Is it time for Craft Breweries in Elizabethton?

Craft breweries, wineries, and distilleries, these are the synonymous buzzwords for progressive and prosperous communities – the “cool” places if you will. After the “Great Recession” these types of businesses began to take off. According to the Brewers Association, microbreweries grew from 450 in 2008 to just over 1,400 in 2013 – a 314 percent increase in just five years! While small wineries and craft distilleries have not grown as fast, they are picking up speed with new ones popping up everywhere. This is evidenced just by looking at the number of local wineries and distilleries that have started within the past five to eight years.

While some of these alcohol manufacturers choose to locate in popular places (after all, who wouldn’t want to start a business in a popular location) other choose to locate because of local regulations and incentives. Elizabethton does not currently regulate craft or micro-breweries, wineries, or distilleries nor do we incentivize these types of establishments – but should we?

These small alcohol manufacturers play an important role in the economies in which they exist. Alcohol manufacturers (just like product manufacturers) are part of the export-base businesses in a community. Without getting too detailed, these businesses sell products (unique beer, wine, or liquor in this case) to people or businesses outside of our community. Those businesses’ or people’s money then comes back into our community through the alcohol manufacturer to be spent locally by their employees and services needed. Communities would become stagnant without export-base businesses. The best part about alcohol manufacturers is that they don’t need a big warehouse or factory to make a product just a small barn or large garage.

As I mentioned earlier, small wineries, craft distilleries, and microbreweries help make a city or a place “cool.” People want to visit areas with these types of establishments, which mean tourism. Wineries, craft distilleries, and microbreweries usually have some type of distinguishing local characteristic, whether it’s the local flavor of a wine, the background picture on the beer label, or the name of the distilled liquor. People want to visit these unique places, experience the unique flavors, and often unique buildings of these establishments. Once the visitor's experience is complete they leave alcohol purchases, lunch and dinner purchases, shopping purchases, and lodging expenses all here locally and return home.

There are always some cons associated with these establishments, after all these establishments do sell alcohol. However, this is something for us as a community to ponder as we look for ways to reinvent ourselves and liven our local economy. Let’s talk about it!

Designing a City for Good Health

A new trend that has been popping up in planning circles lately is the intersection of human health and urban development. Today, more people live in urbanized areas than have ever before in the United States – some 80 percent. With more and more people living and moving to urban areas, this causes many in my field to wonder what we need to be doing to plan for good human health.

Many studies have shown that the simple layout of a city can have profound effects on the health of its population. One study done at the University of Colorado–Denver looked at multiple Californian city's street layout and compared this to the average health of its citizens. Surprisingly, they found a direct correlation between the two. Cities with high intersection density (a measure of compactness and interconnectivity) had created an urban layout that “significantly reduces the risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.”

Simply making these policy changes has an impact on the psychology of the people by creating a space that they desire to be in and encourage their interaction. And, let’s face it, who wants to walk two long blocks as opposed to four short blocks… saying you walked four blocks sounds much better than two. By requiring developers to connect to existing roads and building developments that provide more intersections and smaller blocks would this create similar outcomes?

Something I alluded to previously is creating a space that people desire to be in and interact with. Your neighborhood may be great for driving through, but does it make you want to go for a jog after work or to go for a family bike ride on a Saturday afternoon? Communities and neighborhoods that are designed with people in mind often have healthier populations and are also more desirable to live in.

People oriented urban design often involves the inclusion of sidewalks along streets, tree lined streets, parks within a 5 minute walking distance, schools within a one mile radius, a corner store within a one mile radius, homes with front porches close to the street and sidewalk… well I could go on, but you get the point. These types of neighborhoods create a pleasant environment that is inviting to residents and encourage citizens to get out and walk, jog, or bike for physical health and meet, talk, and interact with other neighbors for psychological health.

How does Elizabethton rank? Do the urban design and layout of our community invite and encourage interaction? What other urban design elements should we incorporate to help create more opportunities for better public human health? Let’s talk about it!

