By Leslie Agron and Pat Fain
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Oak Ridge is on the cusp of a renaissance; Oak Ridge is in its worst-ever financial shape. Despite the looming risk of the guillotine for questioning the conventional wisdom here, we want to examine where Oak Ridgers are coming from when they speak of our future. To do this we, conveniently, will compare these possible futures for Oak Ridge with two present day Tennessee cities: Farragut and Chattanooga.
Farragut is a place most Oak Ridgers are fairly familiar with. It is mostly new and upscale. It tends toward sprawl and toward heavily developed strips, but has no real heart. It has low taxes, but is not a full-service city. Chattanooga is an older city with a downtown and outlying neighborhoods of varying ages. It is a full-service city with commensurate taxes. Chattanooga has done an outstanding job of revitalizing some of its older neighborhoods. The neighborhood in the vicinity of its Aquarium is particularly noteworthy in this regard.
When Oak Ridgers speak of the older neighborhoods being blighted, they are speaking for the possible future of tearing out a lot of homes and remaking Oak Ridge in a more gentrified model, à la Farragut. This is the mindset which has brought the proposal for a land bank forward; it is in preparation for a significant amount of demolition and replacement. Possibly this is also a voice for replacing the mall with a shopping center more like Turkey Creek. Although there is no stated course set for the development of Oak Ridge, this seems to be the direction in which we are headed.
Chattanooga is marching to a different drummer. It saw its older buildings as assets, not only in the sense of preserving the character of the city, but in a literal economic sense. They knew what Habitat for Humanity and a number of savvy homeowners have also been telling Oak Ridge: even with most of the ugly older buildings which some would call “blighted”, it is possible to renovate them into modern, energy-efficient, attractive buildings for a substantially lesser amount than the expense of razing them and building anew.
So this is a one-question survey. Which do you want Oak Ridge to become more like: Farragut or Chattanooga? Your responses go not to us, but to the city manager and the City Council. They have not asked you what you want, but they are in the midst of formulating a strategy for economic growth that contains assumptions about our desired future. Which is to say, if you don’t want to come out more like Farragut, now would be an excellent time to speak up.
Leslie Agron and Pat Fain are Oak Ridge residents and columnists.
Rachel Riley says
I think it makes much more sense to repurpose the mall instead of demolishing it and building new. It would save time and save a ton of money. Making a mini-turkey creek might be nice, but that building is perfectly restorable. From what I remember of the inside, it seemed like it had the ability to be really nice.
Sam Hopwood says
My vote goes for Farragut. We have far more old houses that are decaying and on lots that are far too small.
Jack C. says
I vote for more like Farragut, too, Early Oak Ridge homes were junk when built due to lack of good materials and time to build them. Let’s remember that they filled their purpose well 60 years ago, but lets get rid of blight, move (boldly) into the future and meet future needs now.
Susie Williams Taylor says
When you say “early Oak Ridge homes”, are you including the alphabet houses? I certainly wouldn’t call them “junk when built”. They’re substantially built houses, IMO! My vote would be like Chattanooga.
Charlie Jernigan says
What a bizarre letter!
First, it offers us a false choice where even the choices are suspiciously represented.
Second, it demagogues us with its presumption that it speaks for all Oak Ridgers who are concerned with the problem of blight in our community. When it says, “When Oak Ridgers speak of the older neighborhoods being blighted, they are speaking for the possible future of tearing out a lot of homes and remaking Oak Ridge in a more gentrified model, à la Farragut.”, it raises the specter of a mob armed with bulldozers plowing through our traditional neighborhoods in the dead of night.
Third, the writers continue to promote their false insinuation that blight is an undefined term referencing their recent letter in the Observer and their choice in this letter to disparagingly put the word in quotes. Tennessee Code 13-21-202 gives a nice definition which covers much of the blight in Oak Ridge.
Full disclosure, I promote and support the city’s effort to create a land bank which would accept property and apply community policy for its disposition.
That being said, let’s get real. Kroger just acquired 50 residential properties that fit the writers’ concern. How could they do that? The answer is that it was cost-effective for them to do so. If we want our neighborhoods to be resistant to that kind of above market price purchase potential, we need to let their value increase naturally and not continue to block that progress.
