After about four years of planning and public input, the Chattanooga City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to adopt Plan Chattanooga, a citywide planning framework that outlines growth challenges and infrastructure needs over the next 20 years and provides guidance for zoning cases and physical development. Here’s what citizens need to know.
Plan Chattanooga is the first truly citywide vision for physical development. It provides a unified planning framework rather than the fragmented, outdated neighborhood plans that previously were used to guide land use and development in different parts of the city, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency Executive Director Karen Rennich said in an interview.
The plan also integrates other city planning documents such as the Housing Action Plan, a comprehensive strategy to address the city’s affordable housing deficit, and the Parks and Outdoors Plan, a long-range plan for upgrading and maintaining the city’s existing parks and developing new city parks.
A place type map identifies specific land use categories for every property in the city. Rennich said she suggests citizens looking at the plan for the first time identify their property’s place type and read the description of that place type in the plan’s first chapter. That will tell them the vision for growth in their area, and citizens who do not agree with the direction for their area described in the plan can then provide feedback on how they believe the plan should be altered, she said.
Growth is directed toward urban areas, transit-supportive corridors and community centers such as Northgate Mall and Eastgate Town Center. “