MEETING DATES
	March 24, 2026 - Welcome Kick-off
	May 14, 2026 - Developing a new Vision, Mission, and Goals
	June 30, 2026 - What is Possible? Site Review and Engineering Studies
	August 11, 2026 - Creating a New Vision for Possibilities
	September 22, 2026 - Setting a Framework
	Meetings held from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Jacob Building at Chilhowee Park.
	Meeting formats may vary

What is the Chilhowee Park Advisory Group (CPAG)?


The Chilhowee Park Advisory Group (CPAG) has been formed to help shape the future of Chilhowee Park.

Community members, partners, and stakeholders will become the advisors and advocates to help guide Chilhowee Park's future mission, vision, and goals.

Discussions and activities in the workshops to come will establish guiding objectives and create a vision that will preserve the park's history while planning the future of the park together.

The members are requested to share information, progress, and report feedback through their neighborhood and community organizations where they live, work, and play.


What are the goals of CPAG?


CPAG will:

• Shape the future of Chilhowee Park with community voices and collaboration
• Attend workshops and participate in discussions and activities
• Work together to create guiding objectives for the future of the park
• Engage with wide network of stakeholders in the community
• Share information from the group work to the wider community
• Refine and share community insights to the CPAG group
• Meet over the next 12 months for 1-2 hours sessions


Updates from CPAG


MAY 14, 2026 MEETING

On May 14, 2026, the Chilhowee Park Advisory Group (CPAG) met at the Jacob Building for its second working group session in Meeting 02. The meeting was open to the public. This meeting's goal was to begin developing a new set of community-led guiding principles for the park and its future. Three exercises were presented to CPAG and the public with the collective data summarized in the CPAG Workshop 02 Report.

Facilitators began the meeting by reviewing the community input from its emerging themes that were consolidated from CPAG Meeting 01. After the review, all who attended, CPAG and community stakeholders, were presented the same data and asked to vote on the merit and utility of each theme or principle as part of Exercise 01. 

The core recommendations developed in the 2019 Chilhowee Park and Exposition Center Strategic Plan have been the subject of considerable discussion over the years. Rather than set it aside, Exercise 02 invited CPAG and community members a chance to test each principle against where the community stands today, to identify what still aligns with the community’s vision, and flag what may need to be rethought or replaced before planning efforts continue to move forward.

Exercise 03 presented an opportunity for CPAG to work in small groups, to begin re-framing the ideas surrounding the 2019 guiding principles. There was much discussion in the room and CPAG members began composing many new guiding principles grounded in community history and current desires. Though there was not enough time to consolidate the discussions to reach consensus in the room, notes from facilitators and worksheets of CPAG members were collected and integrated with the gathered community input; revealing 8 new emerging principles. Because the guiding principles will play a key role to support the park’s future framework, these new guiding principles are being circulated among the wider community to help with the consensus. 




MARCH 24, 2026 MEETING

On March 24, 2026 the Chilhowee Park Advocacy Group (CPAG) met at the Jacob building for its first working group session. The ultimate goal of the CPAG is to develop a resident-led Vision, Mission, and set of goals for the future of Chilhowee Park. This first meeting focused on building relationships among CPAG members and with the broader community. The meeting was open to all who wished to attend and gave every attendee an opportunity to provide input, share experiences, and voice concerns for this beloved park. The meeting was facilitated by City staff and hired consultants. Participants were asked to review the history of the park, to evaluate how the shape and function of the park has changed over time, and to share desires for the park's future. The CPAG Workshop 01 Report gathers over 600 bits of input from those who were there and puts together a proposed set of community-led focus areas for Chilhowee Park.



Aerial Views of Chilhowee Park