A year and a half ago, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann said progress on a new site for the Chattanooga Veterans Clinic was “lethargic and slow,” but the rezoning approval of a potential site for the clinic Monday may speed things up.
The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission voted to rezone a 27-acre site at the corner of Shallowford and Standifer Gap roads from residential and R-4 to R-4 special zone.
The site would potentially afford space for the VA clinic, currently located at Eastgate Town Center, as well as 100,000 square feet for medical office space.
The House passed legislation to authorize funding for a new lease and expanded Veterans Affairs clinic in Chattanooga 420-5 on July 30, 2014. It already had been approved by the House and Senate Conference Committee.
“This is a much needed expansion in Hamilton County and yet another victory for veterans in East Tennessee,” Fleischmann said in 2014. “With this new lease, veterans will not only experience more timely care, but in addition, they will receive more specialized services in the areas of dental, laboratory, work therapy, geriatrics and eye care. The men and women who bravely protected our country must be taken care of when they return from the battlefields, and I am confident the expanded clinic will greatly advance medical care for veterans throughout the 3rd District.”