The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission on Monday voted unanimously to recommend denial of a request to rezone property on Walden's Ridge for an RV and boat storage facility that drew opposition from nearby residents.
Owned by former Walden Mayor Peter Hetzler, the property is at 2001 Hollister Road behind the Mapco at 3720 Taft Highway and is zoned for rural residential and office use.
Ben Peppers told planning commissioners Monday he was under contract to purchase the property with the condition that the entire property be rezoned for commercial use. He plans to expand the existing storage facility on the adjacent property, he said.
Commissioners opted to follow the staff recommendation to deny the applicant's request and to approve the rezoning of the office district portion of the property as commercial, with uses limited to offices, single- and two-family dwellings, barber and beauty shops, and RV and boat storage.
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Planning staff also recommended prohibiting RV and boat service on the commercial portion of the property and leaving the other portion as rural residential to serve as a buffer between the commercial portion and the existing single-family residential property to the north, Bryan Shults, the planning agency's director of development services, said at the meeting.
Peppers said he is opposed to keeping the back portion of the property zoned for rural residential use.
"We're basically killing this whole back piece of property, which is about a little over 2 acres, just to create a buffer," Peppers said. "That's an awful excessive buffer."
The commission originally was scheduled to vote on the rezoning request at its April meeting, but the applicant deferred the request for 30 days to meet with neighboring property owners who opposed the rezoning.
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Although the applicant's plans are to use the property for RV and boat storage, residents are concerned that rezoning the property as a commercial district would open it up for other commercial uses, neighboring property owner Rachel Troute said to the commission before the vote.
"This classification could also devalue our largest investments and assets, which are our homes," Troute said of classifying the property as a commercial district.
Troute gathered 68 signatures of residents opposed to the rezoning request prior to the April commission meeting and collected 24 signatures in opposition to the request following residents' April 26 meeting with Peppers, she said.
Residents' other concerns include the lack of on-site security, increased traffic from RV and boat storage customers and water runoff from the facility, she said.
The rezoning request is set to go before the Hamilton County Commission at 9:30 a.m. June 14, Shults said.
The County Commission may vote to approve the rezoning request despite the planning board's recommendation.
Contact Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.