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Friday, November 13, 2026Nov 13

East Brainerd foster care transitional home project withdrawn

Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / The Hamilton County Commission meets Sept. 3, 2025, at the Hamilton County Courthouse. On Sept. 10, 2025, a ministry looking to build a transition home for people aging out of foster care withdrew its request for a zoning change for an East Brainerd property.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / The Hamilton County Commission meets Sept. 3, 2025, at the Hamilton County Courthouse. On Sept. 10, 2025, a ministry looking to build a transition home for people aging out of foster care withdrew its request for a zoning change for an East Brainerd property. Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / The Hamilton County Commission meets Sept. 3, 2025, at the Hamilton County Courthouse. On Sept. 10, 2025, a ministry looking to build a transition home for people aging out of foster care withdrew its request for a zoning change for an East Brainerd property.

After withdrawing an application to operate a transitional home in an East Brainerd neighborhood for people coming out of foster care, a local ministry is looking at other options.

Nirva Ache, with Broken Healer Home, had applied to rezone a home near the Mountain Shadows subdivision off Standifer Gap Road to the county’s agricultural zone.

That’s the only zone that allows that kind of facility under current guidelines, said Bryan Shults, development director for the Regional Planning Agency. But those guidelines don’t specifically address that kind of transitional home, Shults said.

The agricultural zone would be out of place in that subdivision and could set a precedent for other properties in the future, Shults said. It’s rare for property to be rezoned to a category that allows less density, not more, but staff said it has happened.

(READ MORE: Fire, safety concerns hindering proposed Birchwood subdivision)