Regional Growth Concepts

Our region of 700,000 people is expected to grow to 1,000,000 by 2040 and add 240,000 new jobs. Should we grow as we have? Or is a new direction needed to move the region towards the vision of becoming a premier region of choice and opportunity?

Five regional growth concepts were developed to help answer that question.

Explore the Concepts

Business as Usual	Spread Out	Grow Corridors	Grow New Centers	Grow Cities and Towns

Regional growth concepts illustrate different ways that our region might accommodate population and job growth that is expected over the next 30 years. Development of these concepts was guided by input gathered from East Tennessee residents during PlanET’s first two public input rounds and with the assistance of the PlanET Working Groups, which are composed of professionals and interested citizens from throughout the region.

The growth concepts serve four purposes:

1. To illustrate different ways and to different degrees that East Tennessee can move towards implementing its regional vision
2. To identify some significant regional investments, particularly in transportation
3. To provide a tool for measuring each concept’s effect on a series of priority issues identified by residents
4. To serve as the basis for creating a preferred regional growth concept and development of strategies for its implementation (see below).

No single regional growth concept is a likely outcome for how the area will actually grow over the next 30 years. Instead, these concepts were developed to help understand how different approaches to growth can affect the things that are important to East Tennessee residents.

Through Meeting in a Box Sessions and an online tool, community member's ratings of each priority have been collected. This input has been used to develop a preferred regional growth concept incorporating the best elements of all the concepts. It defines a preferred direction and identifies policy and investment choices that inform an action plan for our region.