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Introduction

Cheat Sheet

What's the masterplan?

What are these buildings going to look like?

Who's going to run all these things?

How are we going to pay for all this?

What's going to happen to Market Square?

How can the public give input? And who's listening?

Worsham and Watkins: Who are these guys?

Plan Map

How can the public give input? And who's listening?

Everyone involved in the PBA process talks about public input. But figuring out exactly who to give input to is hard.

City officials say they welcome opinions, but they're not in a position to answer specific questions until they get a final proposal—which won't be until this summer. Developers Ron Watkins and Earl Worsham are contractually bound not to answer detailed questions about their plans as long as they're still the PBA's consultants, and they probably wouldn't want to anyway for fear of jeopardizing deals they have in the works. And the Public Building Authority is currently operating without a permanent CEO. Former PBA chief Mike Edwards is increasingly distanced from the project. And even PBA board chairman Jim Haslam is in an uncertain position—County Commission refused to reappoint him last year, but he's still there anyway because no one has named a replacement.

So if the public does speak its mind about the largest and most expensive development plan in Knoxville history, who's listening? Acting PBA head Darlene Smolik says emails and voicemails responding to the project are being compiled and forwarded to officials at the city, convention center, and PBA board. (As of Tuesday, the paltry tally was 26 voicemails and 15 emails.)

The PBA Board of Directors will hold a public meeting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 16 in the City County Building. Anyone with comments or questions can attend. Also, Metro Pulse is sponsoring a forum on the project and broader downtown development issues at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9 at the Bijou Theatre.

The email address for comments is [email protected]. The voicemail number is 215-4040.

But if that still leaves a lot of questions unanswered, officials say, that's just the way it is. "I don't expect an answer to every single question that pops up," Mayor Victor Ashe says.