St. Elmo building gets go-ahead as neighbors steam about project, process

Hamilton County Commissioner Joe Graham

Neighbors of a proposed multiuse building planned for St. Elmo are not happy.

They told local planners Monday they don’t like the building or the perceived lack of respect they say they feel from local government.

For an hour Monday afternoon, debate went on in the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission meeting about whether a four-story building ought to be allowed to go up on Old Mountain Road in the historic Chattanooga borough.

On the one side, applicant Matt Winget of Elemi Architecture in Chattanooga and Paul Teruya of ALC Holdings spoke for their 1.1-acre project. As proposed, the rezoning would allow one building with commercial space on its first floor and residential space on its top three, in addition to six separate single-family homes, set to face Pennsylvania Avenue.

The developers said they have held neighborhood meetings and tried to oblige residents’ concerns brought forward in February, when the proposal was first put forth, again at March’s planning commission meeting and in the time since.