If the past 20 years are any indication of Chattanooga’s potential, downtown can expect more housing, parking and green infrastructure changing the urban landscape by 2033.
And that’s just a small part of the tentative plan for “City Center,” the area bound by Fourth and 12th streets, Hwy. 27 and Georgia Avenue. River City Comapny, with help from the community and Kennedy, Coulter, Rushing & Watson, an urban–planning consulting company, recently unveiled a plan for the area after weeks of meetings and a community charrette.
For Justin Aragon, 26, it’s just the beginning of what he hopes is a complete transformation of City Center. Aragon lives just beyond the area’s Fourth Street border but works and spends most of his time downtown, he said.
“Downtown is young and dynamic and I think these plans are believable,” he said after the public unveiling last week. “But I hope to eventually see more changes. More pedestrian areas are important. There’s so much more potential here.”
Parts of City Center like Broad Street, a major roadway, don’t see their maximum potential, according to the planners involved in the project.
The plan calls for narrowing Broad Street from six to four lanes of traffic, allowing for expanded sidewalks, bike lanes and landscaping.
Other parts of the plan address the redevelopment of spaces like Miller Park, which could be redesigned and connected to Miller Plaza for a more open park. That would further connect people to Patten Parkway, which would evolve into a space with more greenery, a reclamation of the monument and an added parking structure.
Buildings and empty spaces along Market and Broad streets and even at Miller Park would develop into housing opportunities coupled with parking structures.
Allison Holmes, a UTC graduate who also lives beyond City Center, would like to live closer to downtown, if she could.
“It’s great to see the potential and I hope to see it take place because I want to be a part of it,” she said after the presentation.
The plans are all tentative, said Kim White, president and CEO of River City Company. But it’s a start and the company will continue discussing the plans in future meetings with stakeholders, she said.
“It will take community participation, city participation and help from downtown stakeholders and property owners,” said White.