Concern was expressed Monday night about the loss of parking at Renaissance and Coolidge parks in connection with a new apartment complex at Manufacturers Road and Cherokee Boulevard.
The 84-unit upscale apartment complex with14,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor is set for groundbreaking in late summer or early fall.
The site is already zoned for apartments.
At a meeting of the the local neighborhood associations held at the Chattanooga Theatre Center, Shelia St. Aubin said that she believed it was "socially irresponsible" to take parking away from the public for the proposed apartment development because Renaissance and Coolidge parks "serve as melting pots for attracting people from all over the city."
She said, "Taking away that parking, all of which is owned by the city, from people who use those parks and may not have a lot of money, is wrong. If the developer wants to build an apartment building, then he should provide his own parking on his own property. Taking away something from people who use those parks – kids, dogs and families – is inappropriate.”
Some audience members said CARTA should not give up any of the park spaces.
The developer said earlier that there would be some parking spaces on site, but that others would be leased from a nearby CARTA lot.
One resident said a certain percentage of the existing parking is already reserved by nearby businesses, such as the One North Shore complex and others. This does not include demand from the nearby Business Development Center and others, and there is no dedicated parking for the potential two restaurants contemplated by the developer, it was stated.
Bruce Lunsford, developer of the Bridgeview Condominium complex next door, said that “Mitch is a great developer,” but he wonders if it is not feasible to do underground parking like the Bridgeview did. Andrew Hibbard, representing Vision Hospitality, said that due to escalating construction cost, structured parking is no longer feasible.