John Shearer: Examining And Pondering Chattanooga’s Parks Plans Past And Future

As Chattanooga Parks & Outdoors administrator Scott Martin and Trust for Public Land state director Noel Durant talked on June 12 from the Parks & Outdoors office by Coolidge Park, they seemed to have differing personalities.

Mr. Martin had a faster cadence to his words, while Mr. Durant was a little more deliberate in expressing his thoughts.

But they both showed a very similar and obvious excitement and enthusiasm over the future, or at least the opportunity Chattanooga has with improving and expanding park space for mostly passive recreation within the city.

As Mr. Martin said, “There’s a chance to get it right,” before adding, “What if we build a great place to live?”

He was referring to the city’s first new parks plan in 25 years, a plan designed to upgrade and expand park, greenway, and green space areas within the city limits.

As was announced in the news after it was presented to the Chattanooga City Council in broad terms on June 20, the Parks and Outdoors Plan calls for focusing on the five principles of access, equity, nature, place, and quality in its implementation. And in more concrete terms, officials say they will also focus on fixing parks, building amenities, connecting people to parks better, and preserving green space, or “fix, build, connect and preserve.”

Mayor Tim Kelly has endorsed the plan, saying it helps Chattanooga take even better advantage of its scenic setting by improving and expanding its park and green space to all. And that in turn will help Chattanooga continue to be a high-quality city in which to live, he said in a press release.

I ended up meeting with Mr. Martin and Mr. Durant after writing a recent greenway series story about examining Chattanooga Creek in the Alton Park area and visualizing how some additional green spaces might work around it. It was simply my fun way in part of dreaming about how neat it would be for me personally to see future greenways and additional park space in that somewhat overlooked area of Chattanooga economically. I simply would like to see an undeveloped area become a park or natural area in most cases rather than be turned into a residential or commercial zone, even though I understand and appreciate the complexities of all urban and economic forces at work.

Mr. Martin saw the story and emailed me and said that he had found an old map by park designer John Nolen from the early 20^th century that called for plenty of protected park space around Chattanooga Creek, which of course did not really occur. He also sent me via email an image of the map.

He also wanted to update or debrief me as a member of the media about the soon-to-be-revealed new overall park plan for the city of Chattanooga. And, as was later announced, it includes future park spaces for Chattanooga, which were included in general or broad spots on another and more futuristic map he emailed me.

He also invited Mr. Durant from TPL, whose non-profit firm has helped raise funds for and secure natural areas for future parks and amenities for entities like the city of Chattanooga locally. The work on developing the South Chickamauga Creek Greenway is one example.

He was also invited in part due to TPL’s work in progress on Chattanooga Creek. As Mr. Durant told me in an email before the meeting, “The Trust for Public Land has been working alongside the city of Chattanooga in the vicinity of Chattanooga Creek since the early 2000s, and we are currently working on an effort to link neighborhoods in South Chattanooga across Chattanooga Creek with a greenway that would create another window to the creek.”

Mr. Durant also provided a map at the meeting that showed a future greenway trail link from South Broad Street along West 33^rd Street, on to Southside Community Park, through the Chattanooga Creek flatland below Crabtree Farms, and on toward East Lake.

I was flattered to be invited to attend a meeting with two busy and key local people whose work focuses on green spaces.

While Mr. Martin asked me not to write anything about the future parks plan until it was officially released to the public and City Council last Tuesday, he was not holding back his enthusiasm regarding the overall plan. He also was trying to say it would complement any future growth that seems to have already hit Chattanooga since the pandemic of people reportedly wanting to move to the area in growing numbers.

“It’s been a while since we moved at this scale.” he said of the parks overview planning that has been going on for a year or so with recent and planned future feedback from the citizenry. “People are going to continue to move here. Are we ready to give them a good city to live in 50 years from now?”

Mr. Durant hinted of the past and memorable Riverwalk planning of the 1980s when he added enthusiastically in comparing it to the current plan, “That feels like the last time the city embarked so wholeheartedly.”

Some other plans had also been made in 1998 and 2008 regarding park planning in the Recreate plan, officials had said in the announcement material.

Mr. Martin early in the conversation had referenced the 1911 John Nolen plan that called for green space along the Tennessee River and Chattanooga Creek and apparently what is now South Chickamauga Creek. Mr. Nolen had also drawn plans for park space across the top of Lookout Mountain a few hundred yards south of Point Park – and where residences are today – as well as park space at the southern tip of Moccasin Bend, where the mental hospital now stands.

Other greenspaces the designer of yesteryear envisioned included Woodland Park, which apparently became Montague Park. And northeast of the already developed Olympia Park that became Warner Park, a Locust Street Park was suggested. And just north of it was Harrison Pike Park. The latter two evidently did not come to fruition or have long since disappeared. A park space is also on the southwestern side of Missionary Ridge on the map and that might be East Lake Park. There is also an Erlanger Park near the longtime site of the hospital.

Mr. Nolen also called for apparently tree-lined boulevards at places that today look like Crest Road and Dodds Avenue (and referred to on the map as the Mission Ridge Circuit Drive), and perhaps in the areas of what is today maybe Main Street and McCallie Avenue.

Mr. Nolen, who died in 1937 while in his late 60s, had been educated under Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and others after a previous career and had an office in Cambridge, Ma. His Wikipedia page said he worked with such cities as Madison, Wi.; Savannah, Ga.; Kingsport, Tn.; and Asheville, N.C. In Madison, a street is named for him.

He also went down to Florida and tried to help it beat some of the planned growth with an ambitious urban park and preserve plan for St. Petersburg. But the private land grab was evidently too much and that and other factors among the citizenry kept it from coming to fruition.

