KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (Story courtesy of WVLT) – The City of Knoxville and the Knoxville Community Development Corporation will now look for other ways to fund an East Knoxville project after losing the money with the “Big, Beautiful Bill” passing in Washington, D.C.
“Obviously it’s disappointing,” CEO of KCDC Ben Bentley said.
The $42.7 million project would provide accessible options for people to get from East Knoxville to downtown and South Knoxville.
Bentley said this part of Knoxville relies of walking and public transportation to get to work and school.
“We know that a lot of low-income families, moderate-income families and some of the ones that we serve at our housing sites rely on being able to walk or use public transit so we wanted to build out some of those connection in ways that currently don’t exist,” Bentley said.
With the loss of this grant, one of the biggest federal grants the city has received in recent history, Bently said they’ll start exploring other options to pay for the project.
Federal funding streams come in on a continual basis, but we’ll continue to scour those. They’re might be the appetite for some private philanthropy in certain spots and of course the two largest sources of revenue on the local level for the city are property tax and then sales tax,” Bentley said.
Knoxville city council just passed a proposed half a cent sales tax increase. It’ll be on the ballot for voters to decide on in November.
Some people in Knoxville feel the loss of the grant will allow city officials to essentially restart on its future plans for East Knoxville.
“What if we started in the center of East Knoxville. What if we used that $42 million to do affordable housing, put in grocery stores, line some of the main streets with restaurants, with businesses,” executive director of I Am the Voice of the Voiceless, Viven Shipe says.
Shipe added the investment should be to invest in adding more in East Knoxville rather than giving people options to go to different parts of the city.
“We have an opportunity to change it to develop it where it is best for all of the people that are in that area,” Shipe said.
The project would add a greenway from the Old City to the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum, going through neighborhoods and Harriet Tubman Park.
It’d also provide ways for people to get to South Knoxville including to the Urban Wilderness and Baker Creek Preserve.
Bentley said the project will likely take another five to ten years to figure out with the loss of this grant.
