The IHOP logo.
IHOP in East BrainerdNot a single city planner wants pancakes cooked on the west side of Gunbarrel road.
The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency voted unanimously against a zoning change that would allow an Ihop to be built across from the Target shopping plaza.
“[An Ihop] is so obviously wrong,” said Jack Benson, city councilman and planning agency member. “It’s right in the heart of our land use plan. If we had approved that, it would have set the precedent so that we would have to approve commercial [projects] all the way down to East Brainerd Road.”
But Patrick Neuhoff, president of Neuhoff Taylor Architects which helped design the Ihop project, said the agency already approved eight similar rezonings in the area without any thought of negative domino effects.
Neuhoff said the project already has approval from those living behind the property, and its location across the street from restaurants such as Chick-fil-A and Panara makes for a unique set a circumstances inapplicable to future projects.