Chattanooga City Council Takes Up Plan Chattanooga for Adoption Tuesday, Aug. 25

Plan Chattanooga is on the Chattanooga City Council agenda for adoption Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, at 3:30 p.m. The official Plan Chattanooga site says the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission adopted it at their June meeting, a public hearing ran Aug. 11, and both of those Council sessions start at 3:30 p.m. http://Chattanoogan.com’s Aug. 14 look-ahead listed the proposed item in plain language: “A resolution to adopt Plan Chattanooga as the Comprehensive Plan for the City of Chattanooga.”

Council has not voted yet. Do not write an adoption tally into a listing. The adoption-ready draft is explicit: the Place Type map is a policy guide, it is not a zoning map, and adopting it does not change the current zoning on any property. Staff will still cite it on the next corridor fight. The Planning Commission already kept the ban on new drive-throughs in South Broad’s commercial mixed-use zone on Aug. 10; that file is live separately. Tuesday’s item is the comprehensive plan.

What is on the Aug. 25 City Council agenda?

The Aug. 25 proposed agenda, as printed by http://Chattanoogan.com on Aug. 14, is a 3:30 p.m. meeting with Chairman Davis calling the session to order and Councilwoman Dotley giving the invocation. Under resolutions, Planning item (c) is the Plan Chattanooga adoption. The same packet also carries stormwater-ordinance committee discussion and other items. Those are other files. This story is the comprehensive plan.

The city’s Council page puts regular meetings every Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. at 1000 Lindsay Street. Anyone may attend. Speakers get three minutes at the microphone, once per Council day, on matters within the Council’s authority. Comments can also go toor by mail to the Clerk to Council at that Lindsay Street address. Voicemail for a district member is (423) 643-7170.

The draft page was updated Aug. 4, 2026, with the same Aug. 11 hearing / Aug. 25 adoption calendar. If you own in Downtown, North Shore, Hixson, Lookout Valley, Brainerd, Highway 58 / Tyner, or East Brainerd, this is the hearing to calendar. It is not a building permit and it is not a zone change on your lot.

What is Plan Chattanooga, and what is in the draft?

The draft calls Plan Chattanooga a comprehensive plan for the city. It is a planning framework for growth challenges and infrastructure needs over a 20-year horizon, plus strategies for implementation. The document is organized as a citywide framework with shared goals, policies, and concepts, eight area chapters, and an implementation chapter.

Draft plan chapters were updated July 17, 2026. Chapters were posted May 8, 2026, unless otherwise shown. Chapters marked with an asterisk were updated in July to reflect changes the Planning Commission approved on June 8. The chapter list on the opened draft page is:

• Introduction and Citywide*
• Downtown / North Shore*
• Hixson
• Historic River-to-Ridge*
• South Chattanooga*
• Lookout Valley
• Brainerd / Midtown
• Highway 58 / Tyner*
• East Brainerd
• Implementation

Appendices on that same page: Community Profile; Public Input Summaries*; Scenario Planning Memo; plus a Transit Vision with existing-conditions, high-capacity transit, commuter, microtransit, and parking evaluations.

The About page puts eight of the Regional Planning Agency’s 13 Hamilton County planning areas inside the City of Chattanooga. Two of those eight — Historic River-to-Ridge and East Brainerd — al ready had adopted plans. Plan Chattanooga writes the remaining six and wraps them with a citywide growth framework, which is how the city gets to eight detailed plans. Each area plan is supposed to consider demographics, natural resources, parks and greenways, commercial and industrial development, housing, transportation, and related topics. The About page says those plans will provide guidance for new development, zoning changes, capital improvements, and conservation. Guidance is not a rezoning ordinance.

A separate county process, Plan Hamilton, covers the five remaining unincorporated areas. The Regional Planning Commission adopted Plan Hamilton on Sept. 8, 2025. Do not mix that file with Tuesday’s city vote.

Process leadership listed on the About page: Planning NEXT and Mend Collaborative, with Kimley-Horn, Croy Engineering, and Ninigret Partners. Questions on the draft go toor 423-643-5900.

