The State of Fort Sanders (Page 4 of 5)

Knoxville Place was completed in 2003. UT is in the process of purchasing it from the UT Foundation, and finalization of the sale is expected within the month.

The James Agee Park, located at the corner of Laurel and James Agee, was another positive result of the Fort Sanders Forum. The park was dedicated in 2005, and stands where a UT-owned parking lot stood for almost 30 years. Though it is barren and brown in winter, it does, however, offer wood benches for private reflection. In the summer, the park is healthy and green and provides a place for social gathering. The park happens to be the only commemoration to the award-winning author in the city.

The forum suggested a second park, visualized in the parking lot across from the UT-owned Laurel Apartments, slated to reopen as student housing in fall 2008, but no further plans have been established for it.

HFSNA is now calling for a second forum or at least stronger implementation of the ideas from the first forum. “It’s still making good, forward progression, but it’s frustrating that it hasn’t happened faster,” says Trent. “A lot of people are saying we need to pull up those plans from the first forum again.”

With a constantly growing student population — the total number of undergraduate and graduate students was 26,400 at the beginning of the 2007 fall semester — UT seems fated to swallow more of its nearest suburb. But though UT still owns property in the Fort and will own more in the near future, DeFord doesn’t worry about the university conquering too much territory and reworking the neighborhood makeup. “Even though they are, in a sense, landlocked, if they are a smart university and plan in an appropriate manner and are accountable to its citizens, they won’t have a problem,” he says. “They are a downtown, urban institution, and they have to act like one and build in a cityscape manner instead of a suburban manner. The leadership now understands that and I think we’ll see that begin to happen.”

Trent notes those concerns but remains optimistic the university is taking measures to avoid that fate. “I think it’s a good sign that they’re actually doing a preservation plan on campus,” she says. “It would be nice if UT could take the example of Savannah and other campuses where they really try to integrate into the community. In Savannah they started buying buildings downtown and using those buildings for campus buildings. That way they’re kind of reusing an existing resource so it was a benefit to the community. You don’t have to always tear something down to build something new.”

The Cumberland Ave. redevelopment project is slated to begin later this year, and Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam recently appointed a Cumberland Avenue Project Manager, Anne Wallace, who will report to work Feb. 1.

Though the Fort is not included in the project’s study area, Director of Redevelopment Bob Whetsel hopes that positive changes on the Strip will have positive effects on the Fort. Proposed project tasks include rezoning, reduction of traffic from four lanes to two with a center turn lane, and widening of sidewalks. The resulting Strip would be pedestrian friendly and more appealing.

 “If Cumberland is a destination place, it’ll be better for the University, the local businesses and area residents,” Whetsel says.

Hipster Zone

Fort Sanders is known as cheap student housing these days, but along with establishing proper preservation of historic buildings, proponents of the neighborhood wish for more of its previous heterogeneity. The Hipster Handbook, published in 2002, lists Fort Sanders on its page of “Indigenous Zones of the Hipster in the United States and Canada.” While in 2002 Fort Sanders was a port for hip teenagers and twentysomethings, many have escaped to the safer havens of Fourth and Gill or North Knoxville. Likewise, many of the families who once raised their children in Fort Sanders have fled for West Knoxville. Residents from earlier decades remember entire blocks of single-family homes with actual families living in them.