Mayor Ron Littlefield expressed opposition to the Chattanooga Housing Authority’s plans to increase density at Fairmount Avenue Apartments this afternoon during a special called CHA board meeting.

The mayor also wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development calling the housing authority unprofessional in its lack of communication to residents.

Several North Chattanooga residents who live near the site attended the board meeting to express their objections to the work and their concern about not previously seeing plans for the site.

The housing agency plans to tear down the 24 units at Fairmount Avenue and build 48 in their place.

Housing authority officials said residents participated in a land-use study for the area in 2004. Housing officials operated according to the information in the study for designing plans, they said.

CHA officials also said the mayor’s letter seemed to personally attack some housing authority officials. They also asked that in the future the mayor express his concerns to the board before writing a letter to HUD.

Housing officials say they will meet again Nov. 17.

For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.