City of Knoxville officials and contractors presented plans this morning for improvements to the streetscape of the 400 and 500 blocks of North Gay Street. At a public meeting attended by local property owners and business owners, staff from the Department of Redevelopment and consultants from Vaughn & Melton Engineering and Hedstrom Designs Landscape Architects showed renderings of the completed street.

There will be one lane of traffic in each direction, along with street parking and new landscaping, including both canopy trees and flowering trees. This proposed work would complete streetscape work on North Gay from Depot Avenue to Emory Place as identified by a public process in 2008-2010 for Downtown North. Additionally, this work will complete the streetscape work on the entirety of Gay Street from the historic Gay Street Bridge over the Tennessee River to the street's northern terminus at Emory Place.

The concept plans call for narrowing the road to maintain a through lane in each direction, repair or replacement of sidewalks as necessary, providing landscaped areas for trees, and maintaining protected on-street parking.

These plans are consistent with the work that was done on the 300 & 600 Blocks of North Gay in 2011. It continues the city's efforts to link the core of Downtown to Downtown North by using complete streets concepts, along with consistent street furniture and landscaping.