Chattanooga City Council Meeting - May 5, 2026: Budget Presentation, Zoning Decisions, and Public Comments
Chattanooga City Council Meeting - May 5, 2026
The Chattanooga City Council met on May 5, 2026, for a regular business meeting. The meeting included a presentation of the FY27 budget, a proclamation for Public Works Week, discussion and voting on several zoning and ordinance items, and public comments addressing homelessness and light pollution.
Budget Presentation
- Weston Porter, representing the administration, presented the FY27 budget proposal. The budget is structurally balanced with total revenues of $393.98 million, no change to the property tax rate (1.930), and a 3% cost-of-living adjustment for all city employees. Expenditures are also $393.98 million, with 59% allocated to public safety and public works. The capital budget includes $33.4 million in general capital investments and $167 million total capital budget. The budget timeline includes a public hearing on June 2, first reading on June 16, and second reading on June 23. Printed budget books were made available to council members.
Proclamation
- The council recognized Public Works Week, May 17-23, 2026, through a proclamation read by a representative from the public works department.
Discussion Items
- Item 8A (Public Works): Ordinance to close and abandon a portion of right-of-way on Truich Street. Councilwoman Hill expressed concerns about creating landlocked lots, noting that the lots were platted in 1887 and the right-of-way is on a steep grade (34-35%) unbuildable for a city road. She moved to table the item to explore replatting the entire area. The motion passed.
- Item 8B (Public Works): Ordinance to close and abandon a portion of right-of-way on Graham Road. Councilman Harvey reported that the road scored 39.54 on the PCI scale (failing) and that a petition with 200+ families requested improvements. He moved to table the item to coordinate with public works and the developer. The motion passed.
- Item 8C (Planning): Rezoning at 4300 Dodds Avenue from RN2 to CR. Councilwoman Dotley moved to defer to May 12 to solidify the development plans. The motion passed.
- Item 8D (Planning): Rezoning at 134, 138, and unaddressed property on Lynchburg Street from RN2 to TRN1. Councilwoman Dotley offered a conditional amendment requiring all parking in the rear of the three units, based on a neighborhood meeting. The amendment passed, and the main motion to approve as amended passed on first reading.
- Planning and Zoning Committee Items (discussed before recess):
- Item B (Shallowford/Jenkins): Rezoning from RN2 to CC for a convenience store and gas station. Staff and planning commission recommended denial of the applicant's full request and approval of a smaller portion with conditions prohibiting car washes, nightclubs, and other uses. Councilman Harvey noted that the site is already zoned commercial and the applicant offered to widen Jenkins Road and improve the roundabout. No vote taken; discussion only.
- Item C (Ferris/Crane): Rezoning from RN16 to INST for Erlanger East parking expansion. Staff recommended conditions: use limited to parking lot, no vehicular access to Ferris Road, a 20-foot buffer, and a privacy fence along one property line. Councilman Harvey supported the needed parking. Councilwoman Hill questioned the fence requirement. No vote taken.
- Item H (1508 East 13th Street): Rezoning from RN15 to TRN3 for two duplexes. Staff recommended conditions: no more than four units, off-street parking, and access from rear alley only. Vice Chair Elliott requested details. No vote taken.
- Item I (1601 Dodds Avenue): Rezoning from RN2 to TRN3 for an eight-unit multi-unit development. Staff recommended conditions: no curb cuts on Dodds Avenue (state route). Councilwoman Noel requested the applicant contact her. Councilwoman Hill noted potential backing-out issues at a nearby rezoned property. No vote taken.
- Item J (Ordinance amendment): Cleanup of institutional zone standards and addition of a graphic for ADU side setbacks. No vote taken.
Key Outcomes
- Items 7A-7D (Final Reading): Four ordinances passed on final reading.
- 7A-7C: Approved as a package.
- 7D: Rezoning on Shallowford Road from RN16 to TRN2 with conditions, approved.
- Item 8A: Tabled.
- Item 8B: Tabled.
- Item 8C: Deferred to May 12.
- Item 8D: Approved as amended on first reading.
- Resolutions 9A and 9B: Approved.
- 9A: Authorized on-call landscape architectural services contracts for up to $1.5 million with 12 firms.
- 9B: Authorized joint funding agreement with USGS for stream gauges, city share $107,464.
- Purchases: Three purchases approved: software increase ($20,838), extension for technology services (no increase), and modular office complex for police firing range ($252,913).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Kat Zwitter (Executive Director, A Typical Place for Transformations) spoke about homeless encampment removals. She advocated for better communication between the city, law enforcement, and nonprofits; the presence of a social worker during removals; and the establishment of a low-barrier shelter. She stated that current practices create harm and misinformation.
