Year saw big plans made in Chattanooga
Readers of the Chattanooga Times Free Press participated in an online poll to select the top news stories of 2023. Here are the top stories, in order of most reader votes:
REMAKING OF THE WESTSIDE AND THE BEND
Two major projects could remake the downtown Chattanooga riverfront. Officials approved a new tax zone to help spur up to $2 billion of new downtown development by revitalizing 300 acres of the Westside and the city’s oldest public housing project. Plans would allow thousands of new homes, more than 1 million square feet of commercial space and a new riverfront park. Chattanooga Housing Authority is trying to raise money to rebuild College Hill Courts and developers plan offices, storefronts, medical facilities, apartments and condos on the former Alstom Power site.
PEDESTRIAN DEATHS
In 2023, 17 pedestrians have been killed this year in Chattanooga — nearly triple the pedestrian deaths reported last year at this time. That includes the deaths of two pedestrians on Frazier Avenue after a Nov. 26 accident in which two vehicles collided and one jumped the curb, striking three people on the sidewalk. A 41-year-old mother and her 1-yearold son were killed, and the driver faces two charges of vehicular homicide by impairment and charges of aggravated vehicular assault. City officials have closed the inner two lanes of Frazier on weekends until the end of December and are studying permanent changes to the road.
PLANS UNDERWAY FOR NEW LOOKOUTS STADIUM
A $79.5 million stadium is planned on the former Wheland and U.S. Pipe foundry sites. Construction is scheduled to begin in the South Broad District in 2024 to anchor a new development along Interstate 24 in the
western entrance to the city. Officials rezoned the land to allow buildings as high as 12 stories and more dense development around the facility.
DOWNTOWN CHANGES Proposals were announced
this year to demolish the TVA office complex, build a new federal courthouse, and expand and renovate the Chattanooga Convention Center with a pedestrian friendly “convention district” with nearby shopping, entertainment, restaurants and hotel space.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING ‘CRISIS’
This year saw high interest rates, high housing prices, low inventory for Chattanooga-area real estate, and rents rising faster than incomes for many households. Mayor Tim Kelly proposed the city’s first-ever housing action
plan to bolster the area’s dwindling affordable housing stock through policy changes and investments. “Chattanooga is facing an affordable housing crisis,” the plan states. Kelly has announced a $100 million initiative to invest in affordable housing, seeded by $33 million of city money. CONSTRUCTION ON ‘THE SPLIT’ The second phase of the $161 million reconstruction project of the Interstate 75/I-24 interchange started this summer. This phase of construction should add lanes to the most bottlenecked part of the interchange — the northbound lanes of I-75 to the westbound lanes of I-24 near East Ridge’s Exit 1, which now narrows from two lanes into one. Completion is scheduled for late 2025.
CROFT & FROST FIRM FOLDS
Chattanooga accountant Jonathan Frost and his business partner Paul Croft pitched a vision to transcend the accounting business. But investor suspicions of betrayal and fraud have swelled since September, when Croft’s and Frost’s accounting firm
abruptly collapsed, and management at the pair’s separate green energy firm, Rhino Onward International, resigned after months of alleged nonpayment. The CEO of that firm has vowed to seek justice, and a procession of lawsuits have accused Croft and Frost of various breaches of trust.
HOMELESSNESS
Chattanooga officials have paused efforts to convert a transit building on East 12th Street into a 24/7 homeless shelter. The lowbarrier shelter, designed to provide people with shelter with as few obstacles as possible, faced opposition from neighbors.A plan to convert a vacant motel on Lee Highway into 70 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless people is moving
through the approval process. POLICE SHOOTINGS
Chattanooga police shot and killed two people in separate incidents. On Aug. 11, police
shot Roger Heard Jr. at a Speedway gas station on Holtzclaw Avenue. Heard, 34, was killed after officers in plain clothes and unmarked cars attempted to stop him on warrants. Law enforcement officials said Heard fired at officers before they shot him in an exchange of gunfire. An officer was also hit in the exchange of gunfire and has returned to duty. Heard’s family believes the officers used excessive force by continuing to shoot Heard after he fell to the ground and no longer had a gun. On Sept. 3, police shot David
Mendez Lopez, 17, after responding to a reported domestic dispute on South Kelley Street. The Chattanooga Police Department said Mendez Lopez was armed with a
weapon that he pointed at police. ERLANGER BECOMES PRIVATE
Erlanger Health System transitioned from a government to a private nonprofit entity, a step officials say is necessary in order for Erlanger to remain competitive and viable in today’s health care system. Erlanger is Chattanooga’s largest and only safety net hospital; the Baroness hospital on East Third Street is home to the region’s only Level 1 trauma center, which treats the most severe injuries and illnesses. SCHOOL FACILITIES
A plan by a working group of Hamilton County leaders includes recommendations calling for K-12 school campus closures and renovations. The recommendations are part of a twophase, seven-year plan to update Hamilton County Schools’ facilities. It would cost around $200 million. The plan calls for three new schools to be built, seven schools to be renovated or receive additions, six schools to be closed and three schools to move to new locations. FOOTBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP WINNERS The third year of the annual BlueCross Bowl — Tennessee’s nine-game, three-day football state championship event — featured rivals Baylor and McCallie in the Division II-AAA title game, Boyd Buchanan in DII-AA and South Pittsburg in Class A. While Boyd was disappointed,
South Pittsburg won the program’s seventh Class 1A state
title. And McCallie’s Blue Tornado claimed a dramatic 34-28 win over Baylor, which marked the fifth consecutive season one of Chattanooga’s large private schools claimed the title. QUANTUM NETWORK LAUNCHED, ONBOARDED ITS FIRST CUSTOMER The EPB Quantum Network announced this year that it is onboarding its first customer onto the nation’s first commercial quantum network. EPB
spent $4.5 million to build its quantum network, which San Diego-based Qubitekk developed as an outgrowth of cybersecurity research EPB conducted about the electric grid for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The company, called Qunnect, will work with Qubitekk to use the EPB Quantum Network to determine the ways key quantum technologies can be used across a quantum network.
RIVERBEND ON HOLD
The Riverbend Festival will be put on hold in 2024 while the Friends of the Festival organization examines what is and isn’t working. Riverbend was canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, facing dwindling attendance and financial losses, organizers cut the event to four days and raised ticket prices.
HOMICIDES
Chattanooga and Hamilton County have seen at least 26 homicides this year. The shooting of businessman Chris Wright, 38, at the intersection of 11th and Market streets Sept. 28 prompted city officials to increase security
measures including increased police presence downtown, an expanded video surveillance network and a public safety commission. Hamilton County has assigned sheriff’s deputies to support Chattanooga officers in the downtown business district.
ANGEL BUMPASS CASE
A judge dismissed the case
against Angel Bumpass, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison when she was 13 years old. Bumpass was 24 in 2019 when she was convicted of murder and aggravated robbery in the killing of Franklin Bonner, 68, who suffocated after a 2009 robbery during which he was bound with duct tape that covered his feet, arms, nose and mouth. Bumpass, now 28, maintained throughout the years that she had no involvement in Bonner’s death.
PLANNING INITIATIVES LAUNCHED TO GUIDE GROWTH
A year long planning initiative will study growth, traffic, sewers and public education in the unincorporated parts of Hamilton County and devise a blueprint to guide future growth. About $600,000 from the ChattanoogaHamilton County Regional Planning Agency’s reserve fund will go into the planning process dubbed “Our communities. Our growth.”