Two Chattanooga City Council members say the heart of a recent controversy over a now-defunct Hunter Road apartments project has nothing to do with the city's zoning laws.
The problem, they say, is that Hamilton County has done nothing to improve the winding two-lane road.
"I would've hoped the county would've had the foresight to develop Hunter Road," Councilman Andraé McGary said before voting in an Aug. 17 council meeting to support the project. The vote failed, 5-4.
County officials dismissed that criticism and said the city caused the controversy by annexing the property intended for the apartments.
County Mayor Claude Ramsey, speaking about McGary's comments on Wednesday, said McGary should worry about his own district.
"He's probably got roads in the city of Chattanooga that are as bad," Ramsey said. "If he'll take care of them, we'll take care of county roads."
McGary said engaging in a back-and-forth over the issue is "childish."
"The future or the destiny of the city and the county are wound together, so to nitpick one against the other or to pick at one against the other does nothing for either," he said. "Let's work together."
Opponents of the apartments said safety along the road was one of their concerns about the proposed 230-unit apartment complex. Hunter Road connects Highway 58 to Interstate 75 and contains two schools: Wallace A. Smith Elementary School and Hunter Middle School.
McGary and Councilwoman Pam Ladd, who supported the project, both said the county should have improved Hunter Road long ago.
Ladd said Wednesday it is "absolutely" the county's responsibility to improve the road.
"Someone will develop that property and I think it would be advisable to make sure road conditions are supportive of the increase in traffic they're seeing," Ladd said.
County Engineer Todd Leamon said the road does belong to the county and said there has been talk in the past of improving it.
Commissioner Bill Hullander was at the City Council meeting when McGary criticized the county for not improving the road.
"They did not have to annex that," Hullander said Wednesday, adding, "We have tried to so something on Hunter Road ... the landowners wouldn't give us the right of way. I wasn't wanting to eminent domain people's property. I will say Hunter Road needs something done."
Mike Wilson, spokesman for Ooltewah Citizens for Responsible Growth, the group organized against the apartments, said safety on the road was a concern for the group and said improving it would take away one issue they had with the development.
"It definitely needs to be improved, there's 100 percent no doubt," he said. "But you get into county budgets and city budgets."