TASK FORCEGreater Chattanooga Regional Growth Initiative has named a task force to pick a planning consultant:• Corinne Allen, Benwood Foundation president• Brian Anderson, Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce CEO• Mike Babb, Whitfield County board of commissioners chairman• Bruz Clark, Lyndhurst Foundation president• Pete Cooper, Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga president• Jim Coppinger, Hamilton County mayor• D. Gary Davis, Bradley County mayor• Gary Farlow, Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce CEO• Ron Harr, immediate past Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce chairman• Beth Jones, Southeast Tennessee Development District executive director• Ron Littlefield, Chattanooga mayor• Tom McCallie, Maclellan Family Foundations representative• Tom Edd Wilson, Chattanooga Chamber CEOSource: Greater Chattanooga Regional Growth Initiative
After German automaker BMW set up a plant near Greenville, S.C., in the mid-1990s, officials said the region grew so fast that developers were paving over land equal to almost one mall every day.
With Volkswagen’s new Chattanooga plant and other key companies helping fuel faster growth in this region, officials in a 16-county area are eyeing how to avoid a fate like Greenville’s while still spurring economic momentum.
“Long-term, we need to be looking at the transportation system and other ties we have with each other – financial, the labor market, education systems and how they interact with each other,” said Gary Farlow, who heads the Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce.
The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce included creation of a 35- to 50-year growth plan in its newest jobs initiative unveiled late last year dubbed “Chattanooga Can Do: Building Tomorrow Today.”