City Council - Regular Meeting

And we have a quorum. So I'll get us started here. Call the meeting to order. Um council, could I get a motion on the minutes for our last meeting? So second. All right. Minutes will stand as published. Um so first up today we have Karen Renick and Charles Frasier. I believe to talk with us about plan Chattanooga. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I gave um everyone a green binder because I'll be referencing maps and so and then um copies of the handout and then I believe Nicole uploaded um the handouts and the presentation should be in appropriate folder. So if I missed something, please let me know.

Okay, hold on just a minute. I'm not sure if we Okay. Strategic plan and then one of them is under mine and the one has Cartis.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. We split those up. And so I have 10 minutes. So if I um tip my um clock, my phone and looking at the time and then um Charles will take 10 more minutes. So um from um planning staff, we've got Brian Schultz, director of development services, and Pam Glazer, both long serving um planners. Um and then with Charles and Scott Wilson and then Kevin Tilbury from Kimley Horn has provided support both for plan Chattanooga and more of the specific transit work and he's here and I also want to thank um are the consulting work led by planning next. So we're a great firm to work with. So briefly I'll go over kind of plan Chattanooga process and next steps and card speak more specifically to the transit vision. Plan Chattanooga is a comprehensive plan for the city. There's one citywide growth strategy and then more eight detailed um more specific plans covering all areas of the city. And so um the last draft was posted in May of 2025. Most of you have um seen that. We do reference that in our staff recommendations when we don't have more current policy. Um this is just to kind of help reorient you. There is a citywide framework. That's the first chapter of the plan. And then area plans um become a little bit more specific and talk about placem making for each area. So when I um talk to folks, I encourage them to look at the citywide framework, read that chapter, and then more specifically narrow down to the area plan of interest.

Sure. Yes, sir. So, uh flip back to that. I know notice there's a lookout valley. I thought we also had a Mountain Creek corridor plan. Was that not the Mountain Creek portion is contained, I believe, in the Hixon plan. Okay. And so, um, in its, um, so we've changed names a little bit. Um, Councilman Clark noted that, um, for us that Midtown was not quite the right term, so we changed that to Midtown Brainard. So, Hixon kind of covers that whole area. Used to say Hixon Redbank, but we're not doing policy for Redbank. So, we can always add Mountain Creek if Yeah. Yes. Okay. that that was because we had talked about making sure we did about the quarter plan got through

that's correct policies carried over um and so why do we need a comprehensive plan? Uh the city is growing and is um slated to grow more. I put a link to a 2024 strategic planning presentation which really goes into a lot more detail about that if you're interested. Um the citywide framework has shared goals. Excuse me. Um our po the plan notes that um our population's changed over um the last decade. It's younger, more diverse, made up of smaller households and smaller families. And then we have um built places and infrastructure, but in those areas we have um commercial industrial properties that could potentially be redeveloped. They're underutilized. So kind of the why um plan touches on a couple things. Those are just two examples of why we need a plan to address um future growth. The plan recommends and I maybe put these switches the wrong way. Um the plan's recommending policies, programs, and projects, but they're directly tied to one Chattanooga and informed by prior work. So, one Chattanooga lays out that strategic plan. And then the plan Chattanooga is really addressing the um physical infrastructure, the physical built environment. And so it addresses the where and how to ensure affordable housing choices for all Chattanooans. That's a one Chattanooga um principle. Also talks about how to improve local infrastructure. And then the plan is informed by all the past planning work that we've done. We have a series of um plans which includes work um from the CH chatting housing authority with one west side work of the um design studio Carter's work um the Chading design studio. It also includes and incorporates the city's housing action plan and the um parks and outdoor plan. So um when we think about this is not

just kind of um derived completely new. is building on the work that we've done in the past. The plan has four broad goals um and talks about Chhattanooga is a city of vibrant walkable districts and neighborhoods where development respects the natural environment, maximizes transportation investments, provides a diverse economy um and sustains great neighborhoods and broad housing choices. It's made up of diverse, safe neighborhoods where everyone can find housing that suits their lifestyle needs and is affordable to them. has a robust transportation system with interconnected options for every person with access to jobs and educational opportunities, everyday needs and housing and a connected system, parks and greenways. And so this is coming from kind of the um themes that public input. And so when we think about the citywide infrastructure, we're really starting with those four overall goals that hopefully most everyone could relate to and say that sounds right to me regardless of where I live. then you're starting to narrow down how are we going to get there and so we probably need a little bit of graphic to talk about goals and then why do we keep um how are we getting there and so in order there was a lot of research a lot of input a lot of data some scenario planning and the way to get to those four goals there's five things that we're doing we're focusing more growth relatively more growth in urban areas and less in those outlying areas we're evolving commercial areas into walkable centers. Um, we're redeveloping some of those aging retail corridors. We're creating neighborhoods with a greater mix of housing and better access to pretty much anywhere anyone would want to go. We're limiting development without harming um environmentally significant areas and maximizing existing infrastructure. So, this is if you think about four goals. We're starting to kind of flush that out a little bit how we're get there. There's a list of actions. I won't go into these

although some of them you'll note have a lot of similarities both to um one Chattanooga and like the parks and um outdoor plan you'll see some carryover because it is built on those efforts and then as we start to narrow down so we have our framework this is starting to paint that framework with centers and corridors our plan is to um have walkable clustered centers where retail uses are concentrated corridors that have a greater mix of uses and including multif family housing and then medium and highdensity housing near corridors and centers um just to help them maintain their economic viability and for transit. What are the little spokes?

