The tiny town of Lakesite is celebrating 50 years as a city.
Bad roads and fear of annexation by the city of Chattanooga led Lakesite, a subdivision built in the 1960s that then consisted of about 200 homes, to incorporate as a city in January 1972.
Chattanooga had recently passed ordinances annexing territory just 6 miles to the south of the subdivision, according to a Feb. 5, 1972, article in The Chattanooga Times.
Fewer than 100 of the city’s residents turned out for the vote, which passed 75-15. At the time, around 300 residents lived in the city, which encompassed an area north of Hixson bounded by Old Hixson Pike, Hixson Pike, Chickamauga Lake, Jones Bay and the northern boundary of the Glengerrie subdivision.
The City Commission set the property tax rate at $0.75 per $100 of assessed value.