Groups putting a plan together Jonathan Hermann news-herald.net
After the success of a regional input session in
September, officials are now close to moving forward with plans for
more than 500 acres of Tennessee Valley Authority land along the
Tennessee River and U.S. Highway 321.
The input session, organized by Lenoir City Committee
of 100, TVA and the East Tennessee Community Design Center, brought
in 2,125 responses to the questions of what should be done with the
land. Of those responses, 356 were from meeting attendees, 1,172
were from an online survey and 597 were from students.
“That was a big deal,” Leslie Fawaz, studio design
director for ETCDC, said. “... For the community meetings I’ve held
and online surveys, it’s a really large number. You can tell there’s
a lot of community support for moving some of the ideas on this
project.”
The data was formally presented to TVA, Tellico
Reservoir Development Agency, Lenoir City and members of the
Committee of 100 during a Nov. 16 meeting.
“I think it was very favorable,” Fawaz said. “The
plan is to move forward with developing a plan. I think that would
be the next goal in this project to look at the ideas and see where
they could be implemented.”
The data showed the top three responses for each
recreation category included: hiking, a visitors center preserving
the “million dollar view” and greenway biking for land-based
recreation; kayaking/canoeing, boating/jet skiing and swimming for
water-based recreation; and waterfront restaurant, event outdoor
amphitheater and zip lining, rock climbing or adventure activities
for commercial recreation.
“We had a lot of student input and they were more for
the physical activities,” Fawaz said. “That weighted differently for
students than adults. (Adults) were more for the hiking and the
visitors center.”
Now that the data has been presented to TVA, there is
interest in moving forward with possible development.
“We are working closely with the Committee of 100
along with city and county officials to look at the recreation
potential of that land,” Scott Brooks, public relations
representative for TVA, said in an email correspondence.
The next step will be to craft plans and stages for
those plans, which will likely begin in January, Clayton Pangle, who
has been helping with the project, said.
“We hope to try to move forward with everybody
going back and thinking of pursuing different things that were
on the checklist,” Pangle said. “Not necessarily eliminating
things right now, but thinking of reaching out to a group that
could think of moving forward with a basic preliminary plan of
where things could possibly go.”
That will include designs for possible
facilities.
“At this point, we are working with the East
Tennessee Community Design Center to prepare artist renderings
of some of the ideas,” Brooks said. “Those should be available
for review in the next few months.”
The common goal for all parties is to improve the
land and provide an asset to the public.
“We want whatever happens at that property to be
an amenity for the community,” Brooks said. “We want to preserve
the ‘million dollar view,’ and we want it to be done right.”
For more information on the regional input
results and detailed breakdowns of voting, visit
http://www.communitydc.org/regional/.
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12/18/17