- Missy Crutchfield (Highland Park resident) thanked the council for moving toward a low-barrier shelter. She noted a recent Times Free Press article and emphasized the need for sensitivity training for departments dealing with the unhoused. She also mentioned that the coalition supporting the effort has nearly 300 members.
- Brian Hill (Georgia Highlands Labor Chapter, Village Without Borders) offered support from Georgia municipalities to share responsibility for the unhoused population, providing his contact information.
- Jeff Garrin (District 1 resident) complained about bright flood lights installed by a commercial business (Commercial Drywall at 3106 Commons Highway) that intrude into his residential property. He stated that the lights cause stress and exacerbate his PTSD and chronic pain. He requested enforcement of city code Section 38-47 regarding external lighting directed away from residential zones and color temperature limits. He submitted a petition from affected neighbors.
Council Response
- Councilman Henderson noted that the city's homeless department (Casey Tinker) is communicating with encampment residents before removals, using a recent example in Lookout Valley. He expressed support for a low-barrier shelter.
- Councilman Henderson also acknowledged the light pollution issue and stated that code enforcement is working on it, but no timeline was given.
Committee Reports
- Councilman Henderson (Budget and Finance): Budget committee meeting scheduled for May 12 to discuss FY26 amendment and FY27 work sessions.
- Councilwoman Burrs (Planning and Zoning): Next planning commission meeting May 8.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned after public comments.
Meeting Transcript
I'll call the order this May 5th meeting of Chattanooga City Council and recognize Councilman Henderson to lead us on our pledge and invocation. Congratulations of the United States of America and through the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God's draw. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Reading from Numbers chapter six, verse 24. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace. Would you bow with me in prayer for just a moment? God, in times of turmoil, I pray that your face would shine upon us and give us peace. Amen. Amen. All right. Thank you, Councilman. As we get started, I just want to welcome everyone who's in the audience tonight. Just a reminder, if you would make sure your cell phones are silent so we don't have any interruptions as we go along. And also want to give just kind of an overview of how our meeting will operate, so you'll know what to expect. We do have a couple of short special presentations here at the outset. After that, we will approve our minutes from our last meeting, last week's meeting. Then we will look at our agenda for tonight's meeting, and following that, we will look at the agenda for next week and then three weeks out. And as we go through all of those agendas, we'll take any questions or comments that uh council members may have about those items so that we make sure that we're well prepared for those things that are coming before us over the coming weeks. Uh next, we will have a planning and zoning committee meeting. Um, and we'll take a brief recess after that. Um, and we will come back after our recess and we'll vote on all of the items that we've discussed in that first portion uh that are on our agenda for tonight's meeting. And then finally, at the end of our meeting, uh, once we're done voting, there will be a time for public comment. So anyone who's here and would like to address the council is welcome to do so at that time. Um we get to that point, you'll just line up at the podium up front here. Um, and our city attorney will read some rules, and we'll be happy to hear from members of the public at that time. So, with that, I would like to call up the administration to the podium to give a brief overview of our coming fiscal year budget. Good afternoon, council. Good afternoon. I'm excited to present the City of Chattanooga's FY27 budget proposal to you today. Um this is intended as as the chair said a high-level overview in the coming days and weeks. We'll kind of get into the the nuts and bolts of everything and really dig in and look forward to that discussion as as we move forward. Uh, I'd also like to take a second uh at the top to thank the departments and kind of recognize the department or the the work they've put in. Again, we're gonna spend a couple weeks doing this. They've been working on this for the last four months, putting this information together, coming up with the budget. Um, and so I appreciate all the departments putting in the work and then especially our budget and finance staff for the work that they've put in uh into this. So with that, we will get started. Uh this budget continues uh the work and the mission laid out in Mary Kelly's one Chattanooga plan. Um a couple highlights just at the top. Um, this budget includes a three percent COA for sworn and civilians, so citywide for all of our employees uh to keep our pay competitive uh and help us to continue to retain uh the great employees that we have. This budget also uh includes no change to the property tax rate that we set last year, so that would remain at the 1930. And perhaps most importantly, it is structurally balanced, which is in keeping with the policies that we just passed uh in the last couple months. Now the budget is based on kind of our revenue number. So you can see here the total revenue number is 393 million,980,000, so just a hair under 394 uh broken out into the buckets you see there with roughly 86% of it made up of property tax and sales tax. Uh that breakdown is similar to prior years, it's uh similar to how most of all municipalities of state of Cennessee are funded. So uh no no large changes there. This next chart is kind of a graphical representation of of the slide we just saw, so you can see uh well over 75% of the pie is related to sales tax and property taxes.
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