Everything was all sunshine and Santa Claus at the opening of a new $16 million road up Aetna Mountain Thursday, but the mood belied the battle of more than a decade to build the road. And the 1,200 pricey homes planned for the mountain that will have views of Lookout Valley and parts of Chattanooga are a far cry from the area’s backwoods image over the past century.
Developers said the road — River Gorge Drive — took more than two and a half years to design and more than two years to build but will be the access for water, sewer, gas, electricity and fiber optics that will used on top of the mountain.
The battle to build the road was marked by skirmishes over a $9 million tax increment financing (TIF) agreement with the city and county passed nearly a decade ago. The first such agreement in Hamilton County, TIFs allow developers to spend money for a project but then to be paid back with interest — in this case over 20 years — from new property tax revenues generated by the development. During that period, no money is coming into the particular government body to be used for the likes of fire and police services.
The city’s Industrial Development Board was sued twice over the TIF, losing the first lawsuit, before it was approved and then reapproved.
A TIF is the same type of tax agreement the city and county entered into earlier this year to build the new Southside stadium for the Chattanooga Lookouts. No doubt on the day the stadium is opened, the mood will be similar to Thursday’s about what wondrous thing has been wrought.