So the um so it's that's funny. Pam said they look like um fallout shelter symbols. So we might have to change those. Yeah. So we might play with that. Um so these are this is the idea of the corridors and centers. Brainard's got all covered. Yeah.

Got it all covered. We'll make a note to maybe um do a little bit better. So the downtown is kind of our our main core, our main center and then um you see so you're going to see some centers and um car um the Charles's presentation will touch. You see Brainer Town Center, you see Northgate, uh Hamilton Place is just off the map. The Northshore is a center. And so the idea is we want these walkable centers where we're going to have this kind of concentrated mix of uses. Some of them are different scales. And then we have our corridors, right? We're trying that's part of our framework is we're trying to um transition our corridors to have a better mix of uses including multif family housing and hopefully to be able to support transit where appropriate.

So is are the blue lines the transit supported corridor?

They're the corridors we're really focusing. Yes. And so not um and then um Charles can talk a little bit more about the transit supportive but this is really trying to focus um because we are saying you know we we're um putting more growth relatively to um our urban areas and then really focusing on our corridors and centers. So placem so again we're starting narrow down we have our framework we've identified kind of the um the corridors and centers and this is where I think we're starting to fill in the rest of the pieces. So placemaking describes uses and character of an area. It's a little similar to our old uh land use maps, but it provides a little bit more context about what what that type of use and that development would look like. And so when we put that together, we have a citywide place type map. And so um in speaking to um last year, we met with quite a few of you um going through um the presentation at that time. One of the things that you all said would be helpful would be a map of the place types for your district and the map of your zoning. And so you have those maps to kind of it's a the colors don't always match up. It is kind of easier when you're thinking about where change could occur um comparing those maps and um those are also digital um copies and I provided a link here to the Google Drive if that helps. And then um we'll print an overall once the plan is adopted if it moves forward the council adoption we will um print out an overall map. But I think it's you can kind of see already our the city form that urban area which is that light brown. The yellow is kind of more suburban areas. You see that park greenway system in your corridors. And then we have something called regional facilities which are in this map the airport and enterprise south. So, um just have a few more minutes and we're going to skip through. Um the plan also addresses streets context sensitive streets and transportation projects. It does note

that um these are potential projects and concepts. It doesn't commit funding the city to funding. It just says here's kind of ways we can get there and a transit mobility vision that talks about um transits and mobility systems to serve all Chattanooans. So wrapping up plan um we show this slide pretty much every time we do a plan. The plan focuses on physical development. It is not a regulated document. It is not a ordinance. It is a guiding document. Uh does not change the zoning of a property. It does not ensure funding and just as a reminder the only people that can change the zoning of a property or Chattanooga city council. So when we think about this this is a guiding document. So let's um move quickly through these. I think our zoning 101 we talked about how zoning powers are derived um from the state. Many of our zoning powers are the state um also TCA also gives um context for a regional plan. It is a requirement of a regional planning commission to have a comprehensive plan. This is going to be that comprehensive plan. Um we do have an old comprehensive plan. There's a copy on the table. This is replacing that comprehensive plan and all the community a area and neighborhood plans will be set on sunset under that. We'll still keep them as a reference, but this will be replacing and this will be our new um updated guidance. So, just some next steps. We'll be doing a lot of work um to get to planning commission um and meet all the requirements um of state law. Talks about timing and notice and what needs to go in a resolution. Our plan right now is to go to planning commission in May um with a presentation if um unless we hear something different here adoption um planning commission's commission agenda in June and then to council in July. And then just lastly benefits of this growth framework. I know sometimes we get really focused on

and we as staff are not always helpful with that. get focused on what does the the map say about a piece of property. But this is just bringing this back out and the benefit of this plan is that um the plan if we compare it against using some benchmarks and comparing against kind of trend does better than and it says more utilized land is redeveloped. More types of housing are created more new housing is walkable and bikable access to park and trail heads. So the plan and looking at if we can are able to implement the plan does better on some of the things that we think are important or detailed in the plan. And so one of our next step will be um doing some metrics so we can test how the plan is doing not that we just developed the plan and then didn't come back to it. So that's something that um we will work on and get back with you on when you have a little bit more information. and I will turn it over to Charles. Um and then if um depending on the chair, we're available for questions. Um and can um ask us any questions. We're happy to meet one-on-one. Um both Charles and I are separately. So um just let us know and we'll send a follow-up email with some information.

Thank you. Thank you.

Yes. Good afternoon, uh, Chair Davis and Vice Chair Elliott. City Council members, it's good to see you all. Thank you for the opportunity here. Um, I wanted to start with an opening two opening remarks. Number one, um I often say in my role that I wish I had been here like a few years earlier um to like solve problems or have stopped certain things from happening. But what I want you to know is it was perfect timing that the city was starting to do their comprehensive plan. And I came to the city and I asked, can we please consider integrating the transit component right into the plan? And the city said, yes, please do. And so I think we just got lucky here and the timing has been right. So this is an integrated plan with the comprehensive plan. So I think when you're going through your work, you might have the question, is transit considered here? And when you open your map, you're like, oh yeah, it is considered here. So it should be a helpful tool. Number one. Number two, I just wanted to quickly acknowledge um we have a lot of Carta employees here today. The reason for that is um it's an all hands on deck for Carta these days. I've been doing some town hall meetings talking about what we are to accomplish here for this city and it's drawn some interest and so welcome to my team for being here. We've got operators, shuttle operators, incline operators and so they're all excited to be here and and learn about the process.

