East Bank staff outline utilities, floodplain and NEPA work; FEMA maps still draft

East Bank Development Authority staff told the board they have layered utility and preliminary engineering work onto the Imagine East Bank vision and have reached 30% design on many pieces of the project while coordinating with multiple agencies.

Ben York, chief executive officer, said the authority’s area of responsibility covers about 550 acres and that Metro directly owns about 30 acres in the central waterfront. York said Kimley‑Horn completed a detailed survey and that the authority has a coordinated preliminary engineering report that informed a 30% design package. “We built in a 30% design that has conflict analysis built into it,” York said.

Staff described two sewer pump stations (one north, one south) required to serve development across the East Bank, and work with Metro Water Services on potable piping that balances capacity and water‑quality risks. York said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers submitted draft FEMA maps to FEMA and, per Metro Water, “they very rarely transition back or change in a substantive fashion.” The authority is planning to place public infrastructure about one foot above the new floodplain elevation in its design work and is seeking a “no‑rise” determination from the Corps to avoid broad cut‑and‑fill compensation across the 550 acres.

Anna Greider, chief operating officer, said the team is coordinating with NES and Metro ITS on underground communications and electrical “duck banks” and working with NDOT/TDOT and WeGo on mobility planning. Staff said the boulevard cross‑section work shared publicly was schematic (5% in places for the boulevard) while most utilities and grid designs were at 30%.

York and Greider described a stormwater district structure intended to keep Metro Water standards while enabling East Bank‑level review and management. The authority has also worked on LED lighting standards with NES and plans additional coordination on resilience measures with the Corps and Metro Water; an informational deep dive on floodplain and stormwater infrastructure was scheduled for the board’s next meeting.

On subsurface issues, staff reported participation in a Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation brownfields grant of $100,000 to complete geotechnical and subsurface borings; crews performed the first round of borings in mid‑May. Staff said sites undergoing redevelopment are in a voluntary cleanup and oversight program with soil management plans in place to limit liability and guide remediation.

Staff emphasized that many infrastructure decisions — including utility routing, whether overhead power is placed underground, and final boulevard cross‑section — depend on further study and coordination with asset owners and federal reviewers.

Board members asked for more financial detail and for future briefings that bring funding, scheduling and technical analysis together so the board can follow the implementation and phasing of utilities and transport assets.