Is the Place Type map a zoning change?

No. The draft page puts it in capital letters: “This is the public review draft of the City’s Place Type policy map. It is NOT a zoning map.” The next sentence is the underwriting line: “The Place Type Map will be used to inform many future decisions, including rezoning requests. Adoption of this map occurs as part of the Plan Chattanooga Comprehensive Plan and does not change the current zoning on any properties.”

The map is a policy guide for future land use and development character. Staff say it will inform zoning-map changes, development approvals, and capital improvements. You can search an address, click a parcel, and see the recommended Place Type and the plan chapter that applies. That click is a recommendation. It is not a new zone district on the official zoning map.

The city’s Place Types summary on http://planchattanooga.org groups the palette as Centers (Neighborhood Node, Neighborhood Center, Village Center, Town Center, Downtown Core), Corridors (Suburban, Mixed-use, Transit), Residential (Countryside, Suburban, Mixed, Urban), and special districts (including Agricultural, Preserve, Resort and Recreation, Maker District, Industrial, Regional Facility, Campus, and a Natural Resources Overlay). The same summary is clear that density ranges on the Place Type map are recommended gross densities for an area of at least ten acres, and that density calculations are ultimately defined in the zoning code.

Those numbers are the plan’s recommended ranges. They are not your lot’s legal density tonight. If a buyer asks whether Tuesday’s vote “upzones” the house, the honest answer from the opened draft is no.

How does the Aug. 18 committee vote change who handles the plan?

On Tuesday, Aug. 18, City Council approved a new committee setup 5–4, http://Chattanoogan.com reported. Vice Chairman Ron Elliott championed the change. He had proposed cutting nine committees to six and moving off a “committee of the whole” on most topics. Council then split Economic Development from Community Development, so the new roster is seven committees, including Planning and Zoning and Housing.

Under the new rules, all Council members may attend every committee meeting, but they cannot vote or count toward a quorum unless they have been appointed to that panel. Councilwoman Marvene Noel voted against the resolution, saying she felt all Council members should have a vote. Councilman Chip Henderson said he had long felt the committee system was “clunky.”

NewsChannel 9 reported the same night that when the chair sends an ordinance to a committee, that committee has 10 busine ss days to act — recommend approval, changes, or denial, or temporarily table it. That 5–4 is not the Plan Chattanooga adoption. It is the plumbing. If Council adopts the plan next Tuesday, Planning and Zoning and Housing is the committee that will live with the Place Type map on the next rezoning, special permit, and corridor file. Do not invent how any member will vote on Aug. 25.

What are Chattanooga homes doing right now?

A comprehensive plan on the agenda does not rewrite July closings. Greater Chattanooga REALTORS President Connie Brewer’s July market report, published Aug. 12 and copied on our live July market table, put the region here:

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 6.67% in the Aug. 13 Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Buyers have more choice. Sellers have more competition. Price the house to those 4,099 listings and 48 days, not to a Place Type that is still a policy map.

What this means if you own or buy here

• Owners in any of the eight area chapters: Pull your address on the interactive Place Type map at http://planchattanooga.org/draft before you list. Disclose the plan as a pending Council file, not as a finished rezoning. If Tuesday fails, the RPC adoption from June is still the planning commission’s document. If Tuesday passes, your zoning does not change that night.
• Buyers: Write the contract to today’s zoning district, today’s setbacks, and today’s legal use. A Neighborhood Center or Transit Corridor label on the policy map is not an entitlement to 12, 20, or 30 units an acre. Ask for the zoning letter.
• Corridor and center-adjacent owners: Future rezoning requests will be measured against this map. That is a staff-citation issue, not a closing-date issue. Do not add a premium because a chapter PDF used the word “walkable.”
• Move-up sellers: You cannot honor an offer on the next house until this one is settled. Our proven system starts with a written sale plan, including a guaranteed-sale path that locks the sale first* so you are not stuck in a two-house trap while Council debates a 20-year framework.

Need a number on what your house would bring if you listed this week? Get a free home evaluation.

If you need a date certain, ask about a cash offer.

