Deliberations on a plan that will guide Hamilton County’s future growth will continue as county officials plan to form a committee to examine it further and push its first vote, officials said.
More than 250 residents gathered in Snow Hill on Thursday night for the latest of many meetings on Plan Hamilton, which officials said they hope becomes a way to stem the flood of development in the county’s unincorporated areas.
“We’re not moving forward on a plan for this part of the county without much more input and support from this group,” Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp said at the meeting.
(READ MORE: Voters split on whether Hamilton County’s growth is happening too fast)
The plan is set to go to the county’s planning commission Monday. Wamp said he’s asked the commission to push that back at least 60 days to allow more discussion. Several residents Thursday said they still plan to show up Monday in case commissioners talk about the plan.
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Hamilton County ‘not moving forward’ on growth plan, forming committee to include residents
After residents objected to a provision allowing the plan to be changed every three months after it’s approved, Commissioner Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, said that’s likely going to change.
Many residents in the unincorporated areas of the county, particularly in the Harrison, Snow Hill and Birchwood areas, have been vocal about their objections to the plan.
(READ MORE: Hamilton County residents gear up for vote on growth plan)
The area’s roads, most of them two lanes, are already overloaded, residents said, and they worry that allowing further development would slow down traffic even more.
The county has earmarked $5.8 million for roads and is using some of that for a safety assessment on Hunter and Snow Hill roads that should result in recommendations for improvement, county Development Director Nathan Janeway said.
Kim Helton, an area resident active in opposing the plan, said she’d also like to see postcards sent out notifying residents of the plan and a moratorium on rezoning cases, which allow new developments, while the plan is being finalized.
Helton said she’s “cautiously optimistic” after Thursday’s meeting.
“If they don’t compromise, we’re still going to be against it, you know,” she said.
Commissioner Steve Highlander, R-Ooltewah, tried to pass a moratorium last year but couldn’t get a second on his motion, Janeway said.
“The longer that it takes us to do a plan, the more that can continue to happen,” Janeway said at the meeting.
Staff photo by Abby White / On Jan. 9, 2025, Hamilton County residents look through the handouts provided for a public meeting about the county’s growth plan. The meeting was at the Highway 58 Volunteer Fire Training Center.(SIGN UP: Get today’s Chattanooga area news, sports and entertainment directly to your inbox. Sign up for our free newsletters at timesfreepress.com/newsletters.)
Maycie Hammons, a Birchwood resident, said the plan also needs to address education. Kids like hers, in the northeastern part of the county, are shuffled between schools that are far from their homes, she said.
“The very edge of the county — don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind y’all forgetting about us quite often — but we’re left alone,” Hammons said at the meeting. “Where does that leave us?”
Schools are one of four main constraints on growth, Janeway said at the meeting, along with roads, sewer and fire service. Tax money generated by new development covers the current level of services but doesn’t generate enough to cover the backlog of infrastructure needs in the county, he said.
“Sewer is tapped out,” Janeway said. There are nearly 4,000 homes set to be built with the last remaining sewer connections in the county, he said. “So in other words, after those get built, there’s no more sewer unless something major gets done.”
New developments can turn to septic tanks or decentralized systems to skirt the limited sewer capacity, Janeway said.
“There’s nothing really wrong with regular septic tanks,” Janeway said. “The thing that’s wrong with them, to developers, is that they get to build less houses.”
(READ MORE: Neighbors worry Signal Mountain sewer proposal could cause contamination)
COMMITTEE
Wamp said he plans to convene a committee that includes county officials and community residents.
Ron Ford, an area resident who’s been involved in opposing the plan, said he’s waiting to see whether the committee will be able to actually change the plan or just bear witness to officials’ plans. The deck, he feels, is stacked against residents and in developers’ favor.
“I feel, as we called it in Ohio, it’s sympathy soothing syrup. They put it on to make everybody placated … just to slow it down,” Ford said by phone. “I’ll wait and see and be actively there watching and complaining until they make it right.”
(READ MORE: Unincorporated Hamilton County residents grapple with growth)
Wamp said he wants county Building Inspector Ronnie Blaylock, who also lives in the Georgetown area, on the committee. Blaylock said he’s supposed to meet with other officials about the group next week.
Staff photo by Abby White / Hamilton County residents listen to the speakers Jan. 9, 2025, at a public meeting about a county development plan covering the Harrison, Birchwood and Highway 58 area. The meeting was at the Highway 58 Volunteer Fire Training Center.“I just hope to get a good group of people together that’s going to actually be, I guess, what we call transparent,” Blaylock said by phone Friday. “Make sure all the rules and regulations get gone over by individuals in the community as well as within the county and come up with a happy medium for everybody.”
Blaylock said he hasn’t noticed too many challenges from development up his way, or in his inspections.
“It’s headed our way, but it’s not actually right in it,” he said.
The county formed a working group in 2023 to address concerns about roads in the Ooltewah area. That group has met, but not recently, Highlander said. More work on the roads will require more money than the initial $5.8 million investment, he said.
“It’s a start,” Highlander said by phone.
Staff writer Mariah Franklin contributed to this report.
Contact Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.