Dandridge Waterfront Project Meeting
The Town of Dandridge hosted a public information forum concerning a proposed waterfront project on Sunday afternoon. Around 80 residents and stakeholders attended the event to hear options for the projects that were presented by Chris Baker of Thompson Engineering, Mobile Alabama. Melissa Peagler, Administrator for the Town of Dandridge, and Dandridge Mayor George Gantte made the initial introductions and gave an overview of the project that was identified as growing from the need to protect the Town water access, should the Tennessee Department of Transportation Bridge Project interfere with the current access point.
Each of the three options present by Baker included recreation areas across Douglas Lake. Increasing the number of boats that could launch from TWRA from 2 to 3, some additional parking and recreation activities such as a beach area, swimming, mountain bike trails and a possible zip line were outlined in the presentation. Citizens concerns included the viability of a level swimming area, traffic concerns, sidewalks that change from one side to the other at heavy traffic areas and topography.
Option one included movement of city parking, which would include usage of a private business owner’s parking area, widening sidewalks and adding sidewalks in the downtown area, moving the Dandridge Library to the green space on the side of the Historic Jefferson County Courthouse, putting a multi level parking garage in the lot across from the County Clerk’s office and recruiting a hotel developer to build in the current library location. Citizen concerns included inadequate space to build a library, the location, function and attractiveness of a multi level garage in that location and the dependence on an outside developer.
Option 2 required the purchase of property from private owners on Main Street for parking, removal of trees in the front of the Department of Education to provide green space, redevelopment of the current city parking lot on the corner of Meeting and Gay Streets, green space in current library location and parking behind the old First Tennessee Bank Building, as well as a Boardwalk connection from Maury Middle School to the Downtown area. Also included was the plan for the parking garage. Concerns included limited space, topography, traffic and property adjacent to the proposed hotel location.
Option 3 showed a hotel (private developer) in the parking lot across from the Post Office (next to the old Dandridge Elementary School), redeveloping the corner parking at Meeting and Gay Streets, boardwalk with boat pull ups, dog park, a new road that runs along the lake going toward Majestic Bay, a floating stage and a park area for small children. Concerns included lake levels and the ability to pull up to boardwalk, property impact with new road, safety and other stakeholders that would be required to be on board with the project.
Baker stated that many of the concepts in the three options are shared, such as the parking garage and hotel, as well as board walk and relocation of the library. He said that the final plan could contain parts of several of the options. When questioned about costs associated with the options and funding avenues, Barker stated that those would be discussed when the final option is presented.
Residents are encouraged to fill out comment forms that can be picked up at Town Hall or the Dandridge Activity Center. The presentation for Sunday’s meeting is located here as presented and, as all points presented in the presentation are not listed it may provide a more comprehensive view of the project. One notable consideration is that some of the items on the power point have been dismissed via discussion with an appointed committee that has met with Thompson Engineering, but not excluded from the presentation. To date, the Town of Dandridge has committed $20,000 for the initial stages of the project, such as design work, and EDOC has committed an additional $5,000 for a total preliminary investment of $25,000.
