On Wednesday, Nov. 16, City leaders and South Knoxville residents and business owners will cut the ribbon and officially dedicate Suttree Landing Park - the City's first new park to open in 12 years. The ceremony will take place at 1 p.m.
And what a spectacular park it is! Festival lawns, a children’s playground, a put-in for kayakers and accessible river overlooks with picnic tables. And how about the cutting-edge engineering features to protect water quality?
The 8¼ -acre riverfront park will showcase diverse native plantings - dogwoods, elms, oaks, maples, sweet gums and more. Suttree Landing Park also will feature the Old Sevier Neighborhood Group’s butterfly gardens.
“This park will be unique in the amenities it offers," Mayor Madeline Rogero said. "It will be a favorite gathering spot for outdoor recreation enthusiasts, and it will be a great place where families can spend quality time, picnic and enjoy amazing river views."
FROM LEFT: Redevelopment Director Dawn Michelle Foster, Mayor Madeline Rogero and Deputy to the Mayor Christi Branscom tour Suttree Landing Park as it nears its opening. They're standing at a river overlook with an accessible picnic table.
Complementing the park is the new 2,988-foot-long two-lane tree-lined street, Waterfront Drive, which offers direct access to Suttree Landing Park. The park and the new Waterfront Drive together represent a $6.6 million City investment in the South Waterfront.
Suttree Landing Park also will include a 2,000-foot-long section of riverwalk. Over time, the riverwalk will span the entire three-mile-long South Waterfront. Another section of the public riverwalk is in place at the City View development to the west and at River’s Edge apartments to the east, with new sections to be built as Riverwalk at the Bridges and Riverfront Station apartments are constructed. Combined, these five sections will make up more than a mile of new greenway along the river’s edge.
"This park pays loving tribute to the water in all manners," said Dawn Michelle Foster, Director of Redevelopment. "Visitors will sense that by the way the vistas are accentuated, and by the way the park allows everyone - kayakers, joggers and picnickers - to experience the riverfront. We're especially proud of the sustainable features."
For example, a network of pervious pavement, carefully placed rocks and native plants will control runoff during hard rainstorms and filter pollutants, such as oil and grime from the road, to keep them from reaching the Tennessee River. (SEE PHOTO BELOW.)
The park’s name pays homage to the famed fictitious son of 1950s Knoxville – the dark and rascally Cornelius Suttree, created by Cormac McCarthy 37 years ago. (You can still feel the presence of Suttree and his river companions all along this section of the river!)
BELOW: Imagine how much fun children will have, clamoring on the play structures at Suttree Landing Park once it opens!
PICTURED ABOVE: Workers in late October make final preparations to Suttree Landing - planting native species and installing natural rock borders next to this playground slide.