27-02-2025
Oak Ridge begins developing first update to city's growth plan since 1988
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WATE) — What does the future of the Secret City look like? On Wednesday, City of Oak Ridge officials, residents and others took time to discuss a comprehensive plan for the city.
It has been nearly 40 years since the last comprehensive plan was done for the City of Oak Ridge. To be exact, 1988 was the last time there was a plan close to this new plan was conceived. Oak Ridge Planning & Development Director Wayne Blasius said the time to out the future for Oak Ridge.
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'We are so far past due, it's really unfortunate. Finally, the stars aligned we have a new city manager who's very very supportive of planning and wanted to help push this forward,' said Blasius. 'The community needs this. Especially since we haven't had growth for literally 70 years and now we are getting growth. We are anticipating more and we want that growth. We just want to guide it, not let it happen to us.'
A crowd of roughly 100 people filed into Oak Ridge High School to listen to a brief presentation and give their thoughts on what they would like to see done in the city when the rubber meets the road for actual development. Lifelong resident Paul Rom told 6 News he wants Oak Ridge to maintain it's character.
'That is something that is really important to keep it from being 'generica.' We want it to maintain that Oak Ridge-y feel. We call it an Oak Ridge-y feel and that's what I'd like to see,' Rom said. 'There's a lot of stuff here, a lot of stuff in Oak Ridge. I'm becoming a big booster.'
Like many places, housing and traffic are becoming an increasing issue. Resident James Brent told us what he'd like to see done with the housing within the city.
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'I'd like to find a balance between affordability and living space,' Brent said. 'I was telling the gentleman earlier, I live in a older neighborhood, have over half an acre, room for the deer and the wildlife. Down the hill from me there are four that the driveways come all the way to the front door. They have no yard. They're pretty little houses. They're tiny.'
While the current future for what is to come for the City of Oak Ridge, many want to see it as a place where people will stay and raise future generations.
'I want to see a place that our young people would consider staying in the next five years,' City of Oak Ridge Mayor Pro Tem Jim Dodson said. 'Not saying, I'm going to move to another location because there's not anything to do here, but staying in Oak Ridge because it's really an important place to eventually settle, raise my family and be an Oak Ridger for life.'
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Several meetings have been held in the past regarding the comprehensive plan and it is still in the early stages as they are continuing to gather public input on how this should be done.
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