The Northshore Community won an important victory with the conditional approval by the Northshore Design Review Committee Thursday night of the proposed major chain grocery store to be located on North Market Street at Manning.

The developers and their architects have been meeting with community groups for many weeks now, and have modified their plans to meet community concerns in the true "Chattanooga Way".

Mayor Ron Littlefield spoke eloquently of the importance of the new development for the Northshore and Downtown districts, and the most recent architectural plans showed numerous changes incorporated as a result of interaction with the local residents and the design review committee.

The project enjoys the overwhelming support of neighborhood residents, and the remaining concerns of traffic flow, lighting, and fenestration are scheduled to be addressed in the coming weeks. The new development promises to be an important and welcome addition to the vital and growing Northshore community.

Garnet Chapin

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Re  Mr. Chapin's opinion, I see two not too valid points.

First he exalts the "Chattanooga Way" has been followed. And then he notes that "overwhelming support" has thrust this project forth.

 By definition, Chattanooga Way is allowing input via Robert's Rules and chattanoga.gov design rules to come to the table and then do what developers want. I guess the multi-story concept does not apply here as we've reached suburban Chattanooga and are out of the reach of urban Chattanooga. Will this single-story structural design be capable of adding floors to comply with Northshore Design Rules? Is the developer considering neighborhood density in allowing only one floor to be at this location? Multiple floors multiply the rent. And lessen the trips folks may take to multi-task their excursions.

Re the overwhelming support. Yes, the community wants a grocery store that caters to most rather than some as the choice is now. This hunch is that the neighborhood is more pragmatic than the decision to ' not so big box' shows.

Now I realize, I have no architecture degree to make my analysis. That said, I am a bit mystified that so many diverse, intelligent, degreed and professional urban planners can agree on simple forward-thinking rules of development. And then developers get an outcome that ignores most of the rules but for place the box by the street.

Prentice Hicks

Lookout Valley