Farragut and Maryville Create Master Plans for Future Development

KNOXVILLE, TN -- Many suburban towns with proximity to a major city struggle to create a sense of identity. Some have been eclipsed by urban growth and more or less merged into the metropolis. Others use zoning, building codes and, when appropriate, historic designations to brand themselves as unique communities. For residents and town officials, finding the “sweet spot” between functioning as a small town or a big-city suburb can be challenging.

Recently, two Knoxville suburbs engaged TSW Chattanooga to conduct a community visioning process and create a Master Plan to solidify each town’s unique identity and direct future development. Maryville and Farragut, both less than 20 miles from Knoxville, are home to many residents and businesses that value and depend on their proximity to the major city. At the same time, leadership in both communities sought to spur local economic growth by highlighting each town’s appealing features and creating new infrastructure where needed to attract visitors, residents and businesses.

“Working on two Knoxville-area communities at the same time allowed us to broaden our knowledge of regional impacts,” said Beverly Bell, TSW planner and landscape architect. “It gave us the opportunity to compare and contrast each town’s attributes, history, and more. And while our process of research, site analysis, community engagement, visioning, stakeholder review and plan drafting is similar, every strategic plan we develop is unique to each community we work with and reflective of the goals of those who live and work there.”

Maryville is the oldest of the two towns, founded in 1795 and encompassing approximately 16 square miles. As such, the city has an established city center with preserved historic buildings still in use today, and promotes its historic charm to visitors and residents. The city hosts a number of public events downtown that regularly draw citizens and visitors. At the same time, there is a continued need for new reasons to visit, shop and dine downtown with a limited concentration of destination retail, restaurants and services. There is opportunity to increase downtown’s customer base to support existing businesses, foster new economic growth and create a more well-rounded, unique destination experience for visitors and residents.

In contrast, Farragut was founded in 1980, nearly 200 years after Maryville’s creation, so it does not boast a historic downtown, although the town and surrounding area share a rich history dating back to the late 1700s. Settled as a stagecoach station, Farragut’s Town Center was originally known as Campbell’s Station, and in 1810, the Campbell Station Inn was built to accommodate travelers. The restored building remains today, and now sits in the center of the study area. The town’s comprehensive plan, originally completed in 2012, designed the study area as a future Mixed Use Town Center, with a goal of creating retail, entertainment, office and residential spaces in a safe, walkable environment.

Farragut is bisected east/west by the five-lane Kingston Pike, a major thoroughfare which separates the town’s northern and southern neighborhoods. Kingston Pike enhances Farragut’s connection to Knoxville and is heavily used by commuters, but it is a challenge to the town’s cohesiveness. Residents and community leaders who met with TSW clearly desired greater internal connectivity within Farragut, as well as a walkable, unified Town Center that would be accessible and convenient to all residents. Additionally, residents desired more restaurants and retail, but findings showed that many local residents commute to Knoxville for work and recreation, challenging Farragut businesses that need more daytime population traffic to thrive.

For Maryville, the planning team recommended focusing on and enhancing the historic downtown:

• Preserve and rehabilitate historic buildings to attract new businesses and residents downtown, while also promoting new development
• Provide a range of downtown housing options to establish a consistent customer base for downtown businesses and activate public amenities
• Create a connected system of downtown public spaces, utilizing public art, signage and lighting to facilitate a vibrant destination
• Invest in new and existing parks and create central gathering spaces
• Enhance connectivity and accessibility throughout downtown by improving walking and biking infrastructure
• Elevate downtown’s unique culture and improve amenities to create an attractive destination that draws visitors to the area, thereby enhancing economic growth

Farragut has both a unique challenge and a unique opportunity for placemaking. The busy Kingston Pike is a permanent fixture, so addressing connectivity was imperative. There are three large, privately-owned sites in the study area which pose development opportunities for a Town Center with high-quality housing.

“It’s unique for a town to have a large, centrally-located undeveloped tract adjacent to Town Hall that has so much development potential,” said Bell. “And while there are still a lot of unknowns about the future of the property, it was imperative to proactively explore the possibility of creating a new walkable and vibrant town center with a central town green on axis with Town Hall.”

Starting from scratch on an undeveloped tract would give Farragut the opportunity to design a new town center that could include a mix of housing options, a boutique hotel/event space, office, retail and restaurant spaces, new roads with pedestrian and bike lanes, and numerous gathering spaces such as public parks, plazas, children’s play areas, event spaces, and more. Because Kingston Pike is a defining fixture in Farragut, the plan also calls for improving mobility safety along with other key roads in the area, and designing an interconnected system of greenways and sidewalks to provide safe routes for people to move through the city.

With new Master Plans in hand, leadership and citizens of Farragut and Maryland have “roadmaps” in hand to pursue future development of their choosing. And while the two towns will always be connected to nearby Knoxville, they can also thrive as distinct, appealing places for people to live, visitors to enjoy and businesses to thrive.

About TSW

TSW is a full-service planning, architecture and landscape architecture firm headquartered in Atlanta, GA, with offices in Tulsa, OK, Chattanooga, TN and Lexington, KY. The award-winning company was founded in 1990 and strives to improve lives and strengthen communities through livability and sustainability. TSW is a leader in the New Urbanist movement, employing a community planning and design process that links tradition and context with today’s cultural and environmental needs. Sustainable design is an integral part of all TSW work, from the master plan level to the individual building components. TSW’s staff members are LEED Accredited Professionals and their designs incorporate a range of ideas for progressive energy and resource saving solutions. www.tsw-design.com