After years of deliberation over the fate of McDonald Farm, a 2,170-acre tract north of Sale Creek that Hamilton County purchased in 2021, the county has found a solution that stands to satisfy residents and to do what’s best for the future growth of the region.
In a land swap — a switch in land designations — between McDonald Farm and the Enterprise South Nature Park in the Ooltewah area, the former will avoid industrial development, as residents desire, while the latter will see additional commercial development and job creation on a site that neighbors the Volkswagen facility.
“We believe that we’ve identified a path to save McDonald Farm, to preserve it for generations to come,” County Mayor Weston Wamp said at a news conference Wednesday, “but also to expand one of the great industrial parks in the South.”
Indeed, this is the right path forward. By preserving McDonald Farm for recreational and green space, it honors the wishes of the farm’s neighbors. A survey over the summer found that a majority of residents in the McDonald Farm area do not want industrial development on the site.
As we’ve written before, any commercial, industrial or residential development would not suit McDonald Farm. While the larger region is in need of better-paying jobs and more housing, this development should be focused on the urban core.