An 80-acre site near the Volkswagen plant that officials have said could hold a second supplier park is being prepped for development.
Hamilton County is seeking a state permit to enable work on the parcel, which is the biggest undeveloped tract available at Enterprise South industrial park.
The permit application envisions construction of a 23-acre facility, which is about double the two buildings on the existing VW supplier park nearby.
An economic developer said building isn't starting on the site, which is near Volkswagen and Bonny Oaks drives, but they're readying it for later.
J.Ed. Marston, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's vice president of marketing, said the proposed facility is a box drawn on a piece of paper at this point.
"We're trying to figure out how to produce jobs from it," he said. "We're trying to see what's permissible."
Marston said Hamilton County and the city already own the tract.
Hamilton County is seeking an aquatic resource alteration permit from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
To eventually build the proposed facility, a three-tenths of an acre wetland would be affected, according to the application.
The county proposes to compensate for impacting the wetland by creating a mitigation site in the Little Wolftever Creek flood plain.
Tisha Calabrese-Benton, the department's communications director, said it's not unusual for such a permit application to include a potential building on it.
Marston said the permit could be issued in about a month if all goes well. A public hearing could be held on the project if someone requests one, according to the application.
Marston said the Chamber is pursuing about 50 projects under consideration by companies.
He said the permitting effort is akin to the effort local economic developers did to gain megasite certification for the much bigger Enterprise South tract that VW picked two years ago for its auto assembly plant.
About a half dozen auto parts companies accounting for about 500 new jobs are operating in VW's supplier park. The park is seen by VW officials as vital to next year's launch of the car that will be made in Chattanooga.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.