Area Plans guide where and how new growth, redevelopment and conservation should occur in a particular area.
Once adopted, Area Plans serve as general policy guides for physical development and help inform capital investment and zoning decisions. With today's growth challenges, alignment of development efforts with an established community vision is more important than ever. Area Plans are geared towards "Advancing Great Places." As our region continues to grow, planning for efficiency and making better use of our limited resource is essential to creating a more resilient community.
In 2015, the RPA updated the county-wide Comprehensive Plan. Its broad goals establish the framework for integrating the more specific Area Plans under a unified county-wide vision.
The Comprehensive Plan divides Hamilton County into 13 smaller geographic areas for more detailed planning purposes. Over the next couple years, all the Areas will be studied; a community input process Hamilton County Commission and/or the Chattanooga City Council for adoption. (Plans for Areas 3 and 12 have already been adopted, and the Area 11 Plan is currently in the adoption phase.)
Note: Older neighborhood plans will be sunsetted as the larger Area Plans replace them. Even more detailed corridor studies, district studies, or redevelopment strategies may be undertaken later if they are recommended as a follow-up to an adopted Area Plan.
Area Plans should be updated every 5–10 years to ensure they remain relevant and reflect the most current market trends and socio-economic changes.
A Zoning Code Update is being undertaken simultaneously with the creation of new Area Plans. Once these new zoning categories have been created, and the Area Plans have been adopted, zoning changes may be recommended to reflect each Area’s adopted vision.
It is important for residents, workers, and business owners to take ownership of their Area Plan and stay involved in its implementation.
What Area Plans DO:
COMMUNITY VALUES and a SHARED VISION are established through a robust public engagement process.
EXISTING CONDITIONS are analyzed, including demographics, transportation, jobs & housing, natural resources and development trends.
RECOMMENDATIONS for PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT—including natural resources, the built environment, transportation and infrastructure—are the primary focus.
PLACE TYPES are recommended for specific locations to guide a compatible mix of land uses.
GOVERNMENT SPENDING for public infrastructure projects is better informed.
PRIVATE DEVELOPMENT opportunities are identified.
ZONING decisions are influenced.
What Area Plans DO NOT do:
REGULATE development. They are guiding documents.
ENSURE FUNDING of recommended projects.
CHANGE the ZONING of any property.
DIRECTLY ADDRESS issues such as education, social equity or health care directly.
Current Area Plans
Below are links to each Area Plan that is either underway or has been adopted.
Our third public meeting was held on September 20th and preliminary recommendations were presented along with conceptual land use policy scenarios. … Read More
The White Oak Mountain Area Plan (Area 12) was adopted by the Chattanooga Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission on February … Read More
List of Plans
Below are links to plans that are either underway or have been adopted. Some of the more recent ones are listed on the table below, but if you have a specific interest or are trying to find an older report, please contact the Regional Planning Agency at (423) 643-5900.
INSERT: REVISED table with an alphabetized list of ALL Land Use Plans AND Area Plans. Create separate columns for Plan Name/Link, Plan Map, Status (Underway/Adopted Year)
The RPA is taking a “Centers and Corridors Approach” in all Area Plans throughout Hamilton County. The “Centers and Corridors Approach” is a land development strategy to guide the location of growth and redevelopment throughout Chattanooga and Hamilton County. It influences Area Plan recommendations. Place Types help to implement the Centers and Corridors Approach.
The Centers and Corridors Approach has three essential concepts:
Walkable, clustered Centers where retail uses are concentrated.
Transit-supportive Corridorscomprised of a mix of uses, including multi-family housing
Medium and higher density housing near Centers and Corridors to support their economic vitality and local transit viability.
Missing Middle Housing: Good Transitions
Residents of single-family homes usually do not want to live right next to the apartment buildings or commercial uses found in Centers or along Corridors. Missing Middle housing can serve as a good transition, or buffer, between single-family homes and those more intense uses. Missing Middle housing also helps increase the average density around Centers to support locally-serving retail and public transit.
The RPA’s Centers & Corridors Approach promotes a concentration of commercial uses in walkable Centers and encourages higher density housing within and around those centers and along major corridors to support transit and avoid continuous strip commercial development. Lower density residential development and green space fill the areas between.
Centers are compact, walkable places with a network of connected streets and sidewalks, and multi-story buildings, and shops that front directly onto the sidewalks.
Residents often say they want to see more walkable commercial centers. In this short video, you will learn what it takes to make places like the Gunbarrel Road corridor more walkable.
Centers are compact and walkable. They include a concentration of retail, restaurants, and offices. Centers also need to include—and be surrounded by—higher-density housing to support these businesses and to make frequent transit service viable. Ideally, Centers will be spaced so they do not compete with one another, and to equitably provide retail options to nearby residents.
Communities with a strong sense of place often have a distinctive “Center” that is recognized as the heart of the community or the neighborhood. Community festivals, farmers markets, and other events where residents come together to celebrate, often take place in these Centers. Centers are often organized around a public park, courthouse or town hall and often contain historic buildings that make them unique.
Centers have important economic benefits. As the national retail market continues to change, fewer brick-and-mortar stores are being built, and Centers provide an alternative to long, “strip commercial” streets. Retail businesses tend to be more successful when they are clustered together in Centers. Each business can benefit from the customers drawn to the Center by neighboring businesses.
Centers can also provide for a more efficient use of limited City resources. Infrastructure costs for sidewalks, street lights, and street trees can be targeted to designated Centers instead of being spread thin across a broader area.
Higher frequency transit service requires a concentration of offices, stores, restaurants, and housing to be viable. Locating higher density housing in and around Centers also means that some people can walk or ride a bike to these destinations. Having such transportation options available even allows some families to eliminate their need for a car (or a second car) and put that money toward housing or other needs.
CORRIDORS
In addition to Centers, most communities have major Corridors that connect their Centers and neighborhoods. Many Corridors are now lined with strip shopping centers, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, and other other businesses—most of which cater to automobile traffic.
Today however, due to shifts in population and employment, changes in the retail market, and changing shopping preferences, Corridors across the country are experiencing a growing number of vacant businesses. Cities are therefore looking for ways to retrofit these Corridors with new uses and to make them more walkable and better able to accommodate pedestrians, bicycles and transit.
Corridors provide an opportunity for new multi-family housing, which can:
Increase the supply of affordable housing options;
Establish the residential densities needed to support retail businesses in the Centers; and
Promote more frequent transit service over time.
Designating these Corridors as locations for new multi-family development also allows the preservation of the existing single-family neighborhoods without the encroachment of higher density housing, as requested by many residents.
Communities with a strong sense of place often have a distinctive “Center” that is recognized as the heart of the community or the neighborhood. Community festivals, farmers markets, and other events where residents come together to celebrate, often take place in these Centers. Centers are often organized around a public park, courthouse or town hall and often contain historic buildings that make them unique. 
Centers can also provide for a more efficient use of limited City resources. Infrastructure costs for sidewalks, street lights, and street trees can be targeted to designated Centers instead of being spread thin across a broader area.
Communities with a strong sense of place often have a distinctive “Center” that is recognized as the heart of the community or the neighborhood. Community festivals, farmers markets, and other events where residents come together to celebrate, often take place in these Centers. Centers are often organized around a public park, courthouse or town hall and often contain historic buildings that make them unique. 
Centers can also provide for a more efficient use of limited City resources. Infrastructure costs for sidewalks, street lights, and street trees can be targeted to designated Centers instead of being spread thin across a broader area.
