During a special called meeting Thursday at Edwards Park Community Center, the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners took a major step toward solving that problem, unanimously approving a measure to allocate $900,000 to extend sewer to the edge of a major new housing development planned off Cleveland Highway.
After more than a year of working on the housing issue, the board reached an agreement with Three Point Development, a home builder in the Chattanooga and Cleveland, Tennessee area that is now moving into Whitfield County, to extend the sewer line north about three miles on Cleveland Highway to the development in the Strain Road area, according to Commission Chairman Jevin Jensen.
Camden Farms will be “the largest new subdivision this century and likely the largest planned community ever” in Whitfield County, Commissioner Jensen said.
By the time it completes multiple phases, the company plans to build 1,135 homes on the site that covers more than 400 acres, with a likely total investment of more than $300 million. The typical home will feature four bedrooms and three baths and have a starting price around $300,000, including community amenities such as playgrounds and pool.
The development meets the county’s master plan to build and grow residential homes in the north end of the county where new middle and high schools are already open and will provide jobs for skilled craftsmen from carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and others for years to come, Commissioner Jensen added.
Once the developer closes on the property and starts engineering work, the county will outlay the funds for the sewer line from the $20.3 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding the county is receiving. The developer will then be responsible for connecting each home to the sewer extension as well as funding any lift stations needed inside the new subdivision.
This year will mark the start of the largest expansion of sewer outside the city of Dalton in Whitfield County history. In December, the board voted to apply for a sewer infrastructure grant from the State Fiscal Recovery Grant Fund to extend sewer along Cleveland Highway, Carbondale Road, Command Drive, Connector 3, Crider Road, and Tibbs Bridge Road to Riverbend Road. In addition, the county is using $4.9 million from the 2020 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for sewer expansion to the Carbondale interchange, the Connector 3 interchange, and north along Cleveland Highway to about Frontier Trail to encourage economic development in those areas.
In remarks at the meeting, Commissioner Jensen pointed out that thousands of workers from Bradley, Catoosa, Murray and other neighboring counties commute into Whitfield County every morning. “After 5 p.m., they all leave us because we lack the quantity and quality of homes,” he said, pointing out that as of Thursday afternoon, only 92 Whitfield homes were listed in the MLS for a county with more than 102,000 residents.
Besides offering new homes for commuters who might prefer living in Whitfield County, the new Camden Farms development will help other young couples already living here who are eager to start and grow their families and now have to live in apartments or older, smaller homes built well before the turn of the century because of the lack of inventory, Jensen said. As their families grow, they often have been forced to move outside the county to find larger houses.
The sewer expansion projects will also help the county attract businesses such as hotels and restaurants, Commissioner Jensen said.