Residents say new neighborhood in North Chattanooga would cause crashes

A wrecker crew and emergency personnel work to clear a wreck in the Hixson Pike "S" curves in this file photo.
A wrecker crew and emergency personnel work to clear a wreck in the Hixson Pike "S" curves in this file photo.
photo Braly Place resident Joe Cofer talks about increased traffic at the already dangerous Hixson Pike intersection where a developer is planning to build more than 30 houses. The area is located off Hixson Pike at the S curves.

Days after the city paid a $150,000 settlement related to a fatal 2003 traffic accident at the Hixson Pike S Curves, a group of neighbors is trying to halt a new development at one of the city's most treacherous stretches of road.

The Chattanooga City Council on Tuesday voted to pay $150,000 to the family of James Derek Hays, who died in 2003 after a car he was riding in collided with another on the S Curves. Hays' family claimed the city was partially liable for the accident because the road was dangerous.

The city is still in court with the family of Jaqueline Lindy, who was driving the car.

Area residents are concerned because the Hamilton County Planning Commission in December passed a preliminary plan to allow a developer to build up to 35 houses on 14.76 acres off Hixson Pike surrounded by the Stuart Heights, Olde Towne and River Knolls neighborhoods.

The new subdivision would add regular traffic to the S Curves -- the scene of many other accidents in the past that prompted the city to install traffic cameras in 2007 to slow motorists.

Problems declined after the city installed the traffic cameras. But the Tennessee General Assembly is considering banning traffic cameras, and neighbors worry past numbers would be compounded by adding more cars to the mix.

According to city traffic records, from 2000 to 2006, there were 325 traffic accidents on the S Curves. Of those, 65 included injuries and four caused deaths. Since the cameras were installed, there have been 23 accidents, with 11 injuries and no deaths.

Residents of the various neighborhoods surrounding the proposed development have myriad concerns dealing with stormwater, loss of tree buffers from road noise, decreased animal habitats and more. But the most widely shared worry is an expected decline in traffic safety and possible liability to taxpayers for future accidents.

A traffic study they independently commissioned and paid for decries the project as dangerous.

A developer-supplied traffic study, and Chattanooga officials, say the development would not cause more problems at the S Curves.

But Joe Cofer, who lives at the corner of Braly Place and Hixson Pike -- mere feet from the proposed development's planned south entrance -- says those studies don't account for the steep grade of the roadway. Nor do they consider the effect of adding a new road that dumps onto Braly Place at what is already a dangerous intersection.

The grade of Hixson Pike north of Braly Place is steep, and it obscures traffic turning into his neighborhood, Cofer said. A driver turning left onto Braly Place can't see all the traffic coming south on Hixson Pike and vice versa.

"If you build that intersection this way, there will be people killed there. Not today or tomorrow, but some day," Cofer said.

Carla Askonas, a co-president of the Stuart Heights Neighborhood Association, agrees.

Adding an intersection where there is already limited visibility is a bad move, she says.

"Especially since they put up the cameras and we finally got traffic slowed down for the first time in years. It seems like we would be making backward progress," Askonas said. "If someone is coming around the curve and someone is waiting to make a turn, there's no place for them to go."

Developer Larry Wells, with Lamay Development Co., did not return a phone call Thursday to comment on the development.

Through a quirk of the county's zoning rules, the neighbors in surrounding neighborhoods were never notified of the proposed subdivision, because the area was already zoned for residential housing. But as word spread, neighbors quickly formed an opposition group.

Residents will have one more chance to let their voices be heard.

Regional Planning Agency Executive Director John Bridger said Tuesday it was up to Wells to bring the development to the commission for final approval. It is not now on the April 13 meeting agenda, Bridger said.

Contact staff writer Louie Brogdon at lbrogdon@timesfreepress.com, @glbrogdoniv on Twitter or at 412-757-6481.

Upcoming Events