Comprehensive Plan

The history of building cities is long and complex. All cities display some degree of forethought in their design in terms of layout and function. While much of their reason for being is determined by the function they have played (i.e., they have grown up around marketplaces, with goods from distant places being exchanged for local products or they have been founded at the intersections of such transportation routes as river and ocean ports), their development must also conform to existing physical attributes. Those attributes include slope of land, climate, water supply and transportation routes.

About the Comprehensive Plan 

The goal of planning for the future development of a city, or area, is to intervene in the private decisions to construct buildings (within a framework of public infrastructure and regulations administered by the city, state and federal governments) in order to protect such widely shared public values as health, safety, environmental quality, social equality and aesthetics. A comprehensive plan serves that function by providing a guide for the orderly long-range development of a community. In Tennessee, state statute legislates that the purpose of a plan shall be of:
 
"...guiding and accomplishing a coordinated, adjusted, efficient and economic development of the region which will, in accordance with present and future needs and resources, best promote the health, safety, morals, order, convenience, prosperity and welfare of the inhabitants, as well as efficiency and economy in the process of development."
 
As a part of planning for future land uses, hazard constraints and opportunities will also be considered, addressing environmental concerns and incorporating hazard reduction measures into capital improvements and infrastructure elements. This will provide an inevitable potential mitigation opportunity.
 
This document will provide the direction needed to shape Alcoa and its planning region’s future, so that existing strengths can be enhanced and the quality of life, which has attracted so many to this area, can be sustained in the decades to come. This plan is to be used by all members of the community, as well as any other person or organization interested in the future of the City of Alcoa. It must be noted that a key concept of the plan is that it is a vision for the City. A vision is not binding and may not, in fact, even be achievable in the lifetime of those participating in the draft of the plan. However, City staff and elected officials should continue to follow the guidance of the plan to help the City achieve its vision for the future.

View the 2025 Comprehensive Plan

View the 2025 Comprehensive Plan Document (PDF).

View the 2025 Comprehensive Plan Document Update (PDF).