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Knoxville-Knox County Planning studies Alcoa Highway growth

A commission released a study on how the city and county can bring more businesses to the Alcoa Highway area.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — In 2018, Star Powersports told 10News about their difficulty with attracting customers because of all of the construction on Alcoa Highway. 

"Star Powersports, in the last year that it's been happening, has dropped about 40%," one of their employees said.

In re-designing Alcoa Highway, the Tennessee Department of Transportation removed many of access points to shopping centers, to make the highway safer. They created frontage roads to run along the highway. 

A side effect is that the revamped Alcoa Highway made it difficult for people to find businesses along the road.

"We'd get a lot of phone calls. They just didn't know where we are," said Sean Norman, the COO of Star Powersports.

Now, the business has moved to a new spot on Kingston Pike and business is going well, said Norman. 

Jeff Welch from the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization and the Knoxville Knox County Planning Commission said the key to bringing more businesses to the area around Alcoa Highway is to bring more people to live there. 

He said staff is asking the planning commission, the Knoxville City Council and the Knox County Commission to change the zoning to allow for more mixed-use developments. 

He said the frontage roads present a challenge, but one he hopes they'll be able to get around with new signage. 

"They say, 'Hey, get off at this exit in order to access ABC market,'" Welch said. "People are going to have to get used to getting off a half mile before the commercial areas instead of just turning right into the commercial areas."

Welch said he hopes their ideas will bring more shops, restaurants, homes, and medical facilities to the area. 

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