Baker Creek Area needs your input

Betsy PickleSouth Knox

“Baker Creek” brings to mind a host of exciting developments in South Knoxville: the biking and hiking opportunities of the wilderness of Baker Creek Preserve, the retail potential of Baker Creek Bottoms, the fun of the Baker Creek Play Forest.

With all of these assets capturing the attention of Knoxville and beyond, the South Haven Neighborhood Association decided now is a good time to make improvements that will benefit both the neighborhood and the area.

There will be a community engagement meeting for the Baker Creek Area Vision Plan at 5:30 p.m. today (Feb. 6) at the South-Doyle Middle School library, 3900 Decatur Road. RSVPs would be appreciated to the Community Design Center, 865-525-9945 or leslie@communitydc.org.

Baker Creek itself is the dividing line between South Haven and South Woodlawn neighborhoods, but the area affects and reflects all of South Knoxville. Linda Rust, president of the South Haven Neighborhood Association, says the SHNA board started looking at the bigger picture while discussing projects for which they could apply for grants.

“We’re calling it ‘Baker Creek Area’ because we didn’t want to limit it and make it a South Haven thing,” says Rust. “There’s a lot of people who come from other places to enjoy all the different activities and things going on there. We didn’t want to put some kind of ownership over it.

“It just made more sense to let it be its own freestanding thing. And that way other neighborhoods like South Woodlawn, Old Sevier, that want to be involved can do that and not feel like they’re encroaching. We didn’t want to make anybody feel uncomfortable.”

A steering committee that includes Carol Evans of Legacy Parks Foundation, Baker Creek Bottoms developer Tom Weiss, principal Andrew Brown of South-Doyle Middle, president Wes Soward of the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club, Rebekah Jane Montgomery, the city’s Urban Wilderness coordinator, and several Baker Creek Area residents has been formed, and Rust says there are still a few slots open for others who have a strong interest in serving.

“We kind of deliberately left out political types … because we really want to go to the city, the county and maybe even the county schools to get some resources to help implement whatever ideas come out of this plan,” she said.

Rust says landscape architect Mike Fowler of Ross-Fowler, who designed the Baker Creek Play Forest and is already very familiar with the area, has volunteered to work on the project through the Community Design Center.

Tuesday’s public meeting will give people a chance to brainstorm and air ideas about improvements to the area. South Haven residents have had several ideas themselves, such as reworking the intersection of Sevierville Pike and Lancaster Drive, adding a sidewalk from that intersection to Baker Creek Bottoms, adding signage, and creating a safe KAT bus stop. But the steering committee is open to all ideas.

Rust, who works in the city’s community development office but is staying out of any decision making on what plans may transpire, says the city has been very open to the community coming up with a Baker Creek vision.

“They’re excited about it because I think that they see the advantage of having the neighborhood initiate a public process,” Rust says. “We think it puts us in a much better position for us to be asking for things that we know are wanted in the community and can document the things that are wanted, and then ask for those things.

“We think that because we’re involving the city and the schools and some of the powers that be within the private foundation community, there’s going to be the political will to get this stuff done.”

The public is invited to take a survey on the Baker Creek Area here.

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