The Chattanooga and Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency (RPA) has been undertaking major updates to plans and codes during the past year. The staff of the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County across many departments have been involved as well as citizens during public meetings and through surveys of community stakeholders. I would like to thank Mayor Kelly and Mayor Wamp as well as the Chattanooga City Council and Hamilton County Commissioners for the time and faith they have placed in the RPA during the past year.
As the Director of the RPA, it is my primary responsibility to ensure the planning process is based on facts, laws, public engagement and common-sense approaches. As a planning professional for over three decades in the southeast U.S., it has been my fortune to have worked with hundreds of elected officials and staff at many excellent local governments.
Plan Chattanooga and Plan Hamilton are individual programs led by RPA and two consultant teams that will be released next month for more public review and stakeholder engagement. This is the first time in Chattanooga and Hamilton County history when our key local governments, regional agencies and state government have coordinated infrastructure and planning in a comprehensive process.
We are fortunate to have many beautiful and safe communities, a proud history, good public and private schools, small businesses and large employers. While we must live and travel highway interstate corridors that run through Chattanooga and between Nashville, Knoxville and Atlanta, our local governments have the authority to manage growth and guide our community’s future. RPA takes this responsibility to our elected officials and citizens seriously and with the greatest regard to state laws and regulations.
I am a graduate of UGA Terry College of Business with a BBA in Management. I have a MS in Urban Studies and Planning from Georgia State University. For over three decades in Georgia, I worked as a transportation planner with the Athens-Clarke County planning department and Savannah-Chatham County MPO, as Director of Brunswick/St. Simons/Glynn County planning agency, Director of Douglas County planning and 17 years Manager of state mandated planning at ARC for 70 plus city and county
governments in metro Atlanta. I am a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and follow a code of ethics.
We have been very successful during the 2.5 years that I have worked as the director at the Chattanooga and Hamilton County RPA because as a trained professional I understand the work we do. I have worked my entire life in regional and local government planning during a period of tremendous growth and innovation in Georgia, Tennessee and the U.S. I am honored to work alongside many professional staff of the Chattanooga and Hamilton County governments and within RPA. We coordinate directly on a regular basis with state agencies including the Tennessee Department of Transportation (DOT).
I report directly to Mayor Kelly, Mayor Wamp, Hamilton County Commissioners and Chattanooga City Council. RPA staff undertake the work to plan for growth and development with the highest standards and following accepted principles of local governments. We appreciate feedback from citizens and businesses as that helps us improve and ensure plans or codes are responsive to the needs of all citizens in the community.
If any group or neighborhood would like to better understand RPA or request a public presentation on Plan Chattanooga or Plan Hamilton during the upcoming months, they can contact our office.
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Dan Reuter, FAICP, Director of the RPA
Email: dreuter@chattanooga.gov
1250 Market Street
Chattanooga, Tn. 37402
423 643-5900
https://www.chcrpa.org/