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Fountain City Small Area Plan Introduction Residents and members of Fountain City Town Hall expressed a desire for MPC to provide a small area plan for the heart of Fountain City in order to address specific concerns. Some of the concerns that came out of a public meeting included the following:
This small area plan highlights key steps to be taken in response to these requests.
US Highway 441 is known in Knox County as Maynardville Highway, North Broadway, Henley Street and Chapman Highway. The North Broadway section through Fountain City acts as a major connector from downtown Knoxville to North Knoxville and North Knox County. It is one of three roadways that provide north-south access in the North City Sector; the other two being Parkdale Road/Inskip Road (a narrow and winding road) and Interstate 75. There are no north-south roads east of Broadway that connect through the sector. The challenge of north-south access is predominately due to the topography and location of two major ridge lines, Black Oak Ridge to the north and Sharp’s Ridge to the south.
As a major arterial, North Broadway serves both local and regional trips. Its Average Daily Traffic (ADT) ranges from 39,000 to almost 44,000 ADT. A major arterial is defined as “a street that provides major movement within the area, provides intercommunity connections to the local street system and moves through traffic between activity centers. Access control is desirable.”1 Because of the commercial nature and automobile-oriented uses that currently line North Broadway, access is a major problem with multiple curb cuts, driveways, and intersecting streets. Additionally, there are very limited facilities for pedestrians and no dedicated facilities for bicyclists in the current street configuration. Recognizing these challenges, the Fountain City community had an opportunity through the I Walk Month (organized by the TPO and funded by TDOT) to invite a nationally known pedestrian advocate, Mark Fenton, to conduct a walkability audit and a pedestrian workshop in Fountain City in April 2006. At the workshop, he reviewed the findings from the audit and encouraged residents and community leaders to address the whole problem by considering four elements of walkability: 1) a mix of land uses, 2) network of bike and pedestrian facilities, 3) site design and details, and 4) safety.
Additionally, Fenton asked the 45 workshop participants to break into groups and brainstorm solutions for the issues seen in the audit. Ideas included programs, projects, and policies. The major program ideas included education about active lifestyles; beautification of Fountain City (litter pickup, etc.); and promotion of alternative transportation such as a walking school bus, public transit, bike facilities, etc. The major projects included creating more sidewalks and recommended locations; streetscape improvements including landscaping, sidewalks, building setbacks; transportation improvements – more bus stops, shelters, connected greenways; improved safety through crosswalks, signs, maintenance of existing sidewalks, etc.; and a skate park for youth. Finally, the recommended policies include promoting connectivity through Fountain City; better enforcing of traffic violations; changing development policies to be pedestrian-friendly; changing viewpoint of policy makers; and creating a master plan with Smart Growth principles, including mixed-use development. From this public input, efforts are being made to improve North Broadway and Fountain City. A community group, Fountain City Connections, formed out of the walk audit with the purpose of making Fountain City a more pedestrian-friendly place. This group has been working with planners, engineers, public health officials and the Knoxville Police Department. To date, FC Connections has partnered with the City on identifying crosswalks on Broadway that needed striping or re-striping, and has been instrumental in getting several pedestrian push-button signals installed. Near-term goals include infrastructure changes in Fountain City, while in the long-run the group is working toward policy changes. FC Connections would like all of Knoxville to be a safer, more pleasant place to live. Mixed-Use and Town Center Redevelopment Concepts There are two types of mixed-use discussed in this sector plan. One deals solely with land use: An example would be a parcel that could appropriately be used for either low density residential, medium density residential or office in comparison with surrounding land uses. The other is more appropriately termed “vertical mixed-use” and refers to an area where land use can be a multiple uses within a parcel or multiple parcels. An example would be a parcel with a building that has retail or commercial uses on the first floor, office uses on the second floor and residential units above. Multiple mixed-use developments can be clustered together to form what is known as a town center. The town center is best described as a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use urban development that provides shopping, employment, housing, and business and personal services. The developments are intended to promote efficient, compact land use patterns and reduce reliance on personal motorized vehicles. A high level of attention to site and building design is required to promote attractive, functional development. An area that already has a town center feel is the historic Fountain City area where Hotel Road and Broadway intersect. This area could be enhanced through the addition of residential units, a comprehensive parking plan, and design standards for future buildings. Additionally, the district could be expanded across Broadway as properties redevelop and a safer pedestrian connection could be made to enhance this district. Low-density and medium-density residential units are already located within a 10-minute walk of the area near North Broadway and Adair Drive and North Broadway and Knox Road, and long-term redevelopment opportunities could add more residential units. The City of Knoxville zoning ordinance currently has a Town Center District (TC-1) to facilitate this type of development. It could also be realized through the use of form-based codes or overlays that are not currently a part of the development regulations in Knoxville. Figure 1 and Figure 2 show how an aging suburban shopping center can be transformed into a thriving mixed-use development.
There are two major community facility improvements in the works for Fountain City. This includes a satellite skate park that would be owned and maintained by the City Parks and Recreation Department. The request for this facility has come up in multiple meetings including the City County Parks, Recreation and Greenway Plan meetings and Fountain City Town Hall meetings. Additionally, greenway connections and connectivity were the most requested facility in the update of the Parks, Recreation and Greenway plan. First Creek runs roughly parallel to North Broadway on the western side of the street and provides a possible greenway link from Adair Park north to Fountain City Park. Another request that was commonly brought up was for a new baseball field for Central High School and more soccer fields in general. These requests are being accommodated through the design of the new Tommy Schumpert Park which is outside the sector area, but directly adjacent to it. This plan recognizes that there is pressure on Fountain City neighborhoods to redevelop with apartments, commercial, and office uses. Several lots within Fountain City neighborhoods have been redeveloped with apartment complexes that have a blank wall facing the streets and significantly more parking than neighboring detached homes. This trend of individual home lots being converted into apartments that have no relationship to the existing neighborhood has raised concerns on the part of residents and sector plan participants. The following Overlay Districts have various levels of controls in place to protect the design and character of older, traditionally low density detached dwelling neighborhoods. Additionally, neighborhood preservation areas (see Map 11) may benefit from rezoning the base zone to a more appropriate zone. H-1: Historic Overlay District Recommended Neighborhoods: Northern portion of Harrill Hills, Adair Gardens, Gibbs Drive, Colonial Circle and Peyton Place, and Midlake Road. NC-1: Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District NC-1 is a geographically definable area that has a significant concentration, linkage or continuity of sites which are united by physical development or history built prior to 1950 and an area greater than 10 acres. There are no neighborhoods recommended for the NC-1 Overlay at this time. IH-1: Infill Housing Overlay District Recommended Neighborhoods: see Map 11 for Neighborhood Preservation Area. For more information on these overlay tools, please see the City of Knoxville Zoning Ordinance, available online at www.knoxmpc.org/zoning.
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