Perhaps it's biting off more than planners can chew, but we'd like to see the "Reimagining Broad Street" initiative extend from the riverfront to the foot of Lookout Mountain.
With movement finally underway on the former foundry site off Broad Street, it seems more important than ever that the riverfront and the site for a new multipurpose stadium -- and whatever else will be developed on the 120 acres -- be connected in a comprehensive and visionary way.
The initiative currently plans to look at Broad only from the Tennessee Aquarium to M.L. King Boulevard, with a goal of having a plan to present in late spring 2023, officials said last week.
However, foundry site developers say a replacement stadium for the Chattanooga Lookouts could be finished as soon as 2025. As things stand now, visitors to downtown Chattanooga can walk to AT&T Field from any number of hotels or take the free electric shuttle.
But the shuttle only goes as far south as its garage/station adjacent to the Chattanooga Choo Choo. And visitors won't want to walk the three miles to get from the aquarium to the new ballpark area via Broad Street. The Tennessee Riverwalk offers a more scenic option but is probably not the ideal route if you're taking tired children another three-plus miles back toward the riverfront at 10:30 p.m.
Of course, the area's attractions don't stop at the new foundry site. A comprehensive plan for Broad Street also would make the attractions on Lookout Mountain look more inviting.
Since the options in the block-by-block Broad Street urban design analysis include narrowing the road from four lanes of traffic to two, with turn lanes and major intersections, why not study the rest of the route to the foot of the mountain at the same time?
"It'd be great to do the entire street," Barry White, chief executive officer of Chattanooga Tourism Co. said Tuesday in a telephone interview. "[The corridor] needs to be very accessible for people."
But he said the reimagining of the aquarium-to-M.L. King stretch is focusing on pedestrians, with cars second or third.
"Transportation modes will have to shift," White said. "The idea is not to be in a car. Unless you're at a drive-through window, you can't do a lot of buying. The idea is to get people into the shops."
The study also is to examine parking and economic development opportunities while integrating technology and green infrastructure.
Public input is highly desired and may be given through an online survey (broadstreetcha.com) or through a series of design gatherings, lunchtime listening sessions, online forums and input sessions at neighborhood and organization meetings, according to the downtown nonprofit development group River City Co.
The Broad Street study grew out of the One Riverfront plan -- unveiled in 2021 with input from more than 2,000 people -- that foresaw Broad Street as more of a pedestrian corridor with wider sidewalks, better bike paths (they couldn't be much worse) and on-street parking.
Emily Mack, president and chief executive officer of River City, said at the time that if the Lookouts were to move to the foundry site, a similar planning process to One Riverfront would be held for that area.
But why wait?
Since the "Reimagining Broad Street" study will now extend to M.L. King, why not have groups look at the thoroughfare -- perhaps in chunks -- from King to Main Street, Main to 20th, 20th to the viaduct and then the viaduct to Tennessee Avenue?
The plan for each chunk obviously won't be ready for the spring of 2023, but the work will have started, and the city won't be playing catch-up once things begin to fully develop in the foundry area.
Transportation, it seems to us, is especially important. Although President Joe Biden has set lofty and probably unreachable goals for electric transportation in the next 10 years or so, it's not unreasonable to think about electric public transportation connecting the riverfront and the South Broad district. An electric shuttle that would go the length of Broad Street makes sense to us, with perhaps other electric vehicles ferrying passengers to the ballpark or to the Incline.
Or, dare we even think about the use of railroad tracks that run from an area adjacent to the Blue Goose Hollow Trailhead straight through the foundry area? Imagine a conventional train -- or a monorail-type -- taking passengers those few miles. A Chattanooga Choo Choo, indeed.
Pie in the sky? Perhaps. But why not think about the importance of the connection between the two areas and how critical it will be for people to get from one to the other without getting in their car and driving?
We in no way are critical of the "Reimagining Broad Street" plans, the public input that is needed going forward, and the timetable of offering a report next spring. We are simply urging the study continue to develop plans for what's around the corner. It'll be here before we know it.