Due to Johnson City’s rapid growth, a comprehensive growth and development plan is underway to address the growing area and engage citizens. The plan, Horizon 2045, aims to involve citizens’ visions for the city’s future in the decision-making process. 

Whitney Hodges, Johnson City land use planner, said the last plan was put into place nearly 20 years ago. This plan will not only be a major update, but a way to get everyone involved on the same page. “The point of this plan is to kind of set a vision across all departments of how land use affects a lot of decisions,” said Hodges.  

Strategies will be developed around seven themes: quality growth and development, strong neighborhoods, prosperous economy, vibrant downtown, coordinated transportation system, healthy environment, supportive services, utilities and first-class education system. These concepts will be a helpful tool for city leaders’ decisions and a future land use map.

Photo taken in Johnson City, Tennessee. (Gabriella Collins/East Tennessean)

The current focus is community engagement and feedback. Two community engagement sessions have been held and an advisory committee has been established. “We just want to make sure that we are listening to citizens about how they want to grow,” said Hodges. “What are the things they want to see in their town in the next 20 to 25 years?” 

Hodges said that citizens have gladly shared their ideas and want to see the community flourish. “It’s remarkable how people talk about a sense of community here, that is a very hard thing to nail down in words,” said Hodges.

Phase one of public engagement was concerned with gaining information, as phase two begins the city hopes to gauge priorities. A survey is currently underway for citizens to participate in, it can be found on the Horizon 2045 website or at the link, surveymonkey.com/r/H2045JC. 

The survey will be open for about three weeks. Hodges shared that a draft of the plan for the community will be ready around October 2024, it will then need to be reviewed and adopted by the Planning Commission and City Commission.  

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