Consultants present Knox County comprehensive plan update; call it a roadmap to manage growth and fiscal impact

Consultants working on Knox County’s comprehensive land use and transportation plan told the County Commission at an informational workshop on March 21 that the update is intended as a guiding document — not a zoning code — that aims to steer growth into areas with existing infrastructure, tighten coordination with schools and utilities, and prioritize fiscal responsibility.

Lisonbee Fluid of Kimley‑Horn said the plan is “a necessary first step” after nearly 20 years without an integrated land use and transportation plan. The consultants said public engagement spanned three primary rounds and more than 5,000 participants since 2021.

Marco Curtis of Planning Next described how the plan’s future land use map uses place types (grouped into walkable/compact growth, suburban growth and rural areas) to recommend where and how the county should grow. He emphasized the plan itself is advisory: adoption would be followed by an update to the county’s zoning code and then a formal update to the legal zoning map.

Christina Whitfield presented the plan’s transportation and parks recommendations and the fiscal‑impact analysis. Citing planning‑level estimates, Whitfield said that if the county continued current development patterns the county “would run at a nearly $2,000,000 annual deficit,” but that the preferred scenario for more compact and intentional growth would move the county toward “a $5,000,000 annual surplus,” enabling more targeted infrastructure and parks investments.

The consultants said the transportation recommendations were fiscally constrained to probable county funding and prioritized projects by need; the plan identified roughly $324 million in county‑level transportation investments through 2045 under current assumptions, while acknowledging those figures exclude additional state and federal funding streams.

Why it matters: the plan sets the policy framework that will guide a forthcoming rewrite of Knox County’s zoning code and the county’s capital planning. Commissioners pressed the consultants on what would be mandatory versus advisory, how the plan’s appendix H would be used during the interim period before a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) rewrite, and what changes would require returning to the Planning Commission for review.

Consultants and staff said some mandatory language was added to the draft and that the next step after plan adoption would be the zoning rewrite — a process that could take 12–18 months and that might be supplemented with interim code amendments for high‑priority items. The consultants noted Planning Commission recommendations made March 7 and said the County Commission vote is scheduled for April 22; commissioners discussed a tied deadline for the growth policy process of May 27.

The presentation closed with commissioners debating process choices — whether some amendments require Planning Commission review, whether the County should adopt contingent language (for example, requiring an updated soil map), and how to post amendments for review well ahead of the April vote so commissioners can digest them.

Next step: the County Commission is scheduled to consider adoption on April 22; if significant amendments are added that Planning Commission has not considered, staff warned the commission it may need to re‑route items for Planning Commission input or adjust the link between the comprehensive plan and the growth policy timetable.

Sources: presentation and fiscal figures presented by the consultant team and summarized at the March 21 Knox County informational workshop.