Keeping the peaceful side: Townsend preps community plan at a crossroads

Townsend is at a crossroads.

That’s according to Townsend Mayor Don Prater. On the one hand, is the town’s reputation as the “peaceful side of the Smokies” and on the other is the need for jobs, business and sales to keep the local economy going.

Prater said he often hears residents voice concerns about growth. Change, he said, is inevitable, but the change happening in Townsend lately is worrying some residents.

“They’ve noticed the change is happening, but the pace of the change is now quicker,” he said in a phone interview. When it comes to growth, Townsend, like many other cities, has a land use and transportation plan. Designed in 2010, the document is a guiding force to direct city officials as they make decisions around development. The problem, Prater said, is that document was only designed to be used through 2020.

That’s one of the reasons he said he ran for office. Prater wants to make sure development in Townsend goes the direction citizens want it to, and that’s why he’s working toward the city’s next guiding document that will direct the community’s future.

Prater, along with eight other people, is a member of the Townsend Community Plan Advisory Committee. In the face of recent opposition to development in the city, he and the rest of the committee hope they can create a document that’s unique to Townsend.

“If you don’t want some things in town, then what do you want in town?” he asked.

That’s one of the fundamental questions committee Chair David Hoque is asking. While the committee is still in the early stages of planning, he said he wants to ensure the finished document is a “masterpiece.”

Townsend is going to continue to change, he said. The question is how residents want the city to change and what expectations are realistic. The finished community plan, he said, needs to reflect not only Townsend but also the greater Tuckaleechee Cove area.

Hoque said he wants the completed pan to be a document with “teeth” that doesn’t make any compromises, but the drawback is that the finished plan will only have teeth in Townsend.

The city government, after all, can only legislate what happens in the city, said committee Vice Chair Houston Oldham, but what happens immediately outside Townsend will still affect the small community of about 550.

“One of the things I hear constantly is that we don’t want our mountaintops to develop like Pigeon Forge,” Oldham said. “Townsend doesn’t have any mountaintops in it.”

Oldham and Hoque are both running for commissioner seats this year, but they agree the city faces the major challenge of funding community resources. Most of Townsend’s city budget comes from sales tax, meaning local businesses are essential to funding equipment for the police and fire departments and maintaining recreational areas.

Money for parks and recreation and public services must come from somewhere, Hoque said, so that means the finished community plan must involve a balance of conservation and careful growth.

And that doesn’t just have consequences for Townsend. Although the city’s borders closely follow Lamar Alexander Parkway, Hoque said he wants to ensure the greater community is represented by the document. Just as what happens outside Townsend affects residents, so what happens in Townsend affects neighbors.

That’s partly why not every committee member is a Townsend resident. Instead, Prater said the group is intended to represent residents, local businesses and community organizations.

“If we’re not intentional about how we want to develop and preserve and protect Townsend and about how we want to manage the resources we have we just let it happen to us, I don’t think we’re going to end up in 10 years where people want to be,” he said.

One of the main ways he hopes the new document will differ from the old is including a vision statement. Adding such a declaration, he said, provides a guiding rationale for the rest of the plan and will help keep the community on track for the next several years.

Another essential ingredient, he said, is community involvement. The committee, he said, will directly ask for input from residents in the future, but for now, the quickest way to get involved is to attend meetings.

The Townsend Community Plan Advisory Committee meets at 5 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month, but also holds frequent called meetings. Notices for meetings are posted online and in The Daily Times.