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Proposal would make separate Hamilton County planning agency

Staff file photo / Yellow zoning signs sit in front of a barn on a 167-acre tract in Hixson off Highway 153 in 2024.Different planning priorities for rural areas is one reason County Commissioner Jeff Eversole favors establishing a separate county planning department.
Staff file photo / Yellow zoning signs sit in front of a barn on a 167-acre tract in Hixson off Highway 153 in 2024.Different planning priorities for rural areas is one reason County Commissioner Jeff Eversole favors establishing a separate county planning department. Staff file photo / Yellow zoning signs sit in front of a barn on a 167-acre tract in Hixson off Highway 153 in 2024.Different planning priorities for rural areas is one reason County Commissioner Jeff Eversole favors establishing a separate county planning department.

Hamilton County Commissioner Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, has scrapped plans to split a regional zoning board between the city of Chattanooga and the county.

Instead, new legislation would allow Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp to sever the county’s contract with the Regional Planning Agency, a move that’s opposed by city government. If passed, Eversole says he’d like to see the saved tax dollars go to a county planning department to work for and make recommendations to the regional zoning board instead.

“When the Planning Commission and the RPA was created, it was created for the city of Chattanooga,” Eversole said in an interview. “My thought is, the county needs to look different than the city.”

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COMBINED PLANNING