Implementation

Five-Year Improvement Program
The City of Knoxville’s planting program started out over a decade ago with a target of planting about a thousand trees each year. That program includes street trees as well as trees that are planted in parks and around public buildings. With a rise in cost, fewer trees have been planted in recent years. A basic recommendation of the five-year improvement program is to adjust the budget for city tree purchases to maintain the target of planting one thousand trees each year.

Planting in Neighborhoods

  • Park City: street trees in planting strips, starting with Washington Avenue and Jefferson Avenue
  • Oakwood: street trees in planting strips, including “bulb-outs” along Morelia Avenue
  • Old North Knoxville:street trees in planting strips, starting with Oklahoma and Scott Avenues
  • Cecil Avenue: street trees in planting strips and create a yard tree planting program with adjoining property owners
  • Chicamauga Avenue: street trees in planting strips; also improve sidewalks and extend planting strips and street tree planting
  • Lonsdale:street trees in planting strips such as those along Connecticut Avenue
  • Church Avenue/Riverside Drive area: a wider range of species, especially in infilling the pattern of existing trees; and medium-sized trees along Riverside Drive, large trees east of the Public Safety Building and more trees that would soften the edges of James White Parkway, including the embankment leading up to the Marriot Hotel
  • Gibbs Road: street trees (both small and large native species) and tree replacement program
  • Fountain City Park/Lake and Essary Road: start replacement program where trees have died or are dying; create sidewalk improvement and planting strip plan for Essary Road
  • Vanosdale Road/ Francis Road: develop street tree planting program including trees in the planting strips near the middle school
  • Sarah Moore Greene Elementary School: plant trees along adjacent roads
  • Linden Avenue: continue planting mix of dogwoods and large deciduous trees, including linden trees
  • Bearden Village: continue planting program
  • Fairmont Boulevard/Emoriland Boulevard: plant a mix of large deciduous and small native trees in planting strips and in yards that do not have trees
  • Northwest Middle School: plant additional trees along Pleasant Ridge Road
  • Island Home Avenue: plant water tolerant species next to river
  • Island Home Pike: plant trees to define the greenway
  • Sevier Avenue: create planting wells and planting spaces for trees (also a sidewalk refurbishing plan)
  • Young High Pike: plant trees in similar patterns to other parts of the pike, starting with post office vicinity
  • Moody Avenue: develop tree planting program, including replacement of invasive species
  • Buffer Plantings: behind Hardees in Fountain City and behind new shopping center (near Adair Gardens)
  • Buffer Planting: Lindbergh Forest (behind old Howard Johnson’s)
  • Dogwood trees: (blight resistant varieties) in all Knoxville neighborhoods

Major corridor plantings

  • Median Plantings: continue throughout the city, including Clinton Highway, James White Parkway and the new Schaad Road
  • Papermill Road and I-40/75: plant an evergreen and deciduous mix in the intervening space
  • James White Parkway: continue planting program based on informal designs, especially at interchanges
  • Magnolia Avenue: continue landscape program, including potential boulevard development east of Cherry Street; gateway planting at Winona Avenue
  • Martin Luther King, Jr., Avenue: plant mix of small and large deciduous trees along the entire length of the avenue
  • North Central Avenue: plant trees in planting wells in Happy Hollow
  • Central Avenue and Broadway: create gateway plantings to the neighborhoods
  • Maryville Pike: plant evergreen screening next to the salvage and industrial yards
  • Middlebrook Pike: plant small trees under utility lines and large trees in adjoining yards (north side between Vanosdale and Weisgarber)
  • Kingston Pike: plant a mix of trees in the drainage area at Papermill Road; riparian trees at Fourth and Ten Mile Creeks
  • Thoroughfare/Interstate Interchanges and Crossovers: continue to plant trees in these areas

Program development and ordinance changes

  • Create a Knoxville Tree Foundation: identify “champions” to enlist corporations, businesses, neighborhoods and civic organizations to initiate the foundation; secure services of an attorney to create nonprofit status, by-laws and related documentation
  • Begin “Grass Roots to Tree Roots” Program: start with demonstration projects for FY 2003 and FY 2004; look to integrate this program with Tree Foundation
  • Expand educational programs: develop brochure regarding tree matrix and planting and maintenance practices; broaden Arbor Day events to include neighborhood planting; develop internship program with the university for design plans, tree health assessments, and other urban forestry projects
  • Update tree protection and planting ordinance(s)
  • Create new parking lot design standards
  • Evaluate staffing needs, particularly in relation to maintenance (including early pruning and removal of dying topped trees) and design assistance for neighborhood and thoroughfare planting programs
  • Improve arboricultural industry practices, regulating tree topping and other improper treatments

Demonstration projects

  • Kudzu Elimination: starting with North Broadway and Chapman Highway
  • Invasive Tree Elimination: consider places where privet and mimosa have limited growth of native species (e.g., Moody Avenue and Magnolia Avenue/Rutledge Pike)
  • Concrete Median Replacement and Tree Planting: east part of Middlebrook Pike and Broadway at I-640
  • Structured Soil Project: use structured soil in planting trees in a difficult “hardscape” site to test the effectiveness of its use in other high traffic applications

Implementation with concurrent projects

  • Develop and implement planting plans with the following improvements: Western Avenue, Alcoa Highway, James White Parkway, Moody Avenue, Pleasant Ridge Road, Washington Pike, Cumberland Avenue
  • Downtown: conserve trees as identified in the Street Tree Plan and create plan for other streets as part of downtown urban design element
  • Chapman Highway Corridor Plan: include tree planting element
  • Fountain City Heritage Planning: create tree planting program