Chattanooga Beginning Annexation To Expand City

Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield is about to fight a battle that was never finished a few years ago but will begin in a few months..

He's drawing up plans to expand the city limits, which means annexing neighborhoods now in the suburbs of Hamilton County. Mayor Littlefield plans to finish the work of annexation in the next four years during his second term.

Mayor Littlefield showed us a map of where he wants the city limits to expand. Basically, it's all the area identified eight years ago when Tennessee cities had to draw lines for future urban growth, known as the 2020 Plan. It includes East Brainerd, Hurricane Creek, Mountain Shadows, Ooltewah and Hunter Road north to Harrison Bay. On the west side of Hamilton County it includes areas in Lookout Valley like Cummings Cove and the current Hixson boundary north to Thrasher Pike.

"We'll take bite-sized pieces we can manage because we have to write and implement a plan of services," Mayor Littlefield said.

By law the city must plan to build new fire stations, hire more firefighters and police officers, provide garbage, sewer and other services in the annexed areas.

Hurricane Creek resident Ray Horn said "my taxes will go up and where the rubber meets the road is I don't need my taxes to go up, there will be no improvement in services because we already have good services here."

Horn has lived in his Hamilton County home since 1991. He, like his neighbors, enjoy the suburban lifestyle and being away from the city.

But Mayor Littlefield said the city is changing rapidly and needs to expand it's services to where the growth is being fueled by companies like Volkswagen and Alstrom. He understands annexation has, and will be met with fierce opposition.

"If it's challenged it's not a jury trial it's simply before a Chancellor so if we meet all the specifics of the annexation law it should be difficult to challenge," Mayor Littlefield said.

Horn said he and his neighbors are ready to fight to keep out of the city limits.

"Don't think the residents out here think it's a done deal," Horn said. "I've talked to my neighbors, everybody is up in arms about it and we will seek every means possible to ward off this attempt at annexation."

The mayor has asked city department heads, like Fire Chief Randy Parker, to draw up plans to expand services into the areas planned for annexation.

We spoke with Chief Parker who said those plans are still in the works but the city fire department is looking at building up to five or six new fire stations and hiring up to 100 additional firefighters to cover the newly annexed areas.

Other departments, like police and public works, are drawing up similar plans.

Click HERE to see a map of the areas planned for annexation. (2.5 MB PDF File)