A leader of the Frazier Avenue business group said the owners want raised pavements at three intersections to help curb speeds on the busy North Chattanooga thoroughfare.
Jessica Mines Dumitru is the owner of the Art Creations store at the corner of Frazier and Forest Avenue, where there was a deadly wreck last Nov. 25. Two members of a Florida family were killed and another was severely injured when a car involved in a road rage incident spun up on the sidewalk and into her building.
Ms. Dumitru said the business group voted by 90 percent not in favor of cutting lanes in each direction from two lanes to one as the city has been contemplating doing since the wreck.
She said the raised pavements are being requested at Woodland Avenue, Forest Avenue and Tremont Street. She said similar raised pavements have been installed at the UTC campus and by Miller Park.
Ms. Dumitru said the raised pavements are much wider than traditional speed humps. She said they cause a driver to slow down as they go up on the raised pavement, then come back down at the other side.
She said former Mayor Ron Littlefield is working with AARP, and he said the senior group has grants available for raised pavements.
Ms. Dumitru also said she would like to see the trees along Frazier Avenue cut and the narrow sidewalks be given some sort of protective barriers. She said very large groups of people walk along Frazier Avenue - especially during festivals and other gatherings at nearby Coolidge Park.
She said the Art Creations building has been struck by vehicles eight times since 2008.
The crash last November left the building with significant damage and two tenants on the upper and lower floors on the left side of the building had to move out. They were the Chattanooga Souvenir Shop and Lookout Mountain Capital, a financial firm.
She is continuing to operate Art Creations in the center of the building, and the Mexican restaurant Taconooga is still in business on the right side.
Ms. Dumitru said city engineers have looked at the damage to the building, and she hired engineers to examine it and draw up plans to stabilize the building. She said the city has given no time frame for the issuance of a permit to do the work.
If she gets the go-ahead, it will still take 6-9 months to make the repairs, she said.