A CBID for Elizabethton

For a while now, I’m sure many of you have heard discussions about a Central Business Improvement District (CBID) in downtown. The subcommittee has finally gotten to a point to begin recruiting property owners to help form a CBID for us in Elizabethton, but many still do not know exactly what it is and how it works.

Central Business Improvement Districts (CBID) works similar to a Home Owners Association works. With a Home Owners Association there is an annual fee that is paid to a board to help support and make repairs to various association amenities such as fencing, club houses, pools, tennis courts, golf courses, and possibly even roads. So too with a CBID the annual assessment is dedicated to a board of directors who pays for CBID amenities such as landscaped streets, landscaped parking lots, better pedestrian crossings, new parking lots, building façade improvements, and even the salary of a person to recruit businesses to the CBID.

The purpose of the CBID is to create a high level of service that what the city currently provides. If the board of directors wants to create a grant program to help businesses fix their buildings they can. If the board of directors wants to create pretty parking lots they can all using the funding from the property owners in the CBID.

Many cities have seen much success with the implementation of a CBID. One of the most important elements of the CBID is the board of directors. This board is created by vote from the property owners of the CBID, NOT by the City Council or any other government body. The CBID property owners elect one of their own to make up the board and decide what improvements need to be made within the CBID. This puts the property owners directly in the driver’s seat of the district rather than city officials.

With the property owners comprising board seats, they are also in the best position to decide and determine what additional services may be needed within the CBID. The board of directors would incorporate these needs into a plan that the board would fund and implement. This could be the need for additional parking areas or maybe businesses and property owners would like to have a more attractive district with flowering baskets or maybe there is a need to recruit more businesses to come downtown.

A CBID will not be the sole solution to our downtown or redevelopment projects, but it is a huge leap in the right direction. A CBID forces the property owners to be involved, which, I believe, will do more to improve our downtown than spending CBID assessment dollars. The question is, is there enough support to get this started? What other ideas can we consider to improve our downtown? Let’s talk about it!

There’s more than Books at the Library

We all remember the days when we were children of going to the library. We’d get to look through countless books trying to find the perfect one to borrow for the week. I would read it as fast as possible with the hope of being able to read it twice before it was due! While the library is still a place to borrow books, today's libraries have so much more to offer and have become community resource centers. Your Elizabethton-Carter County Library is no different.

There are many resources to utilize at the library. Along with books, the library has many computer stations set up. If you are unable to afford a computer or the internet, you can surf the web, file your taxes, find product reviews, search for jobs, write a letter, and many other things minutes away from your home!

Why spend money at the Redbox or rent your movies online when you can borrow them for free at your public library? A simple library card (which is also free if you live in Carter County) gives you access to our local library DVD collection as well as access to the library’s collections from Greeneville to Mountain City.

Among the books, you will also stumble across the Elizabethton Archives. Here you can find various documents and information about the City of Elizabethton, businesses and industry in Elizabethton, and other churches and families that once lived in Carter County. The archives contain rare and unique items from Elizabethton’s past such as old city maps, North American building blueprints, and old churches and business directories. Our Archivist will also meet with you to discuss any unique items you may have and help with any genealogical research.

For those who may not live close to the Library we are constantly looking for ways to expand our services to you as well. Currently our library subscribes to a service called R.E.A.D.S. This service provides many fiction and non-fiction digital books, audio books, and movies that can be accessed right from your home internet connection without making a trip to the Library. With a digital reading device such as a Nook, Kindle, or iPad you can access this expanding collection with a library card and a few finger taps!

The library also subscribes to the Tennessee Electronic Library (T.E.L). These services can be accessed from any internet-connected device and offers a variety of services. Take a practice test for your GED, do some research on a topic your interested in, find out more about a new career, do some genealogy research on your family, or learn a new language all right in your home for free.

As you can see, there are more than just books in today’s library. Take advantage of these services, they’re free to you! The City of Elizabethton is dedicated to providing and enhancing these services. What else would you like to see our library offer? Let’s talk about it!