How do we do that? One step is that we get rid of blighted property that drags down the rest of the neighborhood by factors of 2x to 7x the value of the blighted property if it was renovated. The neighbors do not deserve to pay that price. The other tax payers in Oak Ridge do not deserve to make up for that lost value in the tax base. These properties need to be cleaned up and then can be placed under the stewardship of the land bank until a viable final disposition becomes available as defined by locally supported policy.
Other tools that can help include business licensed landlords and a vacant property registry which gives the city a way of letting the responsible property owner know of changes that may affect their properties before the decline toward blight begins.
Sam Hopwood noted an important piece of data. The lots in our traditional neighborhoods are too small. Remember that they were developed on an Army base under emergency time constraints to support a dire war effort. Many lots have no space for off street parking since the military ran a subsidized bus system for the residents. As a result, these homes are not attractive for people moving into the community today with two cars and a dog in addition to the rest of the family. And when we have nothing but this kind of housing, block after block, it is understandable they might think this is not a town for them.
Blight is therefore both a curse and a blessing. It needs to be dealt with aggressively to protect the rest of the neighborhood, but it also give us an opportunity to begin the process of consolidating small lots when a new home might be built using that cleared lot combined with the purchase of one of the neighbors house when it becomes available for sale.
For Oak Ridge to successfully change the trend in our housing, we need to think of that “bell curve” of people that we need here to sustain our viability. When half of our properties are low cost by any definition, they do not support that concept. We can either let the market forces deal with blocks at a time like Kroger did or we can support allowing a natural evolution of those neighborhoods toward a variety of housing types and values which can provide housing for all kinds of people with differing tastes.
And finally, I am reminded by this false campaign against efforts to deal with blight under any rational or guise that no one, especially the poorest of the poor, deserves to live in those conditions.
Abbey Nelson says
Farragut was mostly beautiful farmland and far different from what Oak RIdge is today. There is still the big barn right off Kingston pike and several very large tracts of land that owners & families are hesitant to give up. Oak Ridge attempted to develop the west end of Oak Ridge in hopes of building a “Farrragut” with talks of retail development and if I recall correctly even schools, possibly a new high school. It wasn’t a bad idea. It was close to Y12 and the interstate at Lenoir City yet even with the infrastructure, road improvements, development of the Horizon Center, proximity to the dam, and the beautiful West Hills subdivision, it just hasn’t materialized. And Mr. Jernigan, there IS a mob of bulldozers tearing down wonderful older homes from a historical neighborhood so I don’t believe the comments of Leslie Agron and Pat Fain are that far from the truth. If Oak Ridge is to have a National Manhattan Park it would behoove the city to bring in those with expertise in bringing a historical development perspective to enhance the park and minimize the big city, over-developed Turkey Creek circus atmosphere.
Charlie Jernigan says
Can you help identify some members of this mob so we can check out this assertion?
And remember, please, that Oak Ridge did not develop anything way out west. These were private developments, just like the ones that are threatening our near town, low cost neighborhoods. If we aren’t careful, they may vanish, just because they are uniformly low-cost.
Anne Garcia Garland says
Just a couple of notes. No Turkey Creek style transformation is being proposed for the mall property. Crosland is best known recently for creating mixed use centers that appeal to a wide cross-section of shoppers, residents and businesses.
And the Alphabet homes in Oak Ridge were NOT built of inferior materials. The hardwood floors cannot be duplicated today. The designs were forward-thinking. The interior walls are non-load-bearing and therefore very movable now to open up space or personalize it.
Preferences are only that. Oak Ridge already has a tremendous variety of home styles and neighborhoods and will add more as the housing industry recovers. I’d like us to have something for nearly everybody and have more choices. We have something on the order of 5000 plats available for new homes. It would also be a good idea to protect and preserve the value of established neighborhoods and restore any areas where neglect has threatened to overwhelm or outnumber the well-maintained. Let’s create a uniquely Oak Ridge future.
Jack C. says
I grew up in a flat-top and a B-style house. Roofs on flattops were canvas with tar spread over it (not top-quality housing). Relatives helped build the cemestoes and said working on them (once finished) was difficult because few of them were “square”. Lots on both are small – not allowing room for garages – something that many buyers are looking for and adds a lot to a neighborhood. “If” owners would upgrade their older homes, that would be one thing, but how many won’t and don’t and gives the town an old, worn look – yes, even blighted. Move ahead.
Susie Williams Taylor says
Totally agree Anne~~~