The City of Knoxville's Office of Neighborhoods has begun publishing a directory of neighborhood organizations.

The Knoxville Neighborhood Directory provides the name of each neighborhood organization in the city, including neighborhood associations, homeowner organizations, condo associations, tenant groups and neighborhood watch groups. Also included is the name of the group's contact person and some means to contact the group via phone, e-mail, postal address or Website. 

Those interested can obtain a copy by calling 865-215-3456 and leaving name, address and phone number.

The directory lists all neighborhood groups that have registered with the Office of Neighborhoods, as well as other resource organizations. City neighborhood groups that are not listed should call 865-215-3232 to register.

In producing the directory, the Office of Neighborhoods has also assumed responsibility for maintaining city neighborhood contacts on behalf of the Metropolitan Planning Commission. 

"MPC for years has kept track of who's who among neighborhood groups in the city," noted David Massey, the city's neighborhood coordinator. "We are grateful for their hard work to make neighborhood groups accessible to city departments and to the general public." 

Now, however, the city's Office of Neighborhoods, which was launched in late 2007, has developed its own database of neighborhood groups and contacts. "We are in constant touch with neighborhood groups," Massey noted. 

"Our newsletter, Neighborhood Advisory, is mailed and e-mailed to over 350 individuals, so we know when addresses no longer work. And we are part of the Community Development Department, which maintains contact with neighborhoods for other reasons. It just made sense to avoid the duplication of effort and to make the Office of Neighborhoods responsible for maintaining the addresses." 

MPC will now rely on the city's data to notify neighborhood groups of planned updates to area sector plans and other MPC matters, and it will link to the Knoxville Neighborhood Directory from its neighborhoods page. MPC will continue to maintain a list of neighborhood groups in the county.