Just a year after expanding its borders, Chattanooga now is considering trimming down.
The City Council heard about three different deannexation efforts Tuesday during a Legal and Legislative Committee meeting. Two of the proposals come from landowners wanting to leave Chattanooga because they believe they do not get adequate service.
A third proposal comes from an area the city annexed last year around Apison Pike.
“These people might see in a year or two they need city services,” said Phil Noblett, assistant city attorney, about the Apison Pike deannexation.
The city hopes to deannex properties belonging to residents who filed a lawsuit against annexation last year. Noblett said the rest of the annexed areas would come into the city by the end of the year.
The other two areas looking at deannexation lie on Elder Mountain and near the Tennessee River.
Noblett said Brent Burks, who lives on Cumberland Road on Elder Mountain, wants to leave the city because most of the mountain lies in Marion County.
“We’re unable to service that area,” he said.
About 30 homes sit atop the mountain, and he suggested if the city deannexes that it should deannex all areas along Elder Mountain Road to the top of the mountain. That would affect three or four homes, he said.
The last area to look at being deannexed would be on O’Grady Drive along the Tennessee River, where most of the parcels belong to Dr. James Little.
“Why does he want to deannex?” Councilman Jack Benson asked.
Attorney John Anderson, representing the Little family, said it is because the expense of fixing the road, bringing in sewer and allowing less stringent zoning regulation for the family’s bed and breakfast.
“He believes he’s paid a lot more in taxes than what he’s gotten in services,” Anderson said.
Anderson said they checked with fire insurance and found the company would not drop the family if it chose to not be in the city. But some council members said they were concerned about a bed and breakfast and gathering place that sometimes has 500 people.
Councilman Peter Murphy said if a fire broke out it could be a matter of public safety if Chattanooga isn’t the one helping them.
“Where is your firetruck going to come from?” Murphy asked. “I don’t think you know.”
Anderson said in the next few weeks he would have in writing who would provide fire service.
In other news, Murphy, chairman of the Legal and Legislative Committee, told the city attorney’s office to draft an ordinance that could put the state’s administrative law judges in charge of disciplinary hearings.
Jack Benson Jr., attorney for the Service Employees International Union Local 205, suggested to council members they do it on a trial basis, find attorneys with trial experience and also should sign a conflict of interest statement to handle these hearings. Jack Benson Jr. is the son of the City Councilman Jack Benson.
“The best trained people should be hearing this,” said Councilwoman Carol Berz.
The move comes just weeks after voters approved overwhelmingly to allow the council to change its disciplinary hearings through ordinance. The council currently holds employee hearings by a three-person board made up of council members.