Representatives from 14 community-based organizations and Hamilton County commissioners Joe Graham and Warren Mackey are working together to coordinate improvements being made in the Alton Park community and discussing future plans for its development.
“We are not here to discuss problems; it’s good to mention problems, but we’re here to talk about solutions,” said George Calhoun, president of Alton Park Development Corporation, during the group’s quarterly stakeholders’ meeting last week.
During the meeting, representatives from the Chattanooga Neighborhood Association, South Chattanooga Association of Neighbors, City of Chattanooga Public Works, Hamilton County Department of Education, Southside Community Health Centers, Chattanooga Parks and Recreation Department, the Tennessee Division of Remediation, Chattanooga Housing Authority, Neighborhood Watch at the Villages at Alton Park, Tennessee Environmental Epidemiological and Communicable Environmental Diseases Department, STOP Toxic Pollution, Penrose Management and Saint Elmo Neighborhood Association spoke to the group.
Betsy McCright, executive director of the Chattanooga Housing Authority, listed $14 million in improvements being made to the Emma Wheeler Homes Public Housing Property as one of the major immediate developments in the Alton Park area. The improvements to this building will include “a total rehab and upgrade of every single unit” and more efficient heating and air systems, she said.
McCright also discussed an offer to purchase the back 11 acres of the Villages at Alton Park with the intention of building 75 tax credit properties on that site.