My name is Bob Geier and I have been the communicator for the Friends of Mountain Creek. In 2018 I was appointed by Councilman Henderson to participate on the Chattanooga Resources Advisory Committee. With growth accelerating, the Regional Planning Agency recognized the need for updated and complete guidance to efficiently and uniformly approve projects.  This committee was formed to obtain community input. RPA has since presented its findings to the City Council detailing how existing City Ordinances fall far short of those benchmarked at other cities in our region. Unfortunately, the City Council has so far not acted on this information.

To encourage our City Council to follow through with directing RPA to develop specific recommendations, I am requesting that concerned residents use the following link to access and sign-on to the petition generated by "Chattanoogans for Responsible Development". 

http://change.org/sos-chattanooga

The existing City Ordinances were written sixty years ago and compared to other nearby cities, cover only a limited scope of concerns. The RPA Study  benchmark identified about twenty other areas of concern that are not addressed by existing rules including protection of steep slopes, floodplains and the preservation of trees and greenspace.

The Homebuilders Association is opposed to new rules claiming that it would stymie development. On the contrary, the presence of such rules have not affected growth in "booming" Nashville or anywhere else. More importantly, the lack of rules has created problems for numerous nearby Chattanooga property owners and if not checked, irresponsible development will continue and ultimately degrade the character of Chattanooga.

Please sign-on to JIm Johnson's "Chattanoogans for Responsible Development" petition to support RPA's recommendations.