Rezoning shows why ethics code needed

For many of us, our home is our biggest financial investment. Our neighborhoods are sanctuaries.

What can destroy both is a planning commissioner voting to influence the value of his family property at the expense of ours.

Thus, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Planning Commission needs an ethics code.

One example of why is the 25-acre apartment megacomplex rezoned for our neighborhood on East Brainerd Road at Panorama Drive, between I-75 and Gunbarrel.

County Commissioner Bill Hullander, who rotates onto the planning commission, didn’t recuse himself from voting for it Oct. 13. Yet he and his son own lots fronting East Brainerd Road on the block next door to the rezoning, including Hullco.

The apartments’ nearly 1,000 new renters and 600 vehicles will devastate our neighborhood, adding another East Brainerd Road traffic light.

And while the rezoning makes the Hullanders’ property more salable, neighbors don’t have the profitable option of rezoning our homes.

We hope the council reverses this tainted rezoning, not just because of Hullander’s conflict of interest, but because City Councilman Jack Benson told opponents the developer withdrew the rezoning. The developer was allowed to return without reapplying. Support us in protecting East Brainerd’s neighborhoods at http://www. myspace.com/chattanooganative.

LANA SUTTON