Mayor John Turner said 10 years ago Collegedale chose to be pro-active when it came to growth. The goal was for the city to look as if had been planned as it developed. Now Collegedale is one of the fasting growing cities in Hamilton County. The city’s planning commission is nearing the end of the process to develop a new land use plan - the second one created in the last 30 years. At the Collegedale Commission meeting Monday night, updating current appointments to the municipal planning commission was given approval.
The city’s charter specifies that the mayor is responsible for making appointments to the planning board and that terms of five years are staggered.
There are nine members on the board that have been added at various times causing the need for some terms to be altered in order to be in compliance with the city charter. Mayor Turner has re-set the terms of the citizens serving on this board to varying numbers of years. When a term expires, that person can then be re-appointed to complete five years of service.
The mayor has chosen people to serve on this board that have a passion for the city, he said. His goal is to get young people involved because the city will eventually be in their hands, he stated. Of nine seats, four are female, five are under the age of 40 and three are engineers or architects. Mayor Turner and Commissioner Katie Lamb are also members of the planning commission.
Three years ago Collegedale hired Kelly Martin for the position of strategic planner and gave him the responsibility of drafting the plan. The process was started when Mr. Martin was hired. It is expected that the new plan will be finished in around six months when it will be presented to the city commission. Mayor Turner said, “It will be a blueprint for the way we want the city to grow and have development done accordingly.”
Commercial design standards are also being altered. In some cases, officials discovered that what developers wanted to do surpassed requirements in the city’s codes. Mayor Turner said that changes were being made with the city going to a “meets or exceeds” philosophy relating to the design standards.
September is 25 percent of the way through the fiscal year. The financial report for the month shows the city on target having received 20 percent of expected revenues, and having spent 22 percent of expected expenditures. Auditors were present last week, said Amber Sanderson, who was standing in for City Manager Ted Rogers. The preliminary audit looks good, she said. An official presentation from the auditors will be made to the commissioners on the financial state at a future date.
Police Chief Bryan Hickman received approval from the commissioners to give surplus Harley Davidson equipment to the Bradley County Sheriff’s office. When the city started using a different type of motorcycle, the specialized equipment no longer worked and has been in storage. It will be given in exchange for allowing Collegedale Police to use Bradley County’s crime lab, helping to keep a good relationship with nearby Bradley County.
Rodney Keeton, director of public works, was given the OK to purchase a new truck for the department at a cost of $37,905. The old truck will be used by the parks and recreation department.
A resident of the Wellesley subdivision came to the meeting concerning a greenway that his neighborhood would like to see built. The city was recently notified that a grant may be available for the work, but an application must be made by the first week in November leaving little time for all the preliminary work that is needed. A public meeting on the matter was held last week. People living in both Wellesley and Greenbriar Cove were in agreement for placing the walking path down Ooltewah-Ringgold Road to Bill Reed Road.
The process to build this greenway is not a simple task. It would need to be built on TDOT right-of-ways, and in order to get permission for that, the city will need to provide a full set of engineering plans on the front end with no guarantee that use of the right-of-way would be allowed. Additionally, the amount of grant money available or the amount of matching funds required from the city are all unknown at this time as is the cost of building the entire project. Mayor Turner told John McCoy, representative from Wellesley, the matter would be discussed at the next agenda workshop.