Staff Recommendation

I recommend that you adopt the attached Lonsdale Redevelopment and Urban Renewal Plan and forward it to the City Council with a recommendation for adoption. A resolution is included for that purpose.

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The Lonsdale Redevelopment and Urban Renewal Plan has been prepared in response to a Knoxville City Council resolution (March 29, 2005), requesting Knoxville?s Community Development Corporation (KCDC) to create a redevelopment and urban renewal plan to encourage the revitalization of the Lonsdale area. This directive was made in view of a number of factors that detract from Lonsdale?s well being: including a significant number of vacant lots, a high proportion of property tax delinquency, inadequate infrastructure (including roads and alleys that were never built), and building and lot conditions that detract from property values and the neighborhood?s character.

KCDC has collaborated with the City?s Community Development Division and MPC staff in preparing the plan. Staff from the three agencies worked with Lonsdale interests to develop an improvement program, including:

? development of a commercial center (a project that was identified in Empowerment Zone and Central City Sector planning)
? housing improvements (beyond the renovation of Lonsdale Homes) to foster well designed infill housing and residential rehabilitation
? street and community facility projects, including sidewalk connections, truck routes, a greenway buffer, and park and school ground improvements.

The adoption of this plan will enable the City and KCDC to pursue the improvements.

There are several components associated with the attached document. The first part, The Lonsdale Redevelopment and Urban Renewal Plan, was drafted by KCDC and contains the goals, land acquisition, relocation and land disposition policies. The redevelopment and urban renewal designations foster the opportunity for use of tax increment financing and use of public funds in implementing the plan.

There are also four appendices:
? The redevelopment area boundary
? The Lonsdale Neighborhood Plan, largely derived from the adopted Central City Sector Plan and charrette held in April 2005
? Heart of Knoxville Infill Housing Guidelines, a recent publication created by MPC and East Tennessee Design Center staffs, and
? Comments from public meetings

KCDC requested that the Lonsdale Neighborhood Plan and the Infill Guidelines be included because they provide a better level of specificity and direction to the improvement programs.

In addition to three neighborhood planning workshops and the charrette, two public meetings were held in Lonsdale (September and November 1) to review all the components of the attached document with Lonsdale interests. Over 100 people attended and all, by a show of hands, supported the plan.

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Disposition Summary

adopt the Lonsdale Redevelopment and Urban Renewal Plan