Planners lay out 'What's Next Knoxville' vision, warn no single fix will meet housing needs

Consultants updating Knoxville's comprehensive plan presented a draft vision and 10 goals and urged a mix of strategies to meet the city's projected growth.

Scott Paige of Interface Studio told the board the outreach effort has engaged roughly 6,600 people and produced a draft vision statement and 10 non-ranked goals tied to themes such as connectivity, housing diversity and corridor investment. "How should we grow? Knoxville is growing. It's going to continue to grow," Paige said, and urged the board to consider where growth should be encouraged to best support jobs, parks and services.

Paige summarized three primary 'levers' the plan uses to model future growth: concentrate development where the market is strong (including downtown and parts of Kingston Pike), target specific corridors for mixed-use investment to support transit and walkability, and pursue neighborhood infill and policy changes (for example expanding middle-housing allowances inside the 640 loop).

The presentation cited a consensus projection of 28,000 to 38,000 new residents by 2050, requiring roughly 13,000–17,000 new housing units. Paige cautioned no single scenario reaches the full estimated housing need on its own: "neither of these scenarios addresses our issues around growth… they're not mutually exclusive. We're going to have to take pieces of all of these."

Commissioners probed how the plan addresses affordability. Paige distinguished capital-intensive affordable-housing investments (public housing, low-income housing tax credits and permanent supportive housing) from policy changes intended to broaden housing types and sizes. He said policy changes can be less costly but take longer to affect production and that the comprehensive plan will recommend where to focus both policy and investment choices so future zoning and implementation can follow.

Paige encouraged continued public input through open houses and an online survey on the What'sNextKnoxville website and highlighted a fall schedule of pop-up events and workshops so residents can react to the levers and maps shared with the board.