About 70 people attended a community meeting on Snow Hill Road Monday evening to discuss a 453-home development in the area with District 9 Commissioner Chester Bankston.About 70 people attended a community meeting Monday evening to discuss a 453-home development off Snow Hill Road in Ooltewah where a majority of the residents voiced concerns to District 9 Commissioner Chester Bankston about the developer’s desires for the area.
Several residents are concerned about added traffic on the two-lane county road, overcapacity in schools and infrastructure that can’t handle the current growth the area is already experiencing. A petition against the development and its rezoning has garnered over 1,300 signatures on Change.org.
Residents Monday questioned how the developer and/or Hamilton County is going to account for 453 added homes and the cars and people that will come with them.
“It has been going backwards,” said area resident Donna Moss about the rezoning process. “You need four lanes on Hunter and Snow Hill roads. The schools aren’t large enough for all these people. All of this that has to be done – should be done – before the building.”
The development by KSM Developing Company and developer Billy McCoy came before the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission last week for a parcel of the nearly 200 acres at 6424 Snow Hill Road – currently Heritage Farms – to be rezoned from an agricultural to a residential zoning for low-density single-family homes. Part of the property to be developed is already zoned R-1.