Ten federal, state and local officials wrote letters of support for a proposed Hamilton County land swap deal before it was made public, and at least one of them did not know about the most controversial aspect of the proposal.
County Mayor Weston Wamp’s plan would slate about 500 acres of Enterprise South Nature Park near Ooltewah for industrial development and, in turn, conserve about 1,300 acres of McDonald Farm in Sale Creek.
At least one of the local officials who wrote letters in support of the plan did not know it involved development of the nature park — state Rep. Greg Vital, R-Harrison, said he intended to endorse a conceptual plan that prioritized conservation at McDonald Farm.
Wamp’s proposal was developed in private for eight months, and he was going to make it public at an unspecified later date. Then he called a press conference on Oct 8 to announce the proposal after the Chattanooga Times Free Press informed him of plans for an article about the land swap.
In the week since, the deal has been the subject of debate on social media, with some from the Ooltewah area authoring a petition opposing the deal that has over 5,000 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.