Express Your Politics, But Keep It Legal

It’s that season again! No, not for football, campfires, or pumpkin spice lattes, but time for politics and elections (although football, campfires, and pumpkin spice lattes sound like a much better deal)! While elections can often be boring and fraught with conflict, many people choose to participate and show their support for a particular candidate for a certain office. While there is certainly nothing wrong with this, yard signs promoting a certain candidate can often become unsightly and clutter the community landscape. Last year, the City of Elizabethton revised our sign regulations including the regulations for political signs.

In order to ensure that you enjoy your first amendment rights to political speech, the Regional Planning Commission and City Council have placed some simple regulations to ensure that political signs do not visually pollute neighborhoods and do not interfere with driver’s safety.

Sign Size. Political signs are permitted in both residential and non-residential zones in the city. Sign located within residential zones must be no bigger than 4 square feet (2 feet by 2 feet) and signs located in non-residential zones must be no bigger than 32 square feet (approximately 5 feet by 6 feet). If you are unsure of the zone your property is located in, visits our website, www.Elizabethton.org, or give us a call at 542-1503 to find out. Under no circumstances are political signs allowed to be placed on public property including parks, street medians, trucks parked in public parking lots, or other governmental property. If you are unsure who owns the property, find out before placing a sign.

Sign Locations. Political signs must be placed on your property and not in the public right-of-way or near intersections which can block sight distances. Signs smaller than 4 square feet should be placed on the house side of sidewalks or power line poles. If your property has neither nearby, you should observe a minimum 5 foot setback from the edge of the stone/pavement of the road. Signs larger than 4 square feet should be place at least 5 feet on the building side from sidewalks or power line poles and 10 feet from the edge of the stone/pavement of the road if sidewalks or power line poles are not near you.

Also keep in mind that you may only have one political sign per candidate per each piece of property or parcel. Please keep these regulations in mind when you participate in helping to elect your candidate. Violations of these regulations could result in city staff removing the sign or a citation to City Court.

Don’t forget early voting starts October 19th and keep in mind that there is more than just a presidential candidate to vote for this year – a Congressman seat, a State Representative seat, 3 City Councilman seats, 3 School Board Members seats, and a City Judge seat. Go vote. Let’s talk about it!

Acceptable Political Sign Locations for Signs Under 4 square feet.

Community Pride Starts With Citizens

I have many people visit my office with some really great ideas. Ideas that could truly improve our community, make it more pleasant to live in, and make it more attractive to visitors. The reality is, city government staff are very busy simply maintaining and operating the city as it exists and often do not have the time to dedicate to the implementation of a great, new idea. Don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly not that we don’t want to or that we think the idea is bad, but rather that we currently do not have the time available to dedicate to such an idea or project. Believe it or not, but our local city government is extremely lean when it comes to human capital. This is where you come in.

Many cities all over the country are made better and improved not by its local government, but by the involvement and participation of its local citizens. Locally, the Blue Plum Festival and the new Little Chicago Festival are operated by the Johnson City Development Authority and the Downtown Business Association, respectively, not the city. Yes, the city supports it, but they do not find the sponsors, recruit the bands, and plan the event.

Here in Elizabethton, the Downtown Business Association (DBA) is wanting to improve the walkways in downtown. They have approved a plan, received the blessing of the City Council to improve the city property, and are working to raise the funds necessary for the project. While the city is supportive, it is the DBA who is moving the project forward. The same is true with the banners and planters in downtown; the DBA maintains and improves them because they see a need and have a desire to improve the downtown.

The Women’s Civic Club is another example. They saw and need and a way they could help the community so they installed a fountain in Covered Bridge Park and maintain the fountain annually. They also wanted to help improve the looks of the entrance into the city and worked with city staff to purchase and install new entrance signage at the Golf Course. Again, the city supported the effort, but it was local citizens who saw a need and took it upon themselves to come to the city and say, “Here’s what we want to do.”

The Bonnie Kate theater and Carter County Proud are other examples of local citizens taking it upon themselves with the blessing of the city to help improve our community.

