D. Gary Davis

Staff Photo by Dan Henry Bradley County Mayor D. Gary Davis stands at the Bradley County line less than 10 miles from the VW site. Mr. Davis believes that the VW and Wacker corporations will benefit both Hamilton and Bradley counties.

Lori Knowles' family has operated CertaPro Painters in Ooltewah for the past two years, but she's recently noticed customers migrating in from the north.

"We get more and more work in Cleveland as time goes on," she said. "I'm very aware of what's going on here."

What's going on is the rapid snuggling of Cleveland and the Chattanooga area. Only six miles now separate the Chattanooga and Cleveland city limits signs along Interstate 75.

"In the very near future, the only thing that will be separating us is White Oak Mountain," Bradley County Mayor D. Gary Davis recently told the Ooltewah/Collegedale Council of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.

Blame part of it on Volkswagen, but blame the rest on simple growth.

Both cities are snatching up empty land for future growth. Chattanooga's current annexation plans include sections of Old Lee Highway and Hunter Road in Ooltewah as well as the Summit area in Apison.

Cleveland recently annexed the I-75 right-of-way from Exit 20 to White Oak Mountain, making room for expected development spillover from Volkswagen's new plant at Enterprise South in Hamilton County. Cleveland also wants to further expand into the area around Exit 20.

The next Bradley County elementary school site is on Bancroft Road, just a few miles from the Hamilton/Bradley county line on U.S. Highway 11, where more residential growth is expected due to VW.

But the growth is not just Chattanooga and Cleveland. Another development explosion is erupting in Ooltewah and Collegedale, adding to the continuing residential growth and the widening of I-75.

Many Cleveland businesses have Ooltewah branches, and the Ooltewah area is a source for jobs for Bradley County workers, said Bradley County Commissioner Lisa Stanbery, who's also Mr. Davis' opponent in the Republican primary for county major next year.

"Success in Ooltewah is important not only to Ooltewah but to the region and Bradley County,'' Mrs. Stanbery said.

Diane Shellyn Nudd lives and works where the counties meet. She lives in McDonald in Bradley County, goes to church in Ooltewah and works at the Life Care Centers of America corporate office in Cleveland. She also is a board member of the Ooltewah/Collegedale Council of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.

"People are so interested in the ... area, that it is like a new Chattanooga suburb," she said.

regional planning

Such growth means that planning for the area is not just a task for Hamilton and Bradley counties, Mr. Davis told about 60 small-business owners and managers at the chamber meeting. All counties in the Chattanooga area must take a regional approach, he said.

Bradley officials supported the Enterprise South exit on I-75 "because we knew what could be coming," he said. Expanding Exit 11 at Ooltewah had regional support, he said.

Now it's time for the regional partners to support Bradley's bid for expanding Exit 20 in Bradley County, just a few miles from Volkswagen, Mr. Davis said.

Scott Kornblum, president of the Ooltewah/Collegedale Chamber Council and development director for WSMC-FM at Southern Adventist University, echoed Mr. Davis' comments.

"We need to make sure we have good, effective planning and people to lead our communities, and we seem to have that in place," he said.

Ms. Knowles said that regional approach also stretches into nearby Catoosa County, Ga.

"From here, we can serve customers and seek out painters all in a 20-minute area from Ringgold, Chattanooga or Cleveland," she said.

Hamilton County Commissioner Bill Hullander, whose district includes the Ooltewah area, agreed that "it is becoming a community of its own."

The Snow Hill area west of Ooltewah is expected to become one of the fastest-growing residential areas in Hamilton County over the next five years, he said.

"It is a growing area, but we are anxious to get some more things done, especially the roads," Mr. Hullander said.

Interstate 75 plans

Long-range plans for all of I-75 now being studied by the Tennessee Department of Transportation include expanded lanes and more park-and-ride locations, Mr. Hullander said. That would affect the Ooltewah growth area even more.

TDOT finished public information meetings last week in Knoxville, Cleveland and Chattanooga, looking for ways to improve traffic flow on I-75. Whatever comes out of those plans likely will make travel easier through the Chattanooga-to-Cleveland corridor, officials said.

Overall plans are to add lanes all the way from Georgia to Kentucky.

Meanwhile, TDOT planning is under way to expand Exit 20 and add an interchange on the U.S. Highway 64 bypass nearby. That will open areas along the south side of I-75 between Bradley and Hamilton counties.