(Story courtesy of WVLT News)
Knoxville, TN (WVLT) Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon said she’s surprised about how many people have strong opinions about the city’s sale of a piece of Chilhowee Park to Emerald Youth Foundation. She also said she should have made more of an effort to hear from the community.
“I was a little surprised by some of the strong feelings about it, because we had actually several years of community input,” she said in an interview with WVLT. “But it wasn’t broad enough. I should have had more community input from a broader spectrum of people.”
The sale, in some form or another, has been on the books for a long time. Emerald Youth has said it plans to build up a sprawling development with amenities like a sport complex.
However, it wasn’t until recent months as the sale itself approached that the East Knoxville community began to voice its opinions about it.
Those against the sale have brought up issues with transparency and the overall process of approving the sale. Evelyn Gill, a Knoxville neighbor who spoke with WVLT, said the community just wants more of a say in what happens in East Knoxville.
“People are concerned for the last 50 years that there’s been a fence around this property, and now there’s a potential sale of this property that will continue to exclude people who have lived in this community for their entire lives,” Gill said.
The process has even caused concern with city council. A proposed rule change would require the city law department give the council a seven-day heads up on big changes or sales, instead of the currently-required four days.
That said, Kincannon stood by the sale overall, pointing to existing projects.
“I think the similar complex that’s been done in Lonsdale has been so successful and has been an amenity for the immediate neighborhood,” she said. “I think it’s made Lonsdale safer and catalyzed more investment in the community. So we were just trying to bring the same thing to East Knoxville based on what the people of East Knoxville have said they wanted.”
Next up in the process is presenting the proposal to city council on Sept. 30. Kincannon said the plan may change a bit to factor in community feedback from recent months.
