Heavy traffic on Hunter Road means Tammy Dana sometimes has to wait 15 to 20 minutes to take a left onto the street from its intersection at Bell Mill Road.
As is, she said, the right-hand turn onto Bell Mill Road is so sharp — practically at a 45-degree angle — that school buses and large trucks often have to inch into the oncoming lane to manage it. Dana is concerned how further housing development in that area, where infrastructure is already inadequate, could worsen the already difficult driving conditions.
“I would just love for them to really consider how dangerous this is to put this many cars and people on one dead-end road,” she said in a phone call. “We’re not against development. We’re just trying to be smarter about it and come up with a plan for infrastructure.”
(READ MORE: $40 million apartment project planned in fast-growing Ooltewah area)
Hamilton County Commissioner Steve Highlander, R-Ooltewah, is asking his colleagues to consider a pause of up to 18 months on rezoning requests for properties that front or have access to Hunter Road between Highway 58 and Mountain View Road. This would allow time for a comprehensive study by the Regional Planning Agency on infrastructure needs and zoning recommendations for that area.
The County Commission is scheduled to vote on the pause next week. Highlander, who represents the area, said Hunter Road is one of the most dangerous corridors in Hamilton County.
“There’s wrecks all the time,” he told his colleagues during a meeting Wednesday. “I’ve taken my two grandsons to Hunter Middle School and Ooltewah High School, and in about 7 miles it takes me an hour and half in the mornings to get there.”
Highlander held a community meeting last week at Wallace A. Smith Elementary School to discuss a possible rezoning at 8209 Bell Mill Road, which would allow the construction of nearly 300 new homes.
“There were two wrecks on Hunter Road that kept people from getting there, including the administrator that was supposed to open the building,” Highlander said.
Highlander said he doesn’t want this proposal to become a precedent, and he wants to be respectful to homebuilders. If there’s not enough time for commissioners to study it, Highlander said, he may pull it before the vote next week. He’s hopeful the pause would be much shorter than 18 months.
“I think it’s very worthy of consideration,” Highlander said. “There’s a very dangerous situation, (and) I think we need to take care of our citizens’ well-being.”
Although he’s unsure how exactly it would affect the housing development planned off Bell Mill Road, which still requires approval of a rezoning request, Highlander said in a phone call the pause would not affect ongoing projects.
“If something was already purchased and planned, they would be grandfathered in,” he said. “We could not go back in retrospect (if) they’ve already invested their money and made plans and laid it out.”
If his proposal isn’t approved, he hopes to see the county form a road improvement committee for unincorporated areas.
Hunter Road is one of multiple roads in need of upgrades, he said, adding that in many places the county doesn’t have the right of way to widen roads.
“We need homes,” Highlander said. “Jobs are coming in, and we need homes for the people with jobs. … All the commissioners know that. Yet, we need to have the infrastructure to keep up with the development. I’m hoping to get some help from the homebuilders and others.”
John Provst’s immediate family has been involved in five accidents on Hunter Road, four of those in the past two years. There are times of day when the traffic is not too bad, he said in a phone call, but in the morning and afternoon, it picks up significantly.
Motorists on Hunter Road tend to drive fast, Provst said, and they’re traveling around blind curves with entrances to neighborhoods and homes popping up every 15 feet. With no shoulder to pull off on, he said, wrecks tend to tie up traffic until a tow truck arrives.
“The bottom line is Hunter Road needs to be reviewed,” Provst told commissioners Wednesday. “I think the population has grown too much to accommodate that road. Back in 2009, there were 12,000 cars a day. … If you looked at it today, it would probably be three times that.”
(READ MORE: Chattanooga sees 200% increase in vehicle vs. pedestrian fatalities)
Provst also believes there needs to be a pause on development.
“If you live here, you understand,” Provst said. “The school systems are at max, the road systems are at max right now.”
There’s no way to improve the street systems to accommodate the traffic, he said. Provst recommends developers go elsewhere in Hamilton County, maybe Apison Pike or Highway 58.
Plans for housing
Residents have significant concerns about the housing project proposed on Bell Mill Road. On July 10, the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission deferred for 30 days a request to rezone 102 acres of vacant land at 8209 Bell Mill Road from agricultural to residential. Planning Commission staff recommended denial of the request and said much of the land sits in a flood zone.
Mike Price, of MAP Engineers, is working on the project. He did not immediately return a voicemail left on his office phone Wednesday. Price has previously said the development group wants to improve the intersection of Bell Mill and Hunter roads, but it hasn’t been able to contact a landowner. Growth, he noted, isn’t going away.
Dana has lived in that area for two decades. Her daughter went to Wallace A. Smith Elementary School, Hunter Middle School and Ooltewah High School — all within several miles of each other.
Before her daughter graduated in 2012, Hunter Road was just beginning to attract development, and traffic wasn’t too bad. Now, it’s unbelievable, Dana said. The corridor reminds Dana of Marietta, Georgia, a city roughly 20 miles outside Atlanta.
Dana is concerned about the affect of the nearly 300-home subdivision planned off Bell Mill Road. Her family may move if it’s approved.
“We don’t want to move,” she said, “but I also don’t want to live where it’s a constant battle to get in and out of my subdivision.”
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.