LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, Ga. — The Planning Commission in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, voted 5-2 against recommending the City Council make changes to the city’s zoning laws for a gondola planned by Rock City after the project was met with opposition from some neighbors.
The changes would add a gondola to the permitted land uses in the city’s tourism commercial district and would strike “sky lifts” from a list of prohibited land uses.
Rock City requested the changes when it announced in January plans to expand by building a $30 million to $40 million lift from the Chattanooga Valley up Lookout Mountain to its gardens attraction, in part to take tourist traffic off local roads on the mountain.
(READ MORE: Rock City can build gondola without Lookout Mountain if necessary, CEO says)
The planners’ vote at a packed meeting Wednesday at City Hall is not the final step in the approval process. The City Council will take up the question at a later meeting with the Planning Commission’s recommendation in mind.