About two months ago I was approached by a lady who stopped in my office to check if there were any underground lines between the road and the sidewalk in front of her house. When I questioned more about her inquiry, she told me, “I feel like we need more trees along this street like some of the other neighborhoods in Elizabethton do, so I’m going to plant some trees in front of my house.” She went to Lowe’s, bought a few trees, and helped do her part to make the change she wanted to see in her neighborhood and in Elizabethton.

If you have an idea or something you would like to see in Elizabethton, do it! Come talk with our City Manager, another city staff person, or come before City Council with your idea, get the blessing of the city to move forward, get a group together, and make the change you want to see in Elizabethton. It can be something as small as planting a few trees in your front yard or a park or as big as a new festival for our city. It takes citizens like you to shape and mold our community into what it is today, not solely city government. Ask yourself, what do I want my city to be, then take the first step and do it. Let’s talk about it!

The Status of Affordable Housing in Elizabethton

Housing is something everyone needs. Rich or poor, employed or unemployed, single or married, we all need some type of housing. In Elizabethton, housing takes two main forms – apartments and detached single-family homes. One is renter-occupied and the other is commonly owner-occupied. Either of these types can be analyzed to determine if they are affordable for the people who live in Elizabethton or not.

To determine whether the housing is affordable or not, we use the 30 percent rule. This rule states that no more than 30 percent of your income should be dedicated towards your housing expenses. This rule is typically used in personal finance budgeting. It is also defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Because the U.S. Census Bureau tracks aggregated household income as well as housing expenses (mortgage and rents), planners can use this data to determine the approximate affordability of housing in a community.

Let’s start by looking at owner-occupied units in Elizabethton. Approximately 53 percent of all of the people who own their home have a mortgage while 47 percent own their home without a mortgage. Because a mortgage can have such a large impact on a family budget I want to look at these groups separately. When it comes to affordability of homes without a mortgage, we are doing pretty good. Just over 91 percent of these households can easily afford their own home. This story changes, however, when we look at those with mortgages. Just over 1/3rd or 33 percent of the households do not live in a home where their home expenses are less than 30 percent of their household income.

Looking at renter-occupied units this number gets a little worse. 43 percent (almost half) of all renter-occupied units, including apartments, condos, and single-family homes, pay more than 30 percent of their household income in rental expenditures. This is quite alarming! This data then begs the question, what do we do about it or, maybe, should we do anything about it?

Elizabethton, in the history of the city Planning Department, has never had any types of regulations on providing housing for a specific type of family or income level. The free-market has been allowed to work in Elizabethton – if there was demand, the apartments or housing subdivisions were built. So when almost half of the renters in the city and over 1/3rd of the homeowners with a mortgage live in housing that is not affordable, is it time for the city to step in? Some cities have done this and require certain numbers of affordable units in each development. Others have not and claim they will never interfere with the local housing market. What do you think? Which side of the table should Elizabethton land on this topic? Let’s talk about it!

Preparing Elizabethton for Fewer Cars

I frequently tell my Planning Commissioners that urban planning has two components – trying to prevent future problems and creating a look and feel of a community you want to live in. These are the two basic components that make up urban planning. In this column, we see these components begin to blur. There is the emergence of a trend that will likely impact Elizabethton in the next 5 to 10 years. This trend is a decrease in the use of cars. Let’s look at this trend and what impact it could have on Elizabethton.

When we look at the Millennial generation (those 16-35 years old), over 60 percent desire to live in a place where they have alternative transportation options to a car. This means, while they may own a car, they would rather bike or walk to work or run errands on a regular basis rather than drive their car and often times they may only have one car for the family rather than 2 or more. Additionally, this generation is the future of our community. We are projecting a decrease in Elizabethton’s population because there are not enough young families that live in our community. We must become an attractive place for this generation to raise a family in their own way which means creating more walkable neighborhoods and investing in the revitalization of commercial districts. The alternative is a diminishing tax base, decreasing workforce population, and lower incomes.

Often times the Millennial Generation is credited with the beginning of a “no-car” movement, however, there is another group who we are seeing move towards less driving – the Baby Boomer generation. Studies and planning publications have talked about the importance that independence is to the Baby Boomer generation. As they age, they may lose the ability to drive so they are more likely to move to a community where they can easily walk to many of the locations they prefer or need to visit such as the food stores, doctor’s offices, restaurants, retail stores, etc. This generation is quickly finding the same areas attractive that their children in the Millennial generation find attractive.