So let me jump in. Um I have a brief agenda for you just to keep you calibrated. I want to just share with you the Carter timeline. So, I I've been coming to you a few different times and I want to just share with you, remind you where we are in that process. I'm going to tell you what the vision does and what it does not do. So, I want to make sure you're clear on that. I'm going to go through the elements of the vision. So, there's seven different areas. And then I'm going to show you the vision itself and I'm going to use the easy button here. So, if a picture shows a thousand words, I have a short video and I'm hoping that that's a whole encyclopedia for you and then you won't just hear me up here talking forever. You're getting some neat looking messes like that. You like that? Yeah, I that's the Henderson right there. Maybe we could get one in District One somewhere.

I That's not out of That is not out of the realm of possibilities. So, we have a commuter route that's actually planned for park and ride. Park and ride. That's my area. So, I you're that's the area I live in. And so, I would love a we have a park and ride commuter uh shuttle planned for that.

Um, importantly, I want to do take a minute to talk about transit supportive investments. So, I sent you all an email yesterday. We were recently awarded a large award and I want you to know in my work I am setting up the city to leverage Carta in ways that we have not done so historically in this community because of the transit nexus. We can help offset costs that would normally be just the cities and get grants that will pay for infrastructure, roads, signals, sidewalks. And so it's very important to me that if you take nothing else away of today is just this opportunity that's out there and I'll continue to work with all of you on that and make sure we're all educated.

Any update on the the grant that we applied for the get into the AV the build grant. So the only update I have is that they are not taking any uh questions right now. So they are doing the deep dive right now and all the applications for everyone knowledge. We put in a big grant application. and it's a $25 million application to introduce uh AV shuttles into the downtown core, but also it actually creates an incubator for students to learn in a live learning lab. It converts part of shuttle park South to Choo Choo. So fingers crossed um they have not got to Tennessee yet, so they're going alphabetically through the states, but I will keep listen at this table will know. Okay.

Okay. And then I'll talk about next steps. Um just as the timeline. So just I want to just read a little bit of history. In 2023 the city appointed a new board of directors. In 24 um the board appointed me and we have a new management team now. And you'll recall on December 16th of last year we came and did a state of the authority presentation to you and I'm very thankful for um Vice Chair Elliott. You gave me an assignment there and that was, hey, this all sounds great, but I want you to quantify it and then bring it back to us as a plan so that we as legislators can figure out how to do that. And I will be bringing you back a subset of the 20-year vision in a 5-year transformation roadmap that's a detailed service expand that's quantified so you have those numbers and then we can figure out how we're going to fund it through whatever means available. Okay. So, that's coming. Right now it's on the schedule for May, but I'll work with uh Chair Davis on when we get that. Okay. Very briefly, what the plan does and what it does not do. This plan aligns Carta's plan with the city's uh growth strategy. Number one, importantly, this incorporates three other transit studies that were invested in by the city, RPA, and Carta, and integrates them into this plan. So, it's not like we're starting over with a new plan. We're taking that work that was done and integrating it into the growth plan. It creates the long-term vision. What it does not do, it does not define detailed street level bus routing. Gives us some flexibility. It does not mandate that the city or Carta implement any of the recommendations and it does not preclude Carta or the city from implementing other things that are not necessarily in included in this plan today. So it gives us maximum flexibility. Um it is tied to the growth strategy. Here are the seven areas that you will find in the plan. So it's high-capacity corridors where we would have the highest frequency and infrastructure bus rapid transit on demand microtransit mobility hubs paratransit for persons with

disabilities fixed route service parking and then commuter service and I'm going to go ahead and tip off my video now so that you can pause for a minute and and see the vision for yourself years from now. One city where transit leads the way people move. Buses show up when you expect them to. Shuttles make short trips easy. Getting from Brainard, East Lake and Alton Park downtown, from Hixon to Healthcare, from Northshore and Highland Park to work doesn't require a car for every trip. And not every trip has to go through downtown. Transit is visible, dependable, and part of everyday life. Everything comes together at hubs around the city. Easy places to switch modes. Bike to bus, bus to ride share, greenway to shuttle. You can even pick up your package or pay your water bill. One location, clear, intuitive, and designed for people, not confusion. From there, the system shapes the city. Sidewalks lead straight to stops and hubs. Greenways extend beyond the river into neighborhoods. Streets are designed so walking, biking, driving, and riding transit all work together. You see it everywhere. Shuttles serving St. Elmo, Southside, and North Chattanooga. Highcapacity transit corridors along Lee Highway, MLK, and Brainard Road. Park and ride from Lookout Valley. Easy transfers near Riverfront, the Northshore, East Chattanooga, and neighborhood centers across the city. Smarter traffic signals make travel faster and more efficient for everyone. Residents park once at one of many free parking locations throughout the city. Transit does more of the heavy lifting, reducing the hassle and cost people feel today. This isn't a collection of roots

or projects. It's one connected mobility system shaping how Chattanooga grows. Carta is helping lead this work by planning ahead and connecting the pieces. The 20-year vision is bold, practical, and human- centered. Connected, flexible, and built for the future. And it starts with the choices we make right now.

Thank you for uh allowing me to punt and give a little bit of a video there, but I'll very briefly, and I want to make sure I'm within my time restrictions, chair. Um so what what this just went through and I'm going to give you just now six or seven and you have this presentation in your packet. Um these are the areas that we've included in the plan. So of the existing fixed routes the service frequency is what increases. So six of the routes go to 15minute service, five of the routes go to 30 minute service. There are eight new corridors that are identified. And so this is where I was saying it would be helpful as you're making decisions in various development opportunities. Open up the map and you can see is something planned here in the future. Is it existing today? Or you can you know it'll just it'll te cue your mind to have the conversation. It'll be in the plan. This is the reimagined shuttle route network. And I want to thank all of you that participated in that process. Um but you can see we moved things off of broad. We're now on market. goes straight to Northshore, Chestnut all the way to uh down Broad Street, new service on Riverfront Parkway and then also very importantly new service on Maine which is all those restaurants there. So parking in our facilities servicing the lots and then this is an opportunity for those park the private parking lot owners that are participating in the Chattanooga parking club. So we will also integrate opportunities for them to have shuttle stops along these routes.

Can I ask a quick question there? Sure. Sorry. Uh, so, so I can, so in theory I can go down to where the choo choo is now, park there, get on this shuttle. Is there a fair for the shuttle or is it just The shuttles are fair free. And so this is part of the that ecosystem of parking in downtown shuttle. The revenues from parking, they pay for the parking management itself, infrastructure, but then also pays the cost for the shuttles. So this is a great economic activity tool. And so this is a lot. This is why we're really um starting to push the free parking. I'm very interested in expanding that. And you know, so I think it's a great way for us to get people into restaurants and businesses. Absolutely. That's great.

Yeah. So I'm This is a very exciting thing. We have a shuttle operator here. Maybe that's right. She she's the best. Like she she knows we're sending people when we're on when we're on board, she's sending them to the restaurants and you know, so we're doing our part. But this is a much more kind of a strategic approach to this. And so I'm happy that this is included in the long range vision. We do need at some point a downtown transit center. We're really suffering without it. So, all of our transfers take place on broad or on market. It's very inconvenient for people. It's very inefficient. Um, so this is in the the long range plan.

Very important. 33 mobility hubs. This is not necessarily all new builds, but a mobility hub is where these services connect. They come together. So you might get on take a fixed route bus from your from where you're going and then transfer to a microtransit service to get that last mile, right? So it's but you don't want to be out in the elements there. So you might be at a library, at a mobility hub, at a recreation one of the city's recreation centers. So that's there's 33 of the mobility hubs identified in the plan. Here's an example. So this is the this is Eastgate library but this would be a mobility hub where we would take the existing infrastructure and this is where fixed route would be our route four but also the cargo microtransit service car share bike share the whole nine yards high-capacity corridors um this is important so these are the areas where we would have transit oriented development bus rapid transit you can see there the Brainer highway Brainer road and Lee highway um we are doing our tod study now and I'll keep you in the loop as that proceeds here's Here's an example of a bus rapid transit BRT uh facility. And so these facilities, it takes away all the friction of boarding the bus. So you pay for your ticket off the bus, everything's done off the bus, the bus comes in, you get on and you get on your way. So this will cut down travel time by half from downtown out to Hamilton Place.

Wow.

There's new microtransit zones. So you can kind of see the, you know, Signal Mountain Hixon area, Manola Highway. Um paratransit gets hugely expanded with the expansion of new routes. So paratransit covers now all of the city and the areas for expanded route as well. Parking there are parking opportunities not only uh northgate which is identified there but south broad is a huge opportunity for public parking structure and there are grant dollars available to help build out that infrastructure commuter service. So, this comes from not only um the unincorporated and more remote parts of our county, but out of county as well is considered in this. And then finally, and I'm I'm going to wrap up here, I want to make sure that you're aware that this goes back to these grant opportunities. These are things that Carter historically has not been involved in, but these transit supportive investments are things that we can go and help get grants for. So, this is 70 miles of redesigned streets, including 53 miles of sidewalks, which is hugely important. It's helpful for us because then persons with mobility issues can easily get to the fixed route system. Anybody can get to transit. It includes 61 mile of new bike lanes, 46 miles of protected protected bike lanes, 16 miles of greenways, which people don't typically think of as a connection to transit, but it is for us, certainly in this community. Very importantly, over 200 200 signal upgrades and this is just smoother travel. So, this is 34 intersections and this is beneficial whether you ever ride the bus or you just are are in your vehicle. Okay. So, next steps as far as I'm concerned, and I'm going to make sure that I give Karen another opportunity to answer any questions. Um, we'll go follow Karen's lead on the plan Chattanooga adoption, and then I will be bringing back to you, as I indicated, the five-year transformational roadmap, which is the

five the financial plan and service plan over the next five years. Happy to take any questions you might have. Another followup on uh the shuttle system. So, yes. Um, and I go down, park the chuchu, hop on one of these shuttles, and I, it takes me to a restaurant. How do I know when it's going to come back? So, I get through with my dinner. It's an hour, whatever. I come outside. How do I, do I, is it like Uber? Do I use my phone or do I wait? How does it work? Couple different things. So, today it's very limited what you can do, but what we're laying out, and I'll I'll reference something that you can go look at. You can put eyes on it today.

So, today it's limited. You'd have to base on a schedule. The service is frequent. Comes every 10 minutes. So, a schedule might not be that important, but to answer your question, every one of our bus stops and shuttle stops will be upgraded with with real-time information. So, we have e- paper. It's currently installed right on market over here um just uh south of warehouse row. So, you can go see and it gives you the predictions of the routes that are servicing that when they're coming or if there's not one coming within the next hour, it shows you the next scheduled one. That's one way. But we anticipate also developing an app that would actually show you in real time. So we're doing a lot of that testing now where we have real-time availability of those services. We've got some maps that are published that are in beta form, but you can literally see it.

So say it drops me off in the art district. That's right. How does it go to every restaurant every 10? Like how does it There'll be there'll be a defined route. So So you'll know that there's a route and and again so you'll have those kind of live map locations. at particular stops and so you'll be able to see where the shuttle is and where you are. The other thing is because the technology is the same produce it. It's how how it's ingested. We'll also approach the various restaurants so that they could have a screen inside the inside the restaurant itself. So we talked about this when we did the shuttle

listening meetings. So the hotels want to have that. They want like the real-time screen right inside the thing. So it's just easy for people like you don't want to be thinking about it. So, it's coming in five minutes. I can have another beer or French fry or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Okay. I see you this weekend. You will see her. She'll see you first and she'll say she'll say, "Do you remember?" Absolutely. Councilman Henderson, do you have a question as well? I do. Are we prevented from going down in or crossing state line?

We are not prevented in doing so. So, but I just want to be clear on that. There are different insurance requirements. And so when long story short, when I had first landed here, our incident accident rate was too high and our our insurance provider was not allowing that. But we have driven that down. We are now allowed to go into Georgia. And so it's just a different insurance for us. Well, I noticed on this map there doesn't seem to be a plan for going down into northwest Georgia through St. Elmo, is there? or so and having a parking ride share because we have a tremendous amount of traffic that comes through St. Elmo every day. That's right. If we could eliminate a lot of that traffic, I'm sure

I'm sure those people in St. Elmo would be happy about that. That's interesting.

It's true. So, what I want to just say just kind of generally in the plan. So, we've got commuter service that and so it's not it's not street level. We do have commuter service planned and so it could be vanpool, it could be a commuter bus, but I will take your note and make sure that in particular we look at that corridor because I do think that's a good opportunity and plus that that's just such a narrow lane there and I think also with what's going on with Crock City, there could be some exa exacerbated traffic. We are already looking at that intersection there. Is it Tennessee? Like right at the base of incline because that's going to be a problem no matter what. And we are putting in a grant application to do a a traffic study for some sort of infrastructure improvement there as well that I'll keep you briefed on. But I'll take your note and add it to our

Does anybody know like the majority like so like 80% of Walker County works in Chattanooga? But do we know where they're going in Chattanooga? Are they going downtown? Are they going all the way out to Volkswagen? Like where they where are they going? Do we know? We have some data on that from um I think from RTP who did that and I can share that. I mean I think kind of just shows general areas created an express, you know, maybe to get them there quicker. That would be an incentive as opposed to especially having to go through that four-way stop that's there now. uh mostly obvious causes back traffic backups.

Absolutely. And I just want you to know also that Carter does have a interlocal agreement with Katusa County and some other agencies and so I we're already having conversations about services where there would be a connectup point and we would bring people. So, but I will take your very specific note about that corridor for uh St. Elmo and make sure that it's incorporated. And I had one followup, Karen. The these um high capacity corridors that were listed, is that is that where we're thinking maybe most of our density will build? I mean, is that is that how we coordinate these two together? Is we do

build high density along these high capacity corridors?

We do in part. And so Brainer Road Lee Highway is kind of a particular one and there's actually a study going on we want that Brainer Road TOD study but that's kind of um and so yes part of it some of it is um based on the existing zoning pattern and what we're proposing to do. So Hixon Pike for example we'll show as a is a corridor where we're trying to intensify but it's not through the section through kind of the Stewart Heights area. It's really kind of where left and dry picks up and then it just and so with that the plan would support increased density, more housing. Um we've changed with the new zoning, changed the character a little bit of those corridors by allowing pretty much any housing type you want. And then we have reduced some of the more intense um uses like um car repair. So there are some we've changed that a little bit in the new zoning ordinance and that's intended which is kind of we're we implement it kind of along the way as we're developing the plan. So yes it is intended to and if you remember the new zoning ordinance we have a placeholder for um a transit oriented development overlay and when we did the presentation at council we said that is showing an intent. there's nothing there besides a placeholder and said this is a placeholder and at council we said when we finished plan Chattanooga and we finished the work with Carta then we can go back and and try to apply um a transit oriented development overlay to those corridors once we kind of have this worked out and so that is in our future implementation because we want to make sure if Carter gets transit right we want to support that with the right land use mix and so that's kind of that something we've worked on for a while and kind of getting here and so the Brainer project which we might present on a later date might give us a feel and get us started on that project but that is sitting out there as a

possible implementation tool but really the new zoning already is doing that for much of our commercial corridors like Brainard Hixon Pike um Lee Highway um some of East Brainer Road it already has it's already been implementing that by allowing that residential that changing residential mix to try to incentivize housing on those corridors. Okay. What other questions do you all have?

Yeah. Um Charles, question. How much of this is in the works now versus and when I say in the works, we have funding to do it versus how much is that still just kind of the vision? Um, let me say it like this. Um, there is some grant funding that we've secured

that I will recommend to my board and to the city that we strategically plan the timing of using it. In other words, I think I don't want to go and you I need you to be a part of the process and other so what what what I plan to bring back to the five-year for the five-year implementation plan are these are the five next steps that we're going to take because what I want to hear from you is yes this is the plan or we want to change it because then that's going to determine how I'm going to spend and pursue capital and the p the pursuit of capital. I have to spend the capital now and it's going to take 18 months to get the vehicle. So there there's a delay in time. So the answer is we have some capital funding available now. I we hesitate to give you a percentage that's available today, but as soon as the plan is solidified, then we can actually start pursuing additional grant funds. The operational funds is where we're going to need to decide how that's going to happen.

Okay. And and I want to say this, thank you for that. And this is not so much to my colleagues. I think we all run into this as our city continues to grow, which we need to grow, especially infield growth. Um, we are our roads are only going to get tighter. Traffic is only going to get worse. Um, I think Councilman Clark, I think about your big development you just had not long ago and you know, folks are talking about traffic being a problem and you know, we we can't make any more new roads. Only way we can do that is imminent domain and I don't think any of us want to touch that. Uh, they'll probably recall us faster than we can blink. But I think this does stress the importance as we are moving forward. How do we um support public transit in a way that makes sense in the south where everybody has a car and it's easy just hop in a car but then you know I'm going to run into traffic. So uh I'm really encouraged by you guys being very creative about how we figure out funding and also being intentional about cross intersecting this with um planning as well. So thank y'all and I want to say that and for your your team that's here. Thank you all for being here and atu thank you for uh being a part of this. You know, I love to hear from more folks and and employees. So, thank you guys for taking that step and engaging this process.

That's Mr. Chairman Hill. Thank you. Um related to plan Chattanooga Karen, um knowing that you guys are going to you're aiming to get in front of planning commission in May. Yes. Um can you provide Nicole a link to the most recent version of the document so that we can all know which one we should study?

We do. Um we have it prepped and ready to go that had a few as you know um well many of you or some of you received an email saying um we we updated we finished the plan in May 25. You all moved into um budgeting and then we had another project um that took quite a bit of time up. We um as staff went to and looked at every single road and I mean almost every single property and really really narrowed down just to make sure you all have made zoning changes since then that might have changed the policy a little bit or you all have made comments as we went along to say maybe that doesn't sound right or not. We also um we are suns setting all the plans and policies. However, there are some plans and policies you all have identified that were adopted by um council that said I think that still holds there. So, the council person said, "I would like to I think that still holds." We did put those back in the plan. Um a couple people we said, "Hey, just as planners, we feel like some little extra work needs to be done here and we've drafted text and reached out to you." So, um we have added that in the plan. We're kind of holding off to hear if we were go or not because we don't want to assume that's the correct text, but we will try to get that out to you. We have it ready to go. Um we'll add the language for the information about commuters coming out from other places showing where they're going to and u make sure you have the link to the card transit vision and put that all in one email by the end of the week.

Okay. Thank you. Um I'll put it in writing, but the the plan for a national terrorist makes sense to me. Great. Thank you. Yeah. So, it's there's just it was kind of a planner. It's like, okay, this is an area there's an opportunity and then also just um we did look for opportunities for increase and diverse housing. This was just an extra scan we did. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions on this particular topic, council? Good. All right. Well, thank you all again very much. Thank you. Really appreciate your support. Thank you.

All right. Okay. So, next up, um, Councilman Harvey has a project to talk to us about. Councilman Harvey. Thank you, sir. I was talking.

All right. Thank you, council, for your time today. Thank you all for being here. I see you this weekend.

Trying to eat some restaurants this weekend. All right. Uh, America's 250 is this year and uh, I've actually had this idea for several years now uh, after seeing this project uh, in other cities around us. For example, Cleveland, Tennessee does this. Cookville, Tennessee does this. And I thought, why not Chattanooga, Tennessee uh, America's most patriotic city uh, which we have been named uh, because of our longest running armed forces day parade. Um, but you know, I thought what a better time to do this than this year on America's 250th birthday. Uh, so essentially, uh, what my idea is here is to, um, it's similar to the Veterans Bridge project where somebody somebody gets to, uh, honor and sponsor a veteran and honor them by putting a flag on Veterans Bridge, but in this case, it actually features their likeness. Um, so for example, if I wanted my grandfather to be featured um and to put him on a banner on one of the city-owned uh light lamp posts downtown, I could fill out an application, send in his photo and have it uh placed somewhere downtown where he can be honored with his likeness, um what branch of service he was in, uh what years he served, so on and so forth. And so that is the premise of the idea. Uh but how would it work? Uh so my idea for this is just to streamline it under one uh department and that department would be the city council office. Um especially since uh Councilman U Elliott is presenting to us uh another position, the legislative aid or whatever we are going to determine to call that position. Um I I feel like would would be able to run point on this. Um but of course uh the council clerk would oversee uh and make sure

that this is uh taken care of. Um so again h how is it funded uh how does this work? U how Cleveland does it how we actually do it with Veterans Bridge is there is a fee uh that the citizens would submit uh to cover the cost of the banner. Um the timeline for the banners. Uh so I've talked to multiple organizations about this. One of them being the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council. Uh Mickey McCish. Uh he he had the idea of running this project uh from Memorial Day to Veterans Day. Uh starting this year. I know we're getting close to Memorial Day, so we'd have to get on the ball. Uh but this could even turn into a annual uh project um during that time which I think would be really neat and something that we have an obligation to our veterans to do. Um how how would it work logistically? Um I've talked to Gerald Ne with DTS. Um he indicated that uh there could be a dedicated application on the council website uh where citizens would go to submit payments and applications online. Um he is still looking at that with the department of technology services to see um how that could be done. Um so then the submission would go to um the either the legislative aid or the council clerk. Um we'll we'll get into that in just a minute. Uh I've also talked to Weston u our city CFO. He also indicated that a cost center could be created to track uh and manage these funds uh as they come in uh to cover the cost of the banner. Uh council staff would review the applications um order the banner and coordinate with public works for final installation. I've talked to Jeremy Wood who is also a veteran and uh somebody

that we obviously could honor and he is uh absolutely in favor of this and he feels like it's something that public works can handle no problem. U this an is an example of a picture I took just outside of EPB. This is one of our city of Chattanooga logos that has been put up on a banner. Um this is already existing throughout the city. Um, and I think something that could be easily done is replacing these uh with the veterans banners and using the brackets uh that are already in existence uh for the the duration of the time that the veteran banner are placed throughout the city. There are numerous I mean countless uh stations throughout the city that already have this up that I think could be easily uh replaced uh at least from Memorial Day to uh to Veterans Day. Um again, uh nearby cities that already have this going on. Cleveland, Tennessee and Cookville, Tennessee. Any questions? I have a couple if nobody else does. So in terms of um the the cost and I guess the the lifespan, you what are your thoughts there? it to be like a onetime fee and the banners will be reused year after year or

That's a good question. So, so another couple things why I wanted to bring it to council is is one to discuss this and see if I'm missing anything. Uh and two is to have your support maybe behind a resolution authorizing the the city uh council um clerk to to do this. U of course there's some logistical things that still need to be worked out. cost. You know, obviously I'd like to keep it as low as possible just to cover the cost of the banner. U and that's still to be determined. I I'm reaching out to several different print shops to see what the best price could be on that. Um so obviously I'd like to keep it, you know, as low as possible, but correct me if I'm wrong. I think flags are 75ish, something like that. U nonetheless,

are more. Yeah, in mass production they can be as low depending on the size and how they're having grommeted but oneoffs do require a little extra attention. Okay. Okay. Um I I think it's something that would be a renewal process if somebody wanted their veteran to be featured year after year. They would need to renew it, but I think we just in in my view just starts fresh every year if we do it on an annual basis. That way we've got more people who want to be uh featured can be featured instead of just same folks over and over again.

Okay. And then would the cost just cover the expenses or do you envision some sort of extra to donate to veterans causes or

I mean that's something we can certainly look at. I I think I lean on preferring to keep it as low as possible so it incentivizes anybody who wants to do it. U so it's it's as low as possible. Um I you know I again I think one of the other things talking to these organizations like CVAC CABC CABC u is you know we can get up in front of them they're they can market this for us um and have their support but yeah I mean keeping the cost as low as possible.

And just one more do you have any idea how many banners would be at play? I don't I you know Cleveland uh when I talked to the city of Cleveland um and the museum at Five Points are the ones that actually uh are partnering with the city in Cleveland uh explained to me that they wish they'd done a little bit better of a job of marketing um this to begin with because a lot of folks would have uh come to them to be like oh if I had known I would have absolutely featured my grandfather. Um so I think it depends all on the marketing. Um, you know, I think a city the size of ours, I think we will probably get a pretty good response. So, I, you know, I don't know. It just depends on how many orders we get. Uh, maybe we limit the first batch of 50 to 100, something like that. Um, and then go from there.

Okay. Yeah. Sorry. I know vice chair had a question and then Councilwoman Hill.

Um, no, I think it's a good idea. Um, I think it's puts our potential new position into good use if we do get it. But, you know, I'm personally I'm all for it. Here's what I will say. I think there's um not think there is a pretty much a process for how I forget who does it, but whoever uses the veterans bridge, they have a process pretty much already laid out. And so, we may not need to reinvent the wheel too much on this. It may just be pretty much taking one SOP and putting it over somewhere else and then kind of just plugging and chugging. So that's small on that. Yeah, it's a good point. Um I too thought the same thing, but

Uhhuh. the size may be different. Size is Yeah, size is different, but um they recommended a new policy procedure for this. Go forth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Counciloman Hill. Um, so I think this is a neat uh America 250 um project. I I like it a lot and um I imagine that chat GPT helped with some of these banner designs. It absolutely did. I think it would be good to have um a local designer put together um something lovely that that we all like um

and that would be obviously standardized. There' be one design um and so to keep it simple for what people need to provide. Um, so they all look really great. Um, I I would suggest um identifying a a location where all these are going to go so they have a real visual impact. Um, because that's something for me when I drive over the Veterans Bridge and the sky is blue and those flags are waving, there's just such a sense of pride and patriotism and gratefulness that you feel. Um, and have you thought about a corridor where you where you think these would would really shine?

That's a good question. Um, yes and no. I've not really determined exactly how large or small that would be. I I think the real question lies in how many of these lamp posts do we have the authority to put a banner on? Um, obviously I think the the the quarter with the most of those would make sense. Um, but that's a good I'm willing I'm open to suggestions. Well, um, I I feel like when you choose the corridor that will dictate how many, right? And then to say you've got X number of slots, first come, okay, first serve. Yeah. Um, it might and

I'm not completely versed on how the banner placements work. Now, if it's a if it's a River City um tourism implementation, you know, because obviously we have banners that describe different parts of town. We have Mayor Kelly's uh logo roll out banners um different things around town. So, um it does seem like that corridor where the the parade, the Armed Forces Day parade goes down, that that could be a really neat place for those to live. Um

but that isn't it is in the heart of other things that sometimes get banners. You know, certain festivals get banners and things like that. So, um yeah, the finetuning of because that Memorial Day to Veterans Day is about six months. Is that right? Give or take. May to November or Yeah. May June to November. Really? Okay. Um so, yeah. So, I guess we need to find that part out before we bump somebody that has already paid to put a banner up. Yep. For a given festival or something. Thanks for the idea. Yeah, of course. Yeah, good good thoughts. Okay, Councilman Henderson. Yeah. So, I think this is one of those things that we do. We just figure out how we do it. Absolutely.

I mean, I guess the first thing we do is take inventory of how many polls like that that we have. And I just I mean whether it's a corridor or if we just scatter them downtown just wherever we've got a poll that we could that we can use. I say we get a database of how many those are and that's what we limited to at least to begin with and the dimensions for them. There may be some Yeah. And and I don't know even out in the the Hixon area like you know if you know 153 I mean we don't have to limit it to downtown. We might even want to look at,

you know, there there may be people area that would like to see see it out in their area. So, I mean, we might look at locations that we're able to to put them and place them and then link those with the people that are asking for them like can can we accommodate it in their area? The other thing are we set up in the council office to receive money to receive payments? It wouldn't go to the council. Well, so when I asked Weston, he said a cost center could be created for for for specifically this. And would Gerald's application take payment? Yes.

Well, okay. When you say So when you say cost center, I'm assuming for buying the supplies. Well, I'm thinking about receiving the money. Yeah, that's what I mean. That's the same. So that's the same, right? Yes. Yeah. So So they could you my my vision is uh they could, you know, correct me if I'm wrong. I think you can do this on the Veterans Bridge flag program. You can pay online and it goes into that cost. The funds go into that cost center and then out of that cost center. That cost center would be at city council. Correct. Budget. Correct. Line item. Correct. Okay. And I'm assuming you've talked to Nicole about this.

Where's Nicole? Hi Nicole. Surprise. Hi Nicole. That been a good com. We'll talk. Is that something that Hey talked to Nicole before you? I'm sorry. I should have talked to you before. I apologize. Um Hey, we're giving you another staff person. No problem. Well, that has not been decided. That's true. Yeah. And we're down the road from that, too. So anyway, maybe have a have a conversation with Nicole. Yeah. About what that looks like. Okay. I'll get with you Nicole. My bad. We'll chalk it up till I'm still near. Council.

Uh, thank you, Chairman Davis. I got a couple questions regarding the usage of which light poles. Are we just limited to these lamp posts or can we actually um have a conversation with EPB about expanding the di the diameter of those clamps to actually put on some of the EPB light posts? Okay. Just ideas cuz we don't have these everywhere, right? Yeah. So, um you have those in district 5. We do, but they're only in my shallow for road corridor. I mean, which is going to be in my second That's that's something I thought. I do need more district 5. Sorry. Go ahead. That's something I thought I

Okay. And then the second thing u going to the corridor question um is would it would you be asking us as each council person to maybe identify one corridor like kind of like veterans way district? I mean I like that.

I don't know. I think that would be appropriate because what could happen is is that if there are veterans in my area, I can help push for sales of this and and for those people who live in that community will who frequent those corridors will see their loved ones versus if you live in district 5 and you're not in the banners downtown. So maybe we could identify in coordination with each council person what would be maybe like a one or two mile stretch corridor that we could temporarily label Veterans Way. Um I mean and I liked your chat GBT pictures by the way.

Thank you. Any other questions?

Yes, Mr. just briefly on there need to make sure at least the specs are fairly the the same the standard spec on here and if it's going to be up and down on there where it will actually fit on the the thing whenever it's developed uh in that same size on there. So, wherever it goes on there as long as you can get a uh some type of holder that will fit it on there. And then we need to sort of get a I guess a numbering system for which ones are available in which areas here because this becomes a a hot topic on there. You want to tell them that we've got, you know, three spaces available. I hate to get into the point of being like Memorial Auditorium on how many seats you got left, but you're going to have to deal with that somewhere, right? Sure.

And then after something is placed up there, how long does it stay? And there needs to be a specific time frame that people understand that it'll be up there for that time period. No longer. I I mean I go ahead. What do we do when we take them down? Like who stores them? Is this a Is this something that we reuse? I mean, in other words, they could they could pay renewal fee without having to buy the without having to buy the banner, fresh banner every year. Yeah. Well, I mean, I would assume that, but Yeah. But but what do you do with the ones when you I was gonna say if anything, we just give them to the families and throw them away if they don't you take them to your homestead.

Well, I guess my point is you've got to have a location for them to come pick them up. Where would that be? We're we're going to take them down, storm somewhere, and then ask the loved ones. One week. My garage and my garage. I mean, those are when we pick up. We got to have a location for them to come. Paul Clark Center that be easiest place on 11th. Okay. If it's public or it could be a um could be if if our staff ends up having to manage this, then our staff's going to have an organized way that like they're going to have everybody's name on a banner and somebody's going to come here and have a oneweek span during business hours where they can pick up their banner.

Or could a VFW pitch in and Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, like that's a good point. We could get VFW or CABC. I mean, there's one there's one VFW on Amola that might be willing to or if we're doing it on a district level, you know, like for example in Hixon, you could pick up your flag at the Hixon branch of the public library on a certain, you know, or the community centers. Yeah. Yeah. Or community center. Well, that's a great idea. Great project. I look forward to seeing it come to fruition. I miss anything else. This is great.

Thank you, Cody. All right. Well, that is our agenda for today. Um, of course, we have our upcoming presentations listed on here and as always, there are uh board appointments listed. So, if those apply to your district, pay attention to those. And unless there are any other comments or announcements, we'll adjourn. Move to journ. All right. Second. We're journ.