County continuing to see boom in housing sites

Sites of future housing starts in the unincorporated parts of Hamilton County are surging, with the number of approved residential subdivision lots last year nearly double compared to 2017, figures show.

Many of the 741 lots approved by planners in 2022 are east of the Tennessee River in such highgrowth areas as East Brainerd and Ooltewah, according to a map from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency.

As some residents face crowded school classrooms and traffic jams, county government and planners this week revealed an effort to forge a long-range growth plan for the areas outside of Chattanooga and other municipalities.

Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp said some unincorporated areas are growing “really fast.”

“If you try to move east to west, you’ve got the impression we’re a high-growth county,” he said during a news conference unveiling the yearlong planning effort.

But, Wamp said, much of the county is seeing growth in the 2% range, similar to the rest of the country.

Still, the number of approved residential lots last year in the unincorporated part of the county outpaced the city by about 90%, Regional Planning Agency figures show. That’s far and away the biggest difference between the city and county for any year over the past decade.

Hamilton County Commissioner Jeff Eversole, a newly elected Republican who represents the unincorporated Ooltewah, Georgetown and Birchwood areas, said Tuesday that he heard growth and infrastructure issues constantly from the public during the campaign.

“A lot of questions continue to be asked,” he said at the news conference. “We know there’s an issue we need to work on.”

Mike Price, who owns a

Chattanooga engineering firm — MAP Engineers — that frequently works with developers, said he remembers going to Ooltewah when there wasn’t a traffic light and only two gas stations were operating.

“Now it’s a different place,” he said in a phone interview.

Price said there are legitimate growth concerns, and the solution likely will take money.

“A lot of times, it comes down to raising taxes and standards,” he said, adding that he likes the idea of a comprehensive growth plan.

In addition to a plan for the unincorporated parts of the county, a similar initiative will get underway soon for Chattanooga, officials said Tuesday.

When actual permitted residential units are measured, the city in 2022 far outstripped the unincorporated county — 1,788 to 802, figures show. The number in the city last year was the second largest over the past decade, behind just 2021 when 2,008 permitted units were recorded, figures show.

More permitted residences in the city than the unincorporated area of the county is typical over the past decade, according to the Regional Planning Agency.

But in the city, apartments or condominiums make up a large share of permitted units. For example, 55% of permitted units in the city in 2022 were apartments or condos compared to about 26% of single-family, detached homes, figures show.

Chattanooga developer Jimmy White said in a phone interview that the area is positioned to woo people from such high-tax states as California, Illinois and New York. He likes the outlook for the area over the next five to 10 years, and he cited interest from multiple publicly traded companies about coming to Chattanooga.

White’s Urban Story Ventures is redeveloping the huge former Alstom site on Chattanooga’s riverfront. In addition, he and partner Hiren Desai about a year ago purchased more than 534 acres of land on Walden’s Ridge at Sawyer and Corral roads in unincorporated Hamilton County for $5 million.

For the planning effort, the unincorporated county will split into four separate areas where county commissioners and Wamp will convene meetings and gather feedback from citizens while working with consultant Ragan Smith Associates in an initiative costing about $600,000, officials said.

The city planning effort will cost about $1 million, officials said. The money for both plans will come from the Regional Planning Agency’s reserve fund, officials said.