Lastly, after Erwin, Elizabethton has the lowest median household income in the Tri-Cities area (including those in Southwest Virginia). Many times families in these households may not have the financial ability to pay for one or two cars. We must create a community where these citizens can move around the city just as easily as those with cars. This helps create upward mobility, community pride, increasing incomes, and a stronger local economy.

Now, let me be clear, Elizabethton will still be friendly to automobiles, but we must look for ways to increase opportunities for other forms of transportation other than solely the automobile. What are some ways that you can think of to do this? Let’s talk about it!

Carter County is Better Off from 5 years Ago

Political season is in full swing and, just like any other major election year, we hear politicians from the local level all the way up to the national level talk about the economy. Inevitably, the party currently holding office will talk about how great the economy is, how many jobs were added, and have stories about all of the businesses they have helped. And, in response, the challenging party will talk about how awful the economy is, how we need to create more jobs, do more to help our grow businesses, and also have stories about establishments that went out of business. So, which is it? Are things good or bad? Well, let’s look at something that can’t lie – the numbers.

Let’s specifically take a look at Carter County over a 5 year time-frame (2010 to 2015). We’ll look at three different measures – jobs, number of businesses, and average annual salaries. The number of private sector jobs in Carter County has grown 6.7 percent over the last 5 years from 7,704 jobs to 8,222 jobs. The creation of over 500 jobs in 5 years in Carter County is a good growth rate, however this does trail the state growth rate of almost 13 percent. Add in local, state, and federal government employment to the County’s job growth numbers and we’ve added almost 650 new jobs in the last 5 years.

The number of businesses in our county have also grown by 4.8 percent with the creation of over 30 new businesses. Compared to the state average 7.7 percent growth in new businesses, Carter County still lags the rest of the state in growth of new businesses.

Lastly, and most importantly, is salary. Over the last 5 years the average annual salary has increased over $4,000 to $32,117! The salary growth rate of 14.5 percent beats the inflation rate for the same period of 8.7 percent and even beats the state average salary growth rate of 12.4 percent. The impact of salary increases means people have more money to shop in our local economy, have more money to save for traumatic life events, and more money to improve their homes and property. Salary increases have a rising tide effect.

There, of course, are other factors that can be considered to determine the viability of our economy, but for right now I think it’s safe to say Carter County is better off than it was 5 years ago. We’re in a stronger position and we must continue keeping the momentum moving forward. Let’s talk about it!

The Role of Public Art in Elizabethton

Sprucing up and revitalizing a city can be a very difficult task. There are many different aspects to a community that can have a real negative or positive impact on it. One aspect that can have a positive impact is public art.

Public art is a common placemaking tool. Because no two pieces of art are the same, public art helps identify, ground, and make a community unique. Anyone in the Tri-Cities knows they are in Bristol when they pass the giant guitar sitting at the corner of State Street and Volunteer Parkway. That one piece of public art alone gives Bristol something grounded, identifiable, and unique. The Veterans Monument in Elizabethton, while not a piece of public art, performs a similar function.

Many studies have also shown that quality of life is impacted by public art. People desire to live in an area that is unique and different. Businesses and industries like to see that a community is unique, diverse, and has culture. Public art is an ideal way to communicate this to these audiences.

Tourism can also be impacted by public art. How many times when we are in different cities and see a mural, statue, or maybe just an odd configuration of shapes made out of metal do we point, make a comment to our spouse, or move in closer to take a look? Additionally, it creates a memorable experience in that city or town and triggers the comment, “Remember when we saw that cool mural in Elizabethton?” perhaps even leading to visiting again.

Currently, the city does not have a public arts program, but we have put in place administrative policies to ensure that certain types of public art are not confused with certain regulations. As we all remember, murals in Johnson City are all but prohibited. Here, we have created specific policies on murals so they are not confused with sign regulations.

Public art can play an important role in recreating and revitalizing our downtown. The Downtown Business Association is currently working on improvements to make downtown a unique area of the city. Some of the bikes around downtown are a unique start. What are your thoughts? Should more public art be included as a component of our downtown and our community or do we have enough? Let’s talk about it!