Explore construction in your neighborhood with new digital tool
A website from the Regional Planning Agency lets you learn more about all the building projects underway in Hamilton County
By Mary Helen Montgomery & William Newlin
Fast facts
The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency has a new tool allowing the public to monitor construction in the county
The Development Trend Dashboards site has information on zoning, building permits, subdivisions, and the progress of major developments
With the tool, you can find out which kinds of buildings will go up in your neighborhood and the type of housing being approved in City Council and County Commission districts
What's being built in your neighborhood?
Are you curious about that construction project you always pass on your way to work? Or maybe it feels like new apartments are going up everywhere, and you’d like to know how many, exactly, are really in the works?
A digital tool, which The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency launched recently, lets you search information about current and proposed construction, zoning decisions, and more.
How can I use the tool?
The Development Trend Dashboards site is broken down into four categories:
Project Development Status - This feature gives users a snapshot of all the residential developments currently in the works, and specifies whether they have been proposed, approved, or are currently under construction. For instance, you can see the Central Soya site is a proposed project that would add 920 housing units in East Chattanooga, or you can see that Mill Town is currently under construction in the East Main area and is set to add 636 units.
Building Permits - In this section you can see all the building permits, by location, that have been granted in any given year. For the most current permits, be sure to select “2022” in the drop-down menu for year. The data go back 17 years, to 2006, and numbers are compiled into graphs so that you can see trends over time. For instance, since 2006, the highest number of residential building permits to be granted in any given year was the 2.5k granted in 2021.
Zoning Cases - Here, you can explore requests for zoning changes and whether or not they were approved, dating back to 2002.
Subdivision Plats - This is where you can find where requests for five or more lots have been approved. Again, be sure to select the most recent years if you would like to view current information about housing that’s in the works.
Do you want to apply for a zoning change or building permit?
Not all construction requires approval. To learn more about what kinds of projects need special permitting in the City of Chattanooga, visit this site.
For building permits in the City of Chattanooga, including new builds and certain kinds of renovations and additions, go here.
If you'd like to request a zoning change, such as making a request to change a single family lot into a multi-family lot, find the appropriate application here.