Wed
Apr 11 2007
12:40 am
Chapman Highway Meeting
By: Rachel

A short post on this because I didn't take notes.

Awhile back MPC did a study, with lots of input from a local task force (on which my spouse served) on improvements to the Chapman Highway corridor. These dealt with both strictly transportation issues, but also with land use issues. That study is available here. It was approved by MPC, City Council, and County Commission.

As the MPC website states, "Upon completion of MPC's study, the Tennessee Department of Transportation contracted with Palmer Engineering to conduct a transportation planning study that would make recommendations on short-term improvements to ehance the safety and operations of Chapman Highway."

The results of that second study were presented Monday night and tonight in two meetings in south Knoxville. Since this was a TDOT study, it addressed transportation issues only.

All ideas are for short-term improvements to Chapman Highway, basically "low hanging fruit," although Jeff Welch of the regional TPO stressed that as of yet no funding was available for any of them.

They included things like reducing the # of curb cuts, adding a turn lane to the section just south of Stone Road, improving road alignments with Chapman Highway (especially where there was a "jog" at the CH intersection), and adding to the existing street grid to make more "frontage" routes along the highway.

In general I was pretty impressed by what I saw.

I doubt this is available on the web anywhere because we were looking at info on some pretty large maps, but if you are interested, Rene Davis at MPC is the local contact for the Chapman Highway study and should be able to direct you to more info. I also hope there are others out there who attended and who might add to my brief synopsis.

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jbr's picture

I saw the article in todays

Submitted by jbr on Wed, 2007/04/11 - 11:07pm.

I saw the article in todays NS. Neither I nor anyone I know knew about this meeting. Several of which live within walking distance to New Hopewell. Are these the only meetings they will have? They could publicize them better.

I saw Rene speak a few years ago on JWP as a representative of the task force. Frankly I thought it was a noticably manipulative.

Rachel's picture

The spouse was on the JWP

Submitted by Rachel on Wed, 2007/04/11 - 11:16pm.

The spouse was on the JWP task force also. I can assure you that whatever it was, it was NOT manipulative. There were two factions - one basically pro finishing the JWP and one con. They agreed on some things - and that went into the report. The report also contained both the majority and minority committee viewpoints.

And yes, this week's meeting was poorly publized. TDOT always does a lousy job at that, and MPC not much better.

I wish I had thought to post it here but I didn't. Sorry.

jbr's picture

I could easily imagine 100

Submitted by jbr on Thu, 2007/04/12 - 12:20am.

I could easily imagine 100 people at New hopewell with some reasonable notification of the meeting. Maybe they should try it again.

I thought the presentation I saw was manipulative. Not the report. A seven lane Chapman highway? Give me a break. It did motivate me. I had not been particularly politically interested in things. After that meeting I wondered what the heck is the MPC? After watching it more closely a couple years I think it should be completely restructured. But that is another discussion.

Rachel's picture

A seven lane Chapman

Submitted by Rachel on Thu, 2007/04/12 - 12:47am.

A seven lane Chapman highway?

Where did you get that? That's nobody's recommendation that I've ever heard of, and as I said, my spouse was on both the JWP task force and the Chapman Highway task force (or whatever they called it).

jbr's picture

I got it from the JWP task

Submitted by jbr on Thu, 2007/04/12 - 11:01am.

I got it from the JWP task force presentation at New Hopewell Elementary school a couple years ago. Complete with graphic of a 7 lane CH starting at Henley Street bridge. The graphic was not the production quality of the rest of the presentation. I dont know if that meant anything, but it was noticable.

Basically the presentation was pretty slanted to push the JWP I thought. Saying the alternative was a 7 lane Chapman Highway. Among other things. To me it diminshed the credibility of the committee and their report.

Rachel's picture

I'll ask the spouse about

Submitted by Rachel on Thu, 2007/04/12 - 11:31am.

I'll ask the spouse about that. But I sure don't remember the task force talking about a 7 lane Chapman Highway. TDOT and the local TPO, maybe.

The majority of the task force did recommend completion of the JWP. I don't want to mislead anyone on that. But there was a large minority who objected to that, and their objections and concerns were also included in the report.

jbr's picture

I emailed someone on the

Submitted by jbr on Thu, 2007/04/12 - 11:50am.

I emailed someone on the committee to ask about the 7 lanes, etc. If I recall correctly, they indicated It wasn't in any sort of plan whether they completed JWP or not. And did not understand why it was mentioned at the meeting.

So my feel is it may have been a bit of sensationalzation to push the JWP. Which the MPC was already wanting.

As I have learned more about the makeup of MPC, I am more convinced.

Rachel's picture

I think you're a bit

Submitted by Rachel on Thu, 2007/04/12 - 12:02pm.

I think you're a bit confused about the difference between MPC and the TPO. God knows it's easy to be.

MPC is the planning organization for Knoxville and Knox County outside of Farragut. They do long range planning and review development requests. Long range plans can include things with a tranportation component, like the Chapman Highway Corridor Study I linked to. Notice it contains a lot of stuff about land use as well as transportation.

The regional Transportation Planning Organization deals with all regional transportation plans and projects. They work directly with TDOT. They share an office with MPC and used to share some staff, so it's easy to get them confused.

However, the JWP task force was run by neither. It was a COK sponsored effort, although both TPO and MPC folks were involved as staff (not as task force members).

The plan for Chapman Highway improvements presented this week (notice it dealt with transportation only) was a TDOT effort (which they did as a response to the Chapman Highway study). Of course, TPO and MPC folks who worked on Chapman Highway were involved, but they didn't lead the study.

All this to say that MPC doesn't want or not want the JWP (or at least they've taken no position). That's not their job.

The TPO (whose board is made up of officials from local govts in Knox, Blount, and maybe a couple more counties) HAS supported the completion of the JWP. But with TDOT going back and starting the EIS from scratch, nobody's in govt is taking a position now until that's done.

This has been your daily lesson in confusing govt acronyms. I think I've managed to confuse myself now.

Up Goose Creek's picture

MPCs

Submitted by Up Goose Creek on Thu, 2007/04/12 - 5:15pm.

Also there's MPC the government agency and MPC the board of appointed citizens that votes on zoning matters.

___________________________________
Less is the new More - Karrie Jacobs

Rachel's picture

Also there's MPC the

Submitted by Rachel on Thu, 2007/04/12 - 5:31pm.

Also there's MPC the government agency and MPC the board of appointed citizens that votes on zoning matters.

More properly known as MPC staff and MPC Commissioners. Staff are professional planners who are paid to do long-range studies and to make recommendations on zoning and other development requests.

The MPC Commissioners (7 appointed by the city Mayor and 8 by the County Mayor) then hear the zoning/development matters and vote on them. They may or may not follow the staff recommendations.

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