With newer schools, access to Interstate 75, and key employers including Volkswagen, Amazon and McKee Foods, the east part of Hamilton County has seen a population surge and is positioned for more, officials said.
But impressive growth brings more traffic, school crowding, sewer problems and other headaches, both officials and residents in the area said. Increasingly, proposed new subdivisions are amping up tensions as developers try to fill a need for housing and some existing residents in the area react with worries.
Chattanooga City Councilman Darrin Ledford, who serves on the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission, told panel members recently at a meeting that people in the Ooltewah-Georgetown area want a land-use plan that works.
“I see it on social media,” he said. “It’s screaming for it.”
Mike Price, president of the firm MAP Engineers, said east Hamilton County is a desirable area to live and there has been a lot of new homes built there, particularly in the past decade.