Amid an array of new housing, more commercial space is headed to the Collegedale area as a developer plans to put up a pair of buildings to meet needs of residents in this fast-growing part of Hamilton County.
Some 12,000 square feet of offices are planned in the two-story buildings to match an earlier development at the high-profile corner of Apison Pike and Old Lee Highway, said Mike Price, owner of MAP Engineers.
"We want to do a plan that mimics that which was done adjacent to it," he said in a phone interview Wednesday, adding that the new multimillion-dollar project could hold medical uses.
The existing center has a couple of dentist offices, another health-related entity and a financial services business.
An application for new zoning by the Lyle Finley Revocable Trust of Nashville to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency seeks a change from residential to commercial use of the vacant 1-acre tract. The proposal is slated to be heard by the Regional Planning Commission in April for the site that sits just outside of Collegedale.
Hundreds of new apartments and other housing units are going up within minutes of the site on both Old Lee Highway and Apison Pike.
Price said as more people move that way, the intersection is "a prime location where people are coming through."
Rendering contributed by MAP Engineers / New office space similar to this rendering is proposed for a tract at Apison Pike and Old Lee Highway near Collegedale.Work on the office buildings by developer LF Holdings LLC could start in mid-summer and finish in spring 2024 if the zoning change receives the needed approvals, he said.
In January, more than 150 people in the Collegedale-Ooltewah area met to discuss galloping growth and traffic concerns of residents.
Hamilton County Commissioner Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, said during the meeting that he has seen his commute into Chattanooga go from 10 minutes to sometimes more than an hour during the past 25 years.
"We've been reactionary," he told the group about the issue of growth. "We're going to look at things differently as a county."
Dan Reuter, executive director of the Regional Planning Agency, said at the meeting that outside consultants are to be brought on to help his team update the area plans for different parts of the county. Such plans serve as a guide for growth for different communities in the city and county.
Earlier this month, Reuter called the effort "probably the largest planning process we've ever undertaken at one time." He told the Planning Commission at a meeting that the initiatives will include traffic studies.
"It's going to involve pretty major traffic studies and other things that will happen," Reuter said.
He added that the agency will work on a comprehensive plan for the unincorporated parts of the county, too.
"There are areas of Hamilton County that have never had any thoughtful planning on growth," Reuter said.
In a recent Chattanooga Times Free Press survey, more than one-third of county voters thought the Chattanooga area was growing too fast.
Among 311 voters sampled at the polls during the Nov. 8 election, nearly 52% said the city and county are growing at the right pace, and nearly 36% of respondents said local growth was too fast. Fewer than 7% of those sampled said they thought the county was growing too slow.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.