by Joe Sullivan
A lot of propaganda is emanating from city hall these days about the city's need to grow in order to prosper. If growth was defined to mean encouraging more industrial, commercial, and residential development, that might be well and good. But that isn't what Mayor Victor Ashe and his mouthpieces are talking about right now.
Rather, they are trying to get the talk right for a massive claim stake of already developed territory that lies outside the present city limits. Spurred by the perverse workings of the state's new annexation law, the city must extend its urban growth boundaries now or else forego any more territorial growth for the next 20 years. These boundaries only permit—not prescribe—new annexation. But so high is the level of fear and distrust of city intentions in the surrounding suburbs that Ashe is going to have a very hard time getting anyone out there to believe that city property tax bills won't be forthcoming in short order.
If the city didn't have ample opportunities for growing its tax base within its present city limits, then such a land/tax grab might be more nearly justified. After all, the city is embarking on the most expensive public building project ever undertaken in the state of Tennessee (i.e. a $160 million convention center) and has yet to specify how it's going to be paid for.
Yet the convention center is itself serving as a catalyst for revitalization of the moribund sectors of downtown. And downtown is only one of many areas throughout the city with potential for urban redevelopment—potential that the city has only begun to seize on within the past few years.
This week's cover story focuses on the transformation that's underway in Mechanicsville where 255 new homes are going up on and around the site of the demolished College Homes. Of these, 138 will be for sale at an average price of $70,000, adding nearly $10 million to the city's tax base. The balance will be rental units of Knoxville's Community Development Corp., with subsidies for lower income households. But they, too, will contribute to the uplift of what had been one of the city's more downtrodden neighborhoods.
True, not every neighborhood can expect a $22 million federal HOPE VI grant and the $20 million in state and local matching funds that went into the College Homes makeover. But Knoxville recently won out over many other cities (including Memphis) in getting designated for a $100 million Empowerment Zone grant spread over 10 years—assuming all goes well. For all to go well, however, the city must be highly resourceful in fleshing out and selling plans for deployment of these funds within an urban zone that encompasses 20 percent of the city's land area.
Fortunately, the city has a resourceful director of development, Doug Berry, who is committed to doing as much for Knoxville's brownfields as he did for the greenfields of Loudon County, where he spearheaded industrial development until Ashe recruited him a little over a year ago. Serious attention is now being given to making use of the 150 acres of disconnected land known as the Center City Business Park in the vicinity of Western Avenue. Berry is also looking for an industrial user of the 60 acres of Coster Shop property that Norfolk Southern has for sale adjacent to I-275. And he also serves on a Caswell Park task force that's addressing future uses of that 22-acre tract of city property after the Knoxville Smokies take their leave.
Just drive Magnolia Avenue, or the stretches of Central Avenue and Broadway near their intersection, or for that matter Chapman Highway, and the possibilities for commercial redevelopment abound. Then there's the abandoned Brookside Mills site and the abandoned Brownlow School that could readily be converted to an office complex (not to mention returned to the tax rolls).
Berry may not be as residentially oriented as a predecessor, Laurens Tullock. But Tullock continues to pursue neighborhood redevelopment in his new post as head of the Cornerstone Foundation. Working in conjunction with two other not-for-profits, the Knox Housing Partnership and the Center for Neighborhood Development, blighted properties are being targeted for rehabilitation. Already, without benefit of any governmental funding, KHP has acquired 146 rundown rental units in two clusters and is rehabing them for resale at the rate of eight to 10 per month. Funding has taken the form of $4 million in KCDC-backed loans from a group of eight banks, and once this project is completed, KHP is aiming to get on with others.
"We're taking $20,000 units and converting them into $48,000 to $60,000 units, and then trying to facilitate home ownership on the part of their tenants through the use of forgivable second mortgages that are federally funded, " says a KHP official. The new homeowners will, of course, also become property tax payers, but KHP will allow any existing tenant to continue to rent.
Unfortunately, there is something missing from this picture: namely, the involvement of private developers interested in investing in commercial or residential projects in the urban core (exclusive of the downtown area). Property assemblage, remediation and building code difficulties are all impediments to urban redevelopers. But these are not insurmountable problems; and once again resourcefulness and resolve on the city's part can go a long way toward solving them.
The commitment that it took to make the Volunteer Landing development come off is evidence of that. And the adjacent south bank of the river, where a large tract of land has already been assembled by one investor, probably has far greater potential for waterfront development at far less cost to the city for supportive infrastructure.
In sum, to paraphrase Walt Disney, the city is beset by opportunities. Adversarily attempting to claim territory outside the present city limits will only divert attention from these opportunities to grow from within. It will be unfortunate if the state's divisive annexation law causes such a diversion.
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