Is Elizabethton ready for Density

Cities for centuries have been the urban center and economic driver of a region. What specifically differentiates cities from other areas in a region, or a county in our modern era, is density. When we think of dense cities our mind often goes directly to the dilapidated and crime-ridden inner-cities of Chicago, Detroit and New York, but often this is a misconception! As a matter of fact, many cities today recognize the benefits of density and spending millions to revitalize these inner-city areas. Let's talk about some benefits on a smaller city level to see if higher density would be appropriate for future development in Elizabethton.

With more businesses and residential homes per acre everything is going to be much closer together. This would make walking to a restaurant, your insurance agent, or even work much easier. The benefits here directly affect our citizens because less money would have to be spent on gas for a vehicle and a healthier lifestyle can be accomplished walking a half mile to work and back rather than driving. Increased density would also become more attractive for new retailers to locate in Elizabethton.

As density increases in a community, the property tax burden on each property owner also can decrease. Imagine how much property taxes would be if you only lived on a 3,500 square foot lot instead of a 5,000 square foot lot or if your property tax was split between twelve different people in your town home home-owners association instead of six.

An increase in density, much like with property taxes, also making providing city services much more efficient. When a road is built it doesn't matter if there are three houses in that block or 20 condo units, the cost to build the road remains the same. Now there are some instances in which there would be a slight increase for major roads, but this would not be likely for local roads. This same idea can apply to water lines, sewer lines, and electric lines. This also spreads the cost of the utility over more customers making the cost per household cheaper. Along with decreasing costs, Jane Jacobs, a prominent urban influencer, even suggests lower crime rates can be achieved per person in higher density areas because of the number of people who will be moving about the street will increase making it less criminal friendly.

Currently Elizabethton limits density based on a particular zone to 4 units per acre, 5 units per acre, and 8 units per acre and a variety of setback requirements. Could we change this to 4 units per acre, 6 units per acre, and 12 units per acre and what should the city be doing to encourage this type of development? Let's talk about it!

Creating Uniqueness is the Future of Elizabethton

Uniqueness – it is what differentiates Elizabethton from Greeneville, Johnson City from Kingsport, and Chattanooga from Knoxville. Some communities have it and take advantage of it, other communities have it and don’t utilize it, while other communities just look like all the rest!

Today, uniqueness is the key to many different successes associated with communities. From tourism, economic development, to increasing community incomes, to a community’s pride all can be tied to the unique look of a community.

Now, this does not mean that one community has weird customs or traditions, but that a community can be differentiated from another community. Just by looking around, how do you know you are in Johnson City rather than Bristol? It could be the types of unique or historic buildings, it could be landscaping patterns such as tree canopy lined streets, it could be the type of houses, it could be brick paved sidewalks, or it could be the overall development pattern.

Here in Elizabethton and Carter County we talk about the need for more tourism, more economic development, more shopping alternatives. Creating a unique community can contribute to solving all of these needs. Tourism in and of itself focuses heavily on uniqueness. People don’t want to visit a community that’s just like every other community. They want something unique!

We are competing with cities all over Tennessee and the county for industries, businesses, young families, and retirees. We want them to look at Elizabethton as a place that has a unique look and feel to it, something different that stands out in Elizabethton, but not in other communities. It’s commonly joked that rather than population, education levels, and workforce availability a CEO’s wife is the one who chooses where a company will locate simply by deciding where she wants to live. To a certain extent, I believe there is some truth to that. Does Elizabethton have the uniqueness needed to attract a CEO’s wife?

First impressions are important for a community and a bad first impression is hard to change. Communities must continually work to present itself as a unique, distinctive community starting from the gateways of the city to the downtown, the center of the community. It’s those first impressions that keep visitors and investors wanting to come back to visit and invest in Elizabethton.

Elizabethton has many opportunities to sell and create our uniqueness, but do we? How is the look and feel of Elizabethton different than Greeneville, Athens, Jonesborough, Erwin, or Church Hill and how can we put it on display? How do people know they are in Elizabethton other than the ‘Elizabethton Corporate Limits’ sign? Let’s start this conversation in our community. Let’s talk about it!