Catoosa Growth Meets Opposition
By Ronnie Moore, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
Jan. 15–RINGGOLD, Ga. — Residential development has pressed steadily east across Catoosa County, with a 50 percent population increase since 1990 to show for it.
But the charge has met some opposition at the western foot of White Oak Mountain in a scenic area aptly known as Pleasant Valley.
Knocking at the valley door in 2007 is a 350-unit housing project, and the continued effort to build an asphalt plant that would pave the way for growth all over Catoosa.
The narrow four-mile area, also known as Rabbit Valley, stretches from Ringgold to the Tennessee state line.
It was for ages best known as the spot where Confederate soldiers caught up with the general and Andrews’ Raiders in the Civil War’s epic locomotive chase.
Now the valley is a coveted, pastoral beauty not far from the city, and residents there already feel the pressure.
“I have received several telephone calls from area residents expressing concern,” County Commissioner James Emberson said.
The Meadows subdivision, developed since 1990, has several hundred homes a mile south of the Tennessee-Georgia line.
The newer residents often join those with long family histories in the valley to oppose rezoning requests for commercial or residential expansion. They’re concerned about clogged roads and fouled air.
“Some old-timers there don’t want to see more development or population in this valley,” Mr. Emberson said. And the newercomers “now have what they desire and want growth to slow or stop.”
Sewer systems extending from Ringgold and Fort Oglethorpe have brought subdivision potential to many areas in Catoosa, long known for “soil that won’t perk’,” meaning the heavy clay won’t accommodate septic tanks.
Developers of county land must deal with Catoosa for rezoning, but with Ringgold or Fort Oglethorpe to tap into sewers.
And Ringgold has a $9 million interceptor tunneling through Rabbit Valley on its way to hook into the Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant system.
Bethel Development LLC of Powell, Tenn., pitched its plan to tap onto that line to service 350 houses on 126 acres at Lovingood Road and Childers Lane, west of Ooltewah-Ringgold Road.
The company filed with the Catoosa County Planning and Zoning Commission to rezone the tract from agricultural to a planned unit development.
But the Ringgold council last week didn’t share developer Steve Bethel’s excitement about what the growth means for his company and the city — especially when his firm figured daily sewer capacity needs eight times less than the city calculated.
City Manager Dan Wright said city standards require a station to pump 840,000 gallons a day, not the daily capacity of 105,000 gallons Mr. Bethel’s firm figured.
“We put up $9 million for this interceptor line,” Councilman Bill McMillon said. “You can go back to Tennessee and talk about what you’ve done for us. You haven’t done anything for us, and you aren’t going to do anything for us as far as I’m concerned.”
Mr. Bethel said, “We need to talk and see where we end up at the end of the night.”
But, Mayor Joe Barger said the city won’t subsidize the developer. “You meet our sewer standards, or you don’t build.”
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