Chattanooga City Council approves chairman, vice chairman

Councilman Jack Benson unanimously was elected chairman of the Chattanooga City Council Tuesday night, replacing former Councilwoman Linda Bennett.

The new City Council, sworn in Monday, also elected Councilman Manny Rico as vice chairman. The positions are approved annually by the council.

One of the first orders of business for the council was dealing with a contentious issue of an apartment complex on East Brainerd Road and Panorama Drive that has drawn the ire of some residents.

Lana Sutton, a local resident, said she wanted the council to look into the matter more closely, especially how neighbors were told of any changes at the property.

“There was no notification,” she said.

Flournoy Development Co. is the developer of the property. The council rezoned the property last October to allow apartment complex use at the site. Officials said Tuesday that because the developers decided not to haul 100,000 cubic yards of dirt out of the complex they had to seek council approval.

Greg Haynes, director of comprehensive planning for the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency, said no state law states notification is needed, but the city always places yellow signs at the site and does fliers.

“We found the yellow notifications were more effective,” he said.

In this case, there were signs posted, he said. Mr. Benson said the project also has involved at least 10 well-attended meetings over the years.

Lois Kiselika, another resident in the area, said the problems are nonexistent.

“They’ve been worked out for many years, and we’d like to welcome Flournoy to the neighborhood,” she said.

The council approved the project 9-0.

In other business, the council also approved 9-0 paying $30,000 to the Tennessee Valley Authority for divers who conducted tests along the 21st Century Waterfront pier and boat docks in January. Gary Hilbert, director of the land development office, said it apparently was found that TVA had not yet been paid for the service.

“This is not the way we normally do things,” Mr. Hilbert told council members.

The divers conducted testing after finding grass growing along some steps and some of the soil settling, Public Works officials said.