SOUTH CITY SECTOR PLAN: The Development Plan

Development Objectives

• Strengthen the economic base and maintain full complement of the existing employment base.
• Minimize the impact of incompatible land uses.
• Provide a balance of land uses among industrial, commercial and residential.
• Redevelop vacant or underutilized areas. Provide uses that will support or enhance the existing economic base along the waterfront.
• Preserve & protect existing neighborhoods.
• Encourage water-dependent or water-related functions or activities on the waterfront:
  • Industrial uses that are specifically related to the river by transportation, manufacturing process and products
  • Parks and open space that provide water-related recreational facilities
  • Commercial and retail development that supports existing or proposed waterfront development, or promotes waterfront tourism
  • Housing that supports existing and future economic bases along the waterfront and downtown Knoxville

• Create a mixed-use center in the Blount Avenue waterfront area that may include retail shops, offices, community center, and an open space plaza. The new center can be used to promote waterfront tourism and serve as a neighborhood center for adjacent neighborhoods. The open space plaza can be used for hosting public events such as open-air concerts and special events for city, neighborhood residents and visitors.
• Create a neighborhood park at the corner of Hawthorne Street and W. Blount Avenue to serve neighborhood residents and area employees.
• Create an office/commercial mixed-use corridor on Blount Avenue between Augusta and Hawthorne Avenues.
• Improve sidewalks on Blount Avenue.

• Create a neighborhood center at Sevier Avenue/Claude Street as the core area of Old Sevier neighborhood. The neighborhood center may include civic, office, retail, or recreational uses.
• Develop Sevier Avenue as a pedestrian oriented office/neighborhood commercial corridor that includes shops such as grocery store, cafe, bookstore, etc.
• Preserve all historic structures (McMurray Building, 802 Sevier Avenue) along Sevier Avenue.
• Improve sidewalks with buffer strips and tree plantings along both sides of Sevier Avenue.
• Create a waterfront park along Old Sevier area for neighborhood residents and employees, and to provide water access for recreational use. The proposed park will be a buffer between existing industrial and residential development and will provide open space, boat access and water-related recreational facilities. The park will be connected to the proposed neighborhood center and the Sevier Avenue commercial corridor by way of a pedestrian street.
• Close Claude Street for vehicular traffic to provide pedestrian access from Sevier Avenue to the waterfront park.
• Build townhouses and condominiums along the waterfront with styles and architectural forms compatible with existing neighborhoods. Add a greenway along the waterfront by the housing development.
• Create a boardwalk outside the retaining wall of Baptist Hospital and link to the proposed Henley Street Bridge greenway (see Greenway Proposals)
• Convert Council Place to a greenway and link to the Baptist Hospital boardwalk (see Proposed Transportation Improvement 5).
• Connect the greenway and sidewalk system between the two sides of the river by adding a greenway along the Henley Street Bridge (see Proposed Transportation Improvement 3).
• Enhance the view of south Knoxville waterfront by planting native vegetation (e.g. black willows, red osier dogwood, and silky dogwood) over segments that are covered with rock riprap.