ll use an example of 10 workers who currently live in Elizabethton – on average 3 work in Johnson City, 2 work in Elizabethton, 1 works in Kingsport or Gray, 1 works in Bristol, Piney Flats, Jonesborough, or Greeneville, and the other 3 work in other places like Knoxville, Morristown, or Erwin.

We’ve already established that people are coming to Elizabethton to work, but let’s look at where they’re coming from. Again using an example of 10 workers, 4 live in Elizabethton, 1 lives in Johnson City, 1 lives in Hampton or Roan Mountain, 1 lives in Jonesborough, Bristol, Gray, or Kingsport, and the other 3 live in other places such as Bluff City, Mountain City, Erwin, and Greeneville. These commuting patterns illustrate that a majority of the workers who live in Elizabethton work in either Johnson City or Elizabethton and that a majority of workers who are employed in Elizabethton live in Elizabethton, Johnson City, or other areas of Carter County.

Some conclusions this information gives us is that Elizabethton still remains an employer based community because more people clearly commute from other areas to work in Elizabethton that do the number of workers who live in Elizabethton. But the data also suggests that a large number of Elizabethton residents serve as a workforce base to other communities. This information again shows us the intricate way Elizabethton and Johnson City are intertwined. Johnson City residents commute to Elizabethton to work, and Elizabethton residents commute to Johnson City to work.

This data suggests that Elizabethton is at a pivot point or a fork in the road. In my opinion, in the next 20 years Elizabethton will shift to a residential suburb or remain in a duel role as both suburb and employer base for the area. Both have their benefits and both have their negatives. Which way would you like to see Elizabethton move? Let’s talk about it!

Breweries Could Provide Economic Boost to Elizabethton

I have written before about the impact and importance that craft breweries, wineries, and distilleries can have on our economy. The big point is that these industries are considered what we call base-export industries just like manufacturing. They produce a product and export it outside of the Elizabethton market in exchange for bringing money back into the Elizabethton market. This gives us the possibility of having a large economic impact in Elizabethton.

Breweries have the potential to have a large economic impact on their local communities. According to the Brewers Association, small and independent American craft brewers contributed $55.7 billion to the U.S. economy in 2014 and created over 424,000 jobs. For Tennessee alone, craft brewers created $159.20 of economic impact per person over the age of 20! Applying this to a local level and the impact on Elizabethton could be approximately $5,649,717! This impact on our economy is roughly the same as the impact of recruiting a new manufacturing industry that hires 10 people would provide.

Local craft breweries would also provide additional soft impacts on our community. Craft breweries tend to function as anchors to a commercial district especially after 5:00 when many other retailers are closed. Because they are destinations, they become attractive locations for other businesses that may be open after 5:00 such as restaurants, bakeries, and coffee bars.

Additionally, young adults and young professionals look for these types of businesses in a community where they desire to move. Indeed, the millennial generation (those born after 1980) has even come to adopt craft brewed beer as a central idea of their generation. Many times craft brewed beer is not inexpensive like nationwide beer brands. Often they cost $5+ for a glass, which helps prevent over consumption, yet still makes it affordable for the young accountant, store manager, or nurse. A brewery in Elizabethton will help make our community a more attractive place for young, talented, and educated people and couples to live. This also brings a more talented workforce to Elizabethton, which make recruiting a new business or industry much more easy.

While Elizabethton’s land-use policies do need to be tuned, right now a small brewery desiring to sell beer in downtown Elizabethton could do so at many locations. Additionally, many other locations outside of downtown are viable options as well! We must realize that there are many strong benefits to allowing and recruiting such an establishment and the positives will ultimately outweigh any possible negatives. Are we ready? Let’s take the next step forward. Let’s talk about it!