BusinessTN

The rivers and mountains that define the landscape of the Chattanooga area have long attracted hikers, bikers, climbers and paddlers from across the region.

Now area leaders are launching a collaborative effort to turn the outdoors into a “signature lifestyle” to draw new businesses, more tourists and get more locals to go outside and play.

“Nationally, quality of life as a criterion for life satisfaction is real—it’s more important than many other factors,” says Burt Woolf, a Massachusetts-based consultant hired by the city to conduct public meetings and help craft a five-year plan for the outdoor initiative.

Starting in November, Woolf coordinated a series of meetings—two large public gatherings and 10 smaller meetings with specific groups. Public response was “astounding,” he says.

“The day of the [first] public meeting we were told there might be 500 people. By the end of the day, it was 800. It was far and away the largest public meeting I ever had to moderate. I was running around the room like Phil Donahue.”

From those meetings came ideas that guided a steering committee of about 20 people. They have completed a document laying out goals for upcoming months, including finding a director to coordinate the plan and oversee a diverse nonprofit board.

“It’s still in draft form, but the plan is to create a nonprofit with a self-sustaining board—something that will live for a long time,” says Jerry Mitchell, the administrator of Chattanooga’s Department of Parks, Recreation, Arts and Culture. “At that point, the city will just be a partner.”

There is, however, much work to be done, says Dawson Wheeler, co-owner of Rock/ Creek Outfitters in Chattanooga. Some of the area’s best trails and climbing spots can be hard to find, and have little to offer in the way of parking, signs or maps.

“Right now our resources are kind of raw goods,” Wheeler says. “We have unbelievable boating and hiking, the best rock climbing, and plenty of trails on which to hike and run and bike. But if you pull in here from Michigan and want to spend a day out, even if you walk into Rock/Creek, we’ll be hard-pressed to get you there unless we just walk you through it.”

Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker says he’s certain those hurdles can be overcome and that the outdoor plan is a powerful opportunity.

“I was in business for many years, and sometimes you’ve just got a gut feeling about a deal, a sense that it could be an incredible success if you just seize the moment. That’s the way the outdoor initiative felt to me.”

It’s too soon to know how much the outdoor initiative will cost or where, exactly, the funding will come from, Corker says. In addition to hiring Woolf for $43,000, the city has allocated about $9 million to develop the 22-acre GE-Roper Corp. property on Manufacturers Road along the Tennessee River. Plans call for a pavilion to house the outdoor initiative, wetlands, and an extension of the Tennessee Riverwalk.

Even before local leaders pushed this plan, Chattanooga drew attention for its outdoor life. The area is home to the Ocoee River, a regional mecca for rafting and kayaking, and the site of the 1996 Olympic kayaking course. In 2001, Outside magazine named Chattanooga among its top 10 cities in which to live, work and play. And the city has a small but growing population of residents drawn here exclusively by outdoor opportunities.

Travis Gault, 24, (pictured below) packed up and left Harrisburg, Pa., last spring after a brief visit to Chattanooga to check out local climbing spots.

“I’ve been West plenty of times, but I like the East,” Gault says. “And really, in Chattanooga, there is more climbing in the sense of around the town. Out West, there is tons of climbing, but you have to drive.”

The Chattanooga Area Convention & Visitors Bureau has pushed the city’s outdoor offerings through a campaign using the slogan “Chattanooga—the attraction’s only natural.”

But this latest effort to build Chattanooga’s reputation as an outdoor city is about more than slogans, Woolf says. For the initiative to work, the outdoor lifestyle has to be a “systemic” part of Chattanooga’s infrastructure, whether that means clean, safe bicycle lanes or clear access to trails.

“We have a ways to go,” he says. “The lifestyle has to be supported.”