ONEKingsport

Vision: To become the premier community in Northeast Tennessee to live, work, raise a family and for businesses to grow and prosper.

Mission: To be the best possible Kingsport, a place that is attracting and retaining new and existing residents, visitors, businesses and developers

Over the last two years, the Summit Advisory Commission diligently worked to bring all the community’s input together to formulate the top five most impactful projects. The goal for OneKingsport was to be the best possible Kingsport, a place that is attracting and retaining new and existing residents, visitors, businesses and developers. These projects are collaborative in nature, provide sustained economic impact and improved quality of life. It’s Kingsport’s centennial year. We have enjoyed celebrating our past and our present, so now it’s time to reach for the future.

What is ONEKingsport?

There’s Only One

Believe it or not, the term OneKingsport has been around a really, really long time. The earliest recorded memory of OneKingsport was back in 1949 as it was the cover of a Kingsport Chamber Annual Report. The title across the cover of the book said “There’s only OneKingsport”. This is true…there’s literally only ONE Kingsport in the entire United States. Several Bristol’s, Johnson City’s, Knoxville’s and Nashville’s exist, but there’s only OneKingsport.

Community Spirit

Another common interpretation of OneKingsport is the term for our community spirit. J. Fred Johnson, a founding father of Kingsport, felt strongly about Kingsport’s community spirit and the community’s ability to get things done, and stated so.

Frequently we are asked what motivating spirit has been most apparent in the building of this city of industries, schools, churches and homes. Were I to undertake to define the spirit underlying every step in the growth and development of Kingsport, from the days of its humblest beginnings until now, I could not avoid the assertion that the spirit, if it be a spirit, is one of mutual helpfulness and a willingness to submerge selfish interests beneath the individual effort to assure the greater good for the greater number.

– J. Fred Johnson

The most recent association with ONEKingsport is the ONEKingsport Summit, ONEKingsport Post-Summit Workgroups and now the ONEKingsport Advisory Commission. The last visioning process occurred under Mayor Jeanette Blazier in 1999 where projects like the Kingsport Academic Village and MeadowView transpired to further the city’s vision.

Mayor Clark campaigned on the fact it was time for another visioning effort within our community. In October 2015, hundreds of citizens gathered, in person and via livestreaming, for a two-day summit to discuss a population growth issue in Kingsport. The purpose of the ONEKingsport Summit was to create a five-year roadmap to become a vibrant 24/7 city.

Seven workgroups were created that addressed the major areas for the visioning effort: Arts & Entertainment, Destination City Investments, Downtown Revitalization, Health & Wellness, Higher Education Innovation, Housing, and Job Creation and Entrepreneurship.

The overarching goal is to be the best possible Kingsport, a place that is attracting and retaining new and existing residents, visitors, businesses and developers. If this goal is achieved, it ultimately brings us closer to Kingsport’s vision – To be the premier city in Northeast Tennessee to live, work and raise a family and for businesses to grow and prosper.

bigideas Following the 2-day summit, citizens interested in serving were divided among the 7 post-summit workgroups. For the next 5 months, these workgroups met to research, identify and recommend projects or “big ideas” to bring forward. In March 2016, each workgroup presented to the BMA.

From those presentations, city staff collected all of the information and then formed a prioritization team. This team consisted of two members nominated from each workgroup to bring all the ideas forward and prioritize year one recommendations. Then, a staff cost-estimating team worked on provided estimates for each project.

As of September 2016, the ONEKingsport Advisory Commission was formed. This commission is advisory in nature and does not make any financial decisions. The funding is recommended by the commission and approved by the BMA.

Many ideas came forward throughout the ONEKingsport process and are already underway as they were absorbed but the current city budget, absorbed by partner agencies or had not cost to implement.

Please keep in mind that all projects supporting the summit goal of attracting and retaining residents, visitors, businesses and developers are considered a part of the ONEKingsport movement. For example, a substantial Meadowview renovation is underway, and while not funded through ONEKingsport, the hotel is a destination city investment that supports the ONEKingsport effort.

For the most recent update on ONEKingsport, please click here.