Call Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty — Kings of Real Estate at 865-365-2280. The office is at 121 Suburban Road, Suite 101, Knoxville, TN 37923. If you are a licensed agent looking at a Chattanooga book, the desk fee is $250 a month.

What’s happening in Chattanooga this week

• Thursday, Aug. 20, 3–6 p.m. — Choo Choo Farmers Market at the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Fresh produce, baked goods, flowers, honey, meats, and other local vendors.
• Friday–Sunday, Aug. 21–23 — Scenic City Makers & Vendor Market at First Horizon Pavilion.
• Saturday, Aug. 22, 6–10 p.m. — TVFCU Riverfront Nights at Ross’s Landing, 201 Riverfront Parkway. Free. http://Chattanoogan.com listed Tennessee’s Dead with Trade Secrets to open. The series runs Saturdays through Sept. 5.
• Tuesday, Aug. 25, 3:30 p.m. — City Council, 1000 Lindsay Street. Plan Chattanooga adoption resolution. http://planchattanooga.org.

*Tracy and seller must agree upon price and possession date. Kings of Real Estate, LLC DBA “Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty.”

Frequently asked questions

What is on the Aug. 25 City Council agenda?

A reso lution to adopt Plan Chattanooga as the Comprehensive Plan for the City of Chattanooga, listed on the proposed Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, 3:30 p.m. agenda printed by http://Chattanoogan.com on Aug. 14. Chairman Davis calls the meeting; Councilwoman Dotley gives the invocation. The Regional Planning Commission adopted the plan in June; a public hearing was Aug. 11. Council has not voted yet.

What is Plan Chattanooga, and what is in the draft?

A city comprehensive plan with a 20-year horizon: a citywide framework, eight area chapters, and an implementation chapter. Draft chapters were updated July 17, 2026; starred chapters reflect Planning Commission changes approved June 8. Area chapters on the opened draft are Downtown / North Shore, Hixson, Historic River-to-Ridge, South Chattanooga, Lookout Valley, Brainerd / Midtown, Highway 58 / Tyner, and East Brainerd.

Is the Place Type map a zoning change?

No. The official draft states the Place Type map is not a zoning map. Adoption as part of Plan Chattanooga does not change the current zoning on any properties. It is a policy guide that will inform future rezoning requests, development approvals, and capital improvements.

How does the Aug. 18 committee vote change who handles the plan?

On Aug. 18, City Council approved a new committee setup 5–4, championed by Vice Chairman Ron Elliott. The new roster includes a Planning and Zoning and Housing committee. When the chair sends an ordinance to a committee, NewsChannel 9 reported a 10-business-day clock. Councilwoman Marvene Noel voted no, saying all members should have a vote. That 5–4 is not the Plan Chattanooga adoption vote, which is still set for Aug. 25.

What are Chattanooga homes doing right now?

Greater Chattanooga REALTORS’ July 2026 report put the median sales price at $360,000, up 2.9% from $349,900. New listings were 1,552 (+0.7%), pending sales 1,031 (+10.7%), inventory 4,099 (+21.3%), days on market 48 (−2.0%), and months of supply 4.5 (+15.4%). The 30-year fixed rate was 6.67% in the Aug. 13 Freddie Mac survey.

What this means if you own or buy here

Look up your parcel on the Place Type map, but write listings and contracts to today’s zoning. A Place Type label is not an entitlement. Move-up sellers who cannot buy until this house sells can use our proven system, including a guaranteed-sale path. Get a free home evaluation or ask about a cash offer. Desk fee is $250 a month. Call 865-365-2280.

What’s happening in Chattanooga this week

Aug. 20, 3–6 p.m.: Choo Choo Farmers Market at the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Aug. 21–23: Scenic City Makers & Vendor Market at First Horizon Pavilion. Aug. 22, 6–10 p.m.: TVFCU Riverfront Nights at Ross’s Landing (Tennessee’s Dead, Trade Secrets to open; free). Aug. 25, 3:30 p.m.: City Council Plan Chattanooga adoption at 1000 Lindsay Street.