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Thursday, October 29, 2026Oct 29

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New downtown Chattanooga zoning regulations clear first hurdle

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To read a full version of the form-based code, see a map of the affected areas and review conditions going before the City Council next month, visit www.chcrpa.com or www.cha-fbc.com.

photo Karen Hundt, the planner and director of the Chattanooga Design Center, stands by the entrance to the Tennessee Room in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga before the start of the meeting to discuss the Gateway to Moccasin Bend Park in 2011.
photo Jason Farmer talks to reporters at the Times Free Press on Tuesday.

It took two hours of back-and-forth in a packed meeting hall, but by 3 p.m. Monday, planning commissioners had voted in favor of sweeping new zoning regulations, with 12 conditions attached.

The commission’s vote is a recommendation that members of the Chattanooga City Council approve the form-based code – the most significant changes to downtown zoning regulations in a half century – when it comes before them next month.

But debate over the new zoning law is far from over.

In the days and weeks leading up to Monday’s vote, tensions mounted about various aspects of the new downtown zoning code, specifically, about how the code deals with parking.