About this Project
This project re-envisions the commercial strips, shopping plazas and mid-20th-century neighborhoods of the Cities of Alcoa and Maryville. It generates ideas for connecting walkable, bikeable neighborhood streets with nearby offices and shops. It also suggests opportunities for infill development and green infrastructure.
Available Resources
Concepts
Redevelop our vacant and underutilized land
Reinventing Midland Plaza as a major mixed-use center by reclaiming the vast parking lot for additional retail and higher-intensity office and residential uses reduces development pressure elsewhere and provides a great amenity for the nearby neighborhoods.
Provide options for people who don’t drive
This project recommends transforming streets such as Home Avenue and Hall Road into complete streets that are safe for all users, including children and seniors, people with disabilities, and pedestrians and bicyclists. It also suggests options for a future transit system.
Transform our streets and create iconic civic places
Streets become safer and more attractive with a complete sidewalk system, the addition of new park spaces, the planting of street trees, and the installation of new, pedestrian-scaled lighting. Communities can also consider guidelines for new construction and renovation that will foster aesthetically pleasing development.
Support inclusive communities and neighborhoods
The UT students determined that the area did not provide many housing choices for new college graduates or young families. The concept plan calls for a variety of housing, including apartments, townhouses and single-family detached homes. Combined with the potential for more shops and restaurants, the additional housing diversity creates an opportunity for boosting the vitality of the town site.
Embrace a mix of new housing types
The addition of detached houses, townhouses and apartments, plus housing in mixed-use buildings above commercial spaces, increases the diversity of housing available. The additional residential density, especially at the edges of Alcoa’s Bassel neighborhood, near the greenway and around Midland Shopping Center, also adds customers for the nearby shopping areas.
Preserve our natural filters
Building green space into developed areas, especially in the form of natural stormwater treatment, adds beauty, cleans nearby waterways, and reduces infrastructure costs.