Mr. Nolen’s work in Chattanooga is not listed in his brief biographies, so his plans must not have gotten much beyond the initial visualization stages or were not carried out in much detail, although further research would be required to know for sure.

But Mr. Martin said old plans do work today. He showed the Central Park of today in Manhattan with Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.’s original plans, and they are almost identical. “If you get it right, these things are timeless,” he said.

And he said that natural features of Chattanooga would jump out to any park designer over time. “Geography in Chattanooga leads us (and folks from 100 years ago) in some pretty straightforward ways when it comes to connecting people and nature,” he said in his initial email.

Regarding the Chattanooga park plans of today, he did emphasize that situations and desires do change from decades ago. For example, he pointed out that a park playground of 20 years ago is not what people necessarily want today, as those contraptions seem to be getting bigger and greater in amenities, based on some photographs he showed me.

He also pointed out that all is not well with Chattanooga parks of today, despite its reputation as the outdoor city. He pointed out that in certain measurements like per capita spending, Chattanooga does not spend as much as other cities that might not seem as naturally pretty. He also pointed out that the airport land takes up more percentage of space in the city than do parks.

Also, little-visited parks like Boulevard Park just west of Rossville Boulevard need some upgrading, and they contrast sharply with showcase parks like Miller Park and Coolidge Park.

But he is hopeful the short- and long-term goals over multiple phases can fix these issues.

He also points out that Chattanooga already has plenty of good aspects in place besides just natural beauty. For example, he said rock climbing can be done off a Walnut Street Bridge pier and kayaking can be done on the Tennessee River by downtown, not miles away as is sometimes the case for such outdoor activities in some cities. A good diversity of fauna and fishes can also be found within the city, he added.

“It’s not about a big government land grab but focusing on what is good about the city and is already here,” he said about a main emphasis on the parks plan.

I was also curious about the potential future parks or at least undeveloped buffer zones that are part of the new plan, and I tried to study the map provided, although only major streets were listed. And, of course, all this is general and not already specifically pinpointed or already on the schedule, I realize.

But I was able to figure out the general areas of potential new parks. And there were almost as many being eyed as there are subdivisions and apartment complexes that have been unveiled before the local planning commission over the last couple of years.

Using a distance of about a mile or two away at the most from familiar sites mentioned below, I found that the potential future park or natural buffer zones include: about 6 sites completely surrounding Heritage Park in East Brainerd, two northwest of Pinnacle Point, one southwest of Tyner-East Brainerd Park, one southwest of the Standifer Gap Marsh, one near Belvoir Park and Belvoir Place Park, four east of Avondale Park, two north of Eastdale Park, another east of Eastdale Park on the west side of South Chickamauga Creek, two on the east side of South Chickamauga Creek between Sterchi Farm and Wilcox Boulevard, three between St. Elmo and Chattanooga Creek near the Georgia state line, and another one on the state line south of East Lake Park.

Other future park or buffer sites in the envisioning stages include one near where the new Lookouts Stadium and separate Bend development are planned near I-24 and the Tennessee River, one between the foundry and Ross’ Landing along the Riverwalk, one behind the Walmart and Food City by Mountain Creek at the foot of Signal Mountain, one just north of the Amnicola refuge where the Tennessee Riverwalk is, one just north of Riverview, one northeast of Rivermont Park, two northwest of DuPont Park, six north of Red Bank’s city limits and west of the North Chickamauga Creek Wildlife Management Area, one in the North Chickamauga Creek Wildlife Management Area, four between Hixson Greenway Farm and the North Chickamauga WMA, two southwest of Ridgeside and Overlook Park near Missionary Ridge, and one east of East Chattanooga Park.

Some of these, like the Mountain Creek land, are among the roughly 500 acres already owned by the city, according to Blythe Bailey, director of design and connectivity with Parks & Outdoors.

There also seemed to be additional greenway trails planned that cut more across the city in an east-west direction like the one planned for Alton Park and over Chattanooga Creek. Greenways to date in Chattanooga have primarily gone along the river and creeks.

Would you like to have an additional park or two or greenway near you to frequent? I know I might enjoy having one or two additional ones closer to me that I can jog in along with the three or four I regularly visit and the other ones farther away I occasionally visit. Variety is the spice of life for me when it comes to parks primarily to jog in.

However, I realize part of the parks plan is to have a park nearby for all residents, some of whom cannot travel easily, and the nearby park might be the only one they are able to visit frequently. Parks and city officials want to make parks accessible to all residents.

Although the map with the possible parks is visionary and perhaps a long-term look, officials have officially pinpointed seven new parks, four new special-use facilities and 16 miles of new greenway or connector trails.

While the implementation and planning of much of this park space is still being developed, Mayor Kelly has said he hopes to get some of this funding through state help, including as much as $100 million.

Although nothing has been announced about any new fund-raising efforts in addition to seeking governmental funds for this projects, Mr. Durant, whose TPL is working to raise funds for the planned Chattanooga Creek/Alton Park area greenways, said Chattanooga has historically had a philanthropic tradition of helping with land donation. He said it dates to when publisher Adolph Ochs helped secure land around Lookout Mountain in connection with the national park development there.

“There has been a generational focus on giving back through public space,” he said. “We as a city have a pretty unique legacy of philanthropy.”

Mr. Martin, who added that all of Chattanooga’s problems related to its parks and park space compared to other cities is fixable, considers a parks’ plan very important to the future.

“This is about how we live here,” he said.

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jcshearer2@comcast.net