A proposed future blueprint for part of Chattanooga that includes many of the city’s urban neighborhoods drew mostly a thumbs up at a recent hearing, though worries arose over the steep slopes issue.
Nearly a dozen people, some of them on the Historic River-to-Ridge Area Plan advisory panel, spoke largely in favorable terms about the proposal to City Council members during a virtual hearing this week. The Council is expected to consider the draft plan on July 28.
After a nearly two-year effort, the plan created by the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency calls for preserving single-family homes, offering affordable housing, creating walkable village centers, improving parks and pedestrian links to them, and bettering transportation services.
The sprawling area bordered by the Tennessee River and Missionary Ridge encompasses 17 neighborhoods. It includes many of the city’s traditional Black neighborhoods, and it historically has had one of the highest rates of unemployment in Hamilton County.
The area includes some major manufacturers which employ about 8,000 people, and many of the facilities are in close proximity to neighborhoods, the plan said.