Jackson Avenue Corridor Planning Session, Southern Railway Depot, Knoxville, April 2014
So many of you guys (my great readers) have intense passion about our topic, that I often get lengthy comments or sometimes emails. I really appreciate them. Often they are well thought out and a bit different from anything I might have produced. It happened last night when Just John sent me an email. I call him “Just John” to give him a little bit of privacy and to distinguish him from the other Johns who read this site. For some reason, this site has more Johns than the upstairs of Patrick Sullivan’s in its glory days.
Just John reminded me that today is the last day for public comment on the Jackson Avenue site. The city is soliciting suggestions of the kind of development we’d like to see there then, presumably, they will take bids for the site and look for the closest proposal to the desired type of redevelopment. You can read some background that led to this point here. The bottom line is that you all need to put your creative hats on and go to the website and espouse your vision.
I don’t have a grand vision, but I do believe the site needs to be connected to Vine Avenue via some sort of ramp or elevator connected to the (yet to be built) building on the parking lot on the south side of Jackson. The building placed atop the old McClung site should have parking beneath street level (easy since it slopes off) and the building should be attractive, if not spectacular when viewed from the Interstate. An architectural statement would be preferable. Retail should line Jackson at street level and there should be access to the area behind the new building – which is where the new greenway should be re-routed (not on Jackson as it is now).
McClung Site, Jackson Avenue, Knoxville, April 2014
That’s a small vision compared to that of Just John. Read his below, formulate your own and register your thoughts today! Here’s what he has to say:
For my part, I believe that in order to meet the goal of a ‘transformative’ plan the area needs to be, well, transformed. No Grand Redevelopment of that part of downtown can occur without accounting for the blighted pit at its center–the Norfolk-Southern Railyard. The rail yard occupies about 5 acres, between Broadway and Gay viaducts, and between the buildable land banks along Depot Avenue and Jackson Avenue. An adjacent railroad reduces property value 5-20 % (to say nothing of a whole rail yard!); and the noise and mess are prime contributors to that. In addition, this large area creates a figurative and also quite literal barrier to expansion of downtown activity into the northern blocks there.
So I say, “PARK IT ! ” — but with a meaning completely different from most downtown uses of that phrase.
Deck-over the whole yard, with proper attention to clearances for railroad safety and function, and with proper compensation to Norfolk Southern. Use existing technology to build an “intensive green roof” there–et voila’, instant 5-acre park, complete with trees, paths, space for active and passive use, birds, flowers, and –best of all– no railroad.
Property near parkland is valued up to 25 % higher than land further away. Norfolk Southern has the right to use its land and to keep its rails safe, but clearly they can be convinced to sell air rights–the City has several roads and viaducts crossing their railyard already. From looking at costs online, the cost to deck-over the whole area, and build a green park there, would be around $25M–no small sum, to be sure, but not that much when we hear of the city’s incentives for other development (which, by the way, I heartily agree with). With a 50 % increase in land (per sq. ft.) value from railyard-adjacent to park-adjacent, the tax increment there is substantial. In addition, this would allow for below-grade parking and access roads to be placed underneath the street-scape levels of the Jackson Avenue and Depot Avenue, enhancing the walkability of those streets.
That would create prime candidates for grand ‘terminated vistas’–at the Gay Street viaduct’s east side, and at the west side of the Broadway viaduct (which is to be redesigned soon). What better place could one find to build our much-needed and much-discussed grocery store and pharmacy, on one hand, or an outdoor theater / amphitheater space, on the other ?
Imagine living in a 10-story condo building, with views of a 5-acre park, and easy access via your building’s back door. A short walk brings you peace and relaxation, and also brings you access to your every-day needs. Meanwhile, the necessary but gritty rail commerce continues under your feet, unseen.
In addition, since the railway will stay safe and functional, a foundation is already thus set for transit access, whenever the city embarks on such a project.
So, there you go. He’s thinking big and it would be wonderful if just every once in a while we all did that. We need to have a big vision for that site and insist that we get something that comes close to that vision. We don’t need to settle. It might be better if the site remained undeveloped for a short while in order to allow the market to make a vision a real possibility if that’s what we need to do. If we settle for boring architecture visible in any suburb in America, we’ll be stuck with it for a generation or more. Please city leaders, do not let that happen. Think big. Think bold.
