The Knoxville City Council heard an update on the first draft of the city’s comprehensive plan at their meeting Monday night.

The purpose of this plan is to provide guidance to decision makers regarding the community’s future development, with a planning horizon of 20 years and an expected plan life of ten years. The process for this plan started in June of 2024, which involved hiring MSA Professional Services to assist in its preparation. Since then, the city has opened a community survey, held an open house, formulated the plan, and are now at the stage of releasing the plan.

At Monday’s meeting, City Economic Development Director Glenn Lyons gave an update, which included categories of current infrastructure, housing mix, forecasted housing demand, recent housing developments, new housing development, new commercial development, downtown revitalization and more. Knoxville City Manager Heather Ussery says a significant point of the presentation was the growth that Knoxville has seen in housing recently.

“513 new housing units over the last few years is huge for Knoxville. Five years ago we were averaging about five homes a year and so that is a huge growth for Knoxville. That is a 74% increase in multi-family units and a 56% increase in rentals.”

Find the complete comprehensive plan here. The city will also hold a draft plan open house on May 7th. Hear more about the plan from Ussery on today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville.