December 5, 2022

December 5, 2022 - Affordable Housing Survey, Parks and Outdoor Plan, and More

GENERAL HIGHLIGHTS

• The city is launching an Affordable Housing Survey to better understand the housing needs of the community. You can participate here.
• The city is hosting a roundtable session to gather community input for the conversion of the Airport Inn to supportive housing. The session is December 14 from 6-7pm at 2124 Shepherd Road. You can register here.
• Listen to my latest podcast episode, an interview with Tamara Steward, the city’s first ever Chief Equity Officer. You can find it on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts by searching “Chattanooga Civics”.

NOVEMBER 29 CITY COUNCIL HIGHLIGHTS

The agenda session recording can be found here. The business meeting recording can be found here.
The meeting minutes can be found here.

At the November 29 agenda session, the city council:

• discussed proposed changes to city maximum wrecker fees.
• heard a presentation on the Parks and Outdoor Plan from director Scott Martin. The presentation laid out the vision for the city parks department, shortcomings in the current system (including a shortfall of 644 acres of parks space to reach the national average area of park space per capita and $179M in deferred maintenance costs), and possible next steps (including the possibility of converting 550 acres of city owned lad into park space). The Chattanoogan wrote a short summary which you can read here. You can watch the entire presentation here..
• heard a presentation on proposed changes to city fees. The Chattanoogan wrote a short summary which you can read here.. You can watch the entire presentation here.

At the November 29 business session, the city council:

• voted to allow an increase in billing and charges for district wreckers (first reading).
• voted to adopt the 2018 editions of the International Building Code, Fuel Gas, Mechanical Code, and Plumbing Code (first reading).
• deferred a vote to adopt the 2018 edition of the International Fire Code until December 13.
• voted to amend a portion of the city code relating to sewer service lines (first reading).
• voted to amend the Tax Increment Financing Policies and Procedures.
• voted to confirm the appointment of Santosh Sankar and Chris Sugden to the Metropolitan Airport Authority.
• voted on 3 public works contracts and one honorary street renaming (see minutes for full details).
• approved 7 routine purchases, including a $400k for electric motors and pump services related to wastewater services.
• one citizens addressed the council. You can view the full comments here.

DECEMBER 6 CITY COUNCIL HIGHLIGHTS

The proposed meeting agenda can be found here.

The proposed city council agenda for December 6 includes:

• a vote to allow an increase in billing and charges for district wreckers (second reading).
• voted to adopt the 2018 editions of the International Building Code, Fuel Gas, Mechanical Code, and Plumbing Code (second reading).
• a vote to amend a portion of the city code relating to sewer service lines (second reading).
• a vote to enter a lease agreement with Chattanooga Hockey Inc. (see agenda for full details).
• votes to authorize the appointment of several individuals as Special Police Officers (unarmed) in their capacity as code enforcement officials.
• a vote to authorize the hiring of an additional UTC graduate assistant to serve the Office of Community Health for the amount of ~$14k.
• a vote to approve a special exceptions permit for late night entertainment at 6924 Shallowford Road.

DECEMBER 13 CITY COUNCIL HIGHLIGHTS

The proposed meeting agenda can be found here.

The proposed city council agenda for December 13 includes:

• a vote to adopt to 2018 edition of the International Fire Code (first reading).
• votes on a number of rezoning cases (see agenda for full details).