2026 2 20 Strategic Summit Packet

Unverified text extraction. Check the original page for numbers, names, and layout.

2026 Strategic Summit 
What Should the City's Future Planning Strategy Be 
Based on Current Context? 
Executive Summary 
The city of Athens's future planning strategy must be grounded in clear demographic, economic, and fiscal 
realities. An analysis of current demographic data consisting of population-related indicators including 
historical population growth, public school enrollment, sanitation customers, garbage collection amounts, 
and residential building permits issued indicate that while Athens has experienced modest population 
growth, long-term population increases are projected to be minimal due to limited housing availability, slow 
residential development activity, and broader national demographic trends showing declining population 
growth and an aging population. These conditions, absent intentional intervention, constrain natural growth 
and require the city to be deliberate and disciplined in its approach to growth and service delivery. 
As a result, the city's planning strategy, based on demographic data, should be to: 
• attract/incentivize a broad mix of housing types at multiple price points 
• avoid premature expansion of public services and staffing levels not supported by housing growth 
• emphasize maintaining/improving existing infrastructure such as roads and sidewalks, facilities, 
parks, vehicles, and technology systems and ensure utilities are available 
• ensure existing public services are delivered at high quality and efficiently including outsourcing 
existing services to the private sector where appropriate 
• review and eliminate programs that do not demonstrate a clear return on investment 
• enhance the city's gateways, major travel corridors, and downtown aesthetics to attract private 
investments 
On the economic side, the city's economic performance has been strong. Local sales tax and hotel/motel 
tax collections have increased at amounts that significantly outpaced population growth, signaling the city 
is increasingly functioning as a regional economic hub. In addition, since the city has installed artificial turf 
on the five baseball/softball in-fields at Regional Park, regional tournaments for 30 weeks per year are 
expected to stimulate sales tax and hotel/motel tax collections as well as additional retail, hospitality and 
restaurant development on the I-75 exit 49 corridors. 
As a result, the city's planning strategy, based on economic data, should be to: 
• leverage its growth as a regional destination hub by aggressively recruiting retail, commercial, and 
restaurant developments 
• strengthen its position as a sports tourism hub by installing artificial turf and LED lighting on the 
soccer fields to attract regional and statewide soccer tournaments and evaluating the feasibility of 
completing the SE TN Trade & Conference Center as a long-term economic catalyst . 
Importantly, the city is well positioned to financially implement this well-developed strategy. The city 
maintains strong financial reserves across multiple funds, benefits from a favorable Aa3 bond rating to 
lower borrowing costs (see Moody's rating report in sleeve) and has a comparatively low property tax rate 
relative to neighboring jurisdictions. These factors provide flexibility to invest strategically, manage risks, 
and phase projects responsibility without imposing undue tax burdens. 
All combined, these findings point to a prudent and data-driven strategic approach for future planning that 
is focused on quality of life, fiscal sustainability, targeted economic growth, and strategic capital 
investment. The accompanying seven-year Capital Improvement Plan translates these general strategies 
into an actionable long-term plan with defined projects, specific cost estimates, and funding strategies to 
guide the city's planning decisions through the next decade. 
1