Staff Photo by John Rawlston – Dogwood Manor, a 136-unit apartment building owned by the city of Chattanooga and managed by the Chattanooga Housing Authority, is located on Gateway Avenue overlooking downtown Chattanooga.
An old phonebooth sits in the vacant lot that used to be Poss Homes.
East Brainerd Elementary School
After a “firestorm of resistance” from East Brainerd residents, a divided Chattanooga City Council deferred voting on its part of a three-way land swap.
The Hamilton County Schools and the Chattanooga Housing Authority proposed the deal in late March in response to the city’s request for proposals to sell Dogwood Manor Apartments, which the housing authority currently manages.
The proposed cash and land swap involves Dogwood Manor and two other properties — East Brainerd Elementary School and the former Maurice Poss Homes site. The proposed swap would provide 6.25 acres of the East Brainerd Elementary site to the city to sell as development, and 2.8 acres to CHA for low-income senior or disabled housing.
East Brainerd Elementary is in Councilman Jack Benson’s district, and he said residents and developers are mad about the prospect of CHA housing on the school site.
“There’s a firestorm of resistance out in our community on this,” Benson said in the council agenda session.