An Atlanta developer said Monday he's ready to start work on about $100 million in new apartments and retail space, including a grocery store, in the Waterside lifestyle center just north of Hamilton Place mall in East Brainerd.
But the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Planning Commission put off rezoning approval at the site for 30 days until planners receive more data about traffic related to the proposal on 62 acres at Gunbarrel and Shallowford roads.
Don Moon speaks during a 2014 planning commission meeting at the Hamilton County Courthouse.Jack Haylett, senior vice president of Branch Properties in Atlanta, said site work could begin late this year with the grocery store opening in spring 2018, Haylett said. He wouldn't name the grocer, but said it's already in the Chattanooga market.
The proposal calls for about 350,000 square feet of retail space and 20,000 square feet of new restaurants, including multiple "first to the market" retailers, the developer said.
Also, a three- and four-story, 300-unit apartment complex could start going up in mid-2017, Haylett said. The developer said the apartments would be "class A" units which the area doesn't now hold.
Haylett said his company plans to partner with locally based Defoor Brothers Development, which created the Waterside project more than a decade ago.
While the site now houses an Embassy Suites, an hhgregg store and limited other retail and commercial development, much of the property remains vacant.
Craig Sarine, who lives nearby on Preston Circle, said some neighbors like the current zoning which allows residences and offices on Gunbarrel Road rather than retail. He also cited flooding issues in his neighborhood and asked that rezoning for the Waterside site be denied or at least deferred.
Also, two Tennessee Department of Transportation officials said they would like to dig into a traffic study they just received last Thursday, and they worried about a potential new outlet from the development to Shallowford near Interstate 75.
Attorney Mike St. Charles, who represented the development group, said the rezoning request wouldn't change the general use of the property.
"It would allow for the most efficient configuration of the development," he said.
While the Regional Planning Agency staff had recommended deferral, St. Charles requested the commission approve the rezoning request.
"I don't think anything will come out of the traffic study that can't be addressed over the next 30 days" when it could go before the City Council for final approval, St. Charles said.
City Councilman Larry Grohn suggested the Planning Commission move the project forward, though he said neighborhood concerns are valid.
Commission member Don Moon said he wasn't comfortable with the way the Waterside development had different zoning changes over the years. Also, neighbors had been given the impression that Gunbarrel would continue to have a residential character, he said.
An effort to move the project to City Council failed by a vote of 7-to-6 and it was deferred for 30 days.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.