Neighbors in the Parkridge community hope to strengthen our neighborhood’s contribution to the National Register of Historic Places by extending the City of Knoxville’s Edgewood/Park City historic overlay planning zone.

Structures in the National Historic District not yet protected by city historic zoning are irreplaceable parts of Knoxville’s heritage.

There are 944 buildings in the district, 891 of which are contributing and 53 non-contributing. The total number of buildings can be broken down into 719 primary buildings and 225 outbuildings. 677 of the primary buildings are contributing and 42 non-contributing. 212 of the out buildings contribute to the district; 11 are non-contributing. In addition, there are 2 objects that contribute to the district.

The non-contributing primary structures are randomly located within the district, and are the result of inappropriate rehabilitation or new construction.

Protection under historic overlay design guidelines preserves the historic character of the neighborhood, nationally recognized as the best-preserved portion of the early 20^th century municipality known as “Park City.”

Below are basic questions and answers about historic overlay. 

 

 What changes in a historic overlay? 

New exterior work in a historic preservation planning zone must take an extra step beyond a building permit to ensure changes meet local design guidelines, based on the U.S. Department of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings.

 How are design guidelines made?

 What will design guidelines require? 

 Will historic zoning require work on my property?

 What kind of work is regulated?

 How do property owners benefit?

 Will historic overlay burden low-income residents?

 What problems can arise?

 

Additional Questions?

An online form has been created to collect questions and comments from the community. This is a volunteer led initiative so there’s no guarantee of a specific response, but the volunteers will try to translate your questions, comments, and concerns into actionable information for your consideration.

An e-mail account has also been set up to collect questions from the community. Feel free to send questions, comments, or statements of support or concern to edgewoodparkcityh1 [at] gmail.com.

For details from a talking, human person, please call Kaye Graybeal, Historic Preservation Planner at the Knoxville Metropolitan Planning Commission (215-3795).