At a recent meeting of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission, which I chair, I asked staff if we could have members of the public to show me on a map where they would like development in our community to take place.
What we heard for hours — as we often do — was categorical, overwhelming opposition to development. No one seems to want anything built in their own backyard; that’s been clear for years. What worries me is that more and more, no one seems to want anything built anywhere.
This tendency is not only unrealistic, it’s economically dangerous.
The Planning Commission often handles dozens of complex cases in a single session. The decisions we make every month determine whether our teachers, firefighters, and service workers can afford to live here.