North Shore project wins planning commission’s OK

A Chattanooga development group on Monday won approval to move ahead with a North Shore townhouse and condominium project that was opposed by more than a dozen of its neighbors.

The Dynamic Group won an appeal that will enable the developers to go forward in the process to put up from nine to 12 condos and six townhouses on a tract between Tampa and Baker streets.

Dynamic Group attorney John Anderson, after winning the appeal before the ChattanoogaHamilton County Regional Planning Commission, wouldn’t give a timeframe for the construction of the project, saying the developers will do what’s required to move forward.

He had argued before the planning commission that an earlier denial of the project by the North Shore Design Review Committee wasn’t valid.

However, Beth Van Deusen, president of the Baker Hilltop Neighborhood Association, said she wasn’t happy with the Planning Commission’s ruling.

“It’s an inappropriate development for the neighborhood,” she said.

Van Deusen said she didn’t think the fight against the project was over as the developers are proposing to use a city alley for a driveway and must win approval.

“It definitely will have to be challenged,” she said. “I don’t know of any other recourse.”

The project initially won approval last December from the North Shore Design Review Committee. However, there was a question of whether there had been timely notice given to neighbors. Another meeting was held in January, and the North Shore panel didn’t provide approval a second time.

Dynamic Group, the Chattanooga company that built downtown’s new Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites on Chestnut Street, then appealed the decision to the Planning Commission.

Anderson argued the North Shore group had no jurisdiction to make the second review of the project.

“All its actions were void,” he said. The North Shore group’s work has since fallen under a form-based code panel.

City attorney Phil Noblett, however, argued the timeframe was appropriate for the North Shore group to reconsider the project in January.

“This body should affirm,” he told the planning commission.

Van Deusen told that group on Monday that half of the proposed units will face Baker Street and no notice was ever posted on that street.

“It was absolutely inappropriate,” she said.

But Anderson argued that a rehearing by the North Shore group for any reason wasn’t contemplated by city code.

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress. com or 423-757-6318.