Signal Mountain leaders, worried about the effects of rampant growth, passed a resolution Friday asking county leaders to consider their area and its unique needs when voting on a growth plan for unincorporated Hamilton County.
Last week, members of the Signal Mountain Town Council said they worried a set of changes county commissioners made to Plan Hamilton in August could worsen traffic, emergency response times and crowding at local schools.
On Monday, the Regional Planning Commission is set to vote on approving Plan Hamilton, which has been in the works for nearly three years.
(READ MORE: Signal Mountain wants area-specific changes to Plan Hamilton)
Friday, Signal Mountain Town Council members held a special meeting to discuss and recommend area-specific changes to the plan.
Signal Mountain officials recommend density, reporting changes to Plan Hamilton
“This is not a matter of us saying that we’re special and we should be treated differently,” Vice Mayor Clay Crumbliss said at the meeting. “This is about public safety — that in the event of any sort of emergency or anything catastrophic, as it stands today, the residents on this mountain would not be able to get off.”
While Signal Mountain can’t dictate what the county does in the unincorporated areas outside the town and neighboring Walden, more homes and more people there would affect everyone on the mountaintop, Crumbliss said.
The town’s fire and police departments respond to calls in the entire area, not just within Signal Mountain’s borders, officials said, so they could be stretched thin with more residents coming to unincorporated parts.
Aside from a reporter and a photographer, there were four people in the audience for the meeting, two who spoke to council members during the public comment period.
(READ MORE: Growth concerns come to Signal Mountain)
That might be the highest attendance the council’s seen in six months, Mayor Elizabeth Baker said.
Town resident Win Cooke said it was his first time attending a council meeting in 38 years of living in Signal Mountain.
“I love this town,” Cooke told council members. “But I am very, very concerned about the infrastructure of this land versus the amount of building that’s taking place.”
Cooke said he understands infrastructure improvements are expensive but said doing nothing isn’t an option.
“There’s going to be a day when somebody gets killed out on Taft Highway because people are so eager to get to where they’re going, and the traffic load is so great,” Cooke said.
Tom Gavin, who also lives in the town, wanted to know what council members planned to do to mitigate anticipated impacts on roads and schools. As for residents of the unincorporated area, he suggested they might want to incorporate as a municipality to have more control over their fate, Gavin said.
WHAT CHANGES?
The town council recommended adjusting the maximum density for new development on the plateau to slow its growth.
Most of the mountain has no traditional sewer capacity available. The recommendations would limit new developments on septic to one home per 2 acres and one per 1 acre where decentralized sewer systems are used.
(READ MORE: Heavy rains caused Chattanooga area sewer systems to overflow)
Those numbers are between what’s now allowed in Signal Mountain and Walden, Baker said.
“In my opinion, it’s a really bad idea to allow the county to have a higher or even equal density to what Signal Mountain currently has,” Baker said at the meeting, “because we offer far more services and far more infrastructure that we already have in place than they have.”
The council suggested creating a new place type for the mountaintop, Crumbliss said, something like a “mountaintop residential” to counter the “countryside residential” category created in the plan.
The resolution also suggests adding back requirements for reports on geotechnical, environmental, traffic and stormwater impact and sections including residents’ feedback.
An often-cited poll of county residents conducted before the plan was drafted showed 92% were in favor of preserving farmland.
“We’re asking for the sake of transparency that we put it in,” Crumbliss said, “so that the state, when they’re assessing this, can see that the people that live here actually want nothing to do with this.”
The council also recommended adding back a provision encouraging the majority of future development on the mountaintop to happen within the bounds of Signal Mountain or Walden.
Baker said she also sent a letter to planning commissioners about their recommendations Friday.
Ideally, planning commissioners would add the recommendations to the plan at their Monday afternoon meeting, Crumbliss said. If not, a last-ditch effort could be made with the area’s county commissioner, Chip Baker, R-Signal Mountain, bringing their desired changes forward in his own resolution once the plan returns to the county board.
“For the people making the vote on Monday — I’ve talked to quite a few people both inside the town and just that live up here that are not inside, that are not our residents,” council member Miles Jorgensen said at the meeting. “I’ve not found one person up there that supports this.”
Contact growth reporter Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.