Chattanooga FBC Committee Meeting: June 11, 2026 – Major Modification for Artisanal Leather Shop
Chattanooga Form-Based Code Committee Meeting – June 11, 2026
The Form-Based Code (FBC) Committee met on June 11, 2026, to consider a major modification request for 207 Frazier Avenue (case VCH26). The property owner, Ken Rittman, sought to increase the employee intensity limit for an artisanal leather goods business from fewer than five (i.e., up to 5) to up to 10 employees in the ESH-3 (Shopfront Mixed Use) zone. The committee heard staff presentation, applicant testimony, public comment, and committee discussion before voting to approve with conditions.
Consent Calendar
- The committee unanimously approved the minutes from the previous meeting without discussion.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Katie Campassi (District 6, North Shore resident): Expressed support for the proposed retail/artisanal use (leather crafting) as fitting the neighborhood vibe, but strongly urged the developer and committee to account for the already congested, single-lane traffic conditions on Frazier Avenue (following a past accident and road redesign). She asked for accountability to ensure pedestrian and cyclist safety during construction.
Discussion Items
- Staff presentation: The project is in the ESH-3 (Shopfront Mixed Use) zone. The use table typically limits artisanal production to fewer than five employees; the applicant requested up to 10. The developer has not yet submitted building permits.
- Applicant (Ken Rittman, owner of 207 and 201 Frazier Ave): Described his goal to upgrade the quality of businesses on Frazier Avenue, leveraging the Walnut Street Bridge foot traffic. He stated that Chattanooga Leatherworks (a current tenant in the BDC incubator, which is closing) would occupy the space, combining manufacturing with a public retail component. Rittman framed the 10-employee ceiling as a three-year buffer to allow the business to prove viability; if growth exceeds that, manufacturing would move elsewhere.
- Brad Northcutt (Tinker Ma Architects): Noted that the building improvements (cosmetic, structural, sustainable materials) are within guidelines except for the employee count. He emphasized the building’s small square footage, which naturally limits large-scale operations.
- Committee questions: Members discussed the precedent of increasing employee limits for artisanal uses in a shopfront zone. They noted that a restaurant in the same space could have up to 20 employees without a modification, so the request (doubling from 5 to 10) was reasonable. Concern was raised about other artisanal uses (e.g., woodworking) that could be more intense; members emphasized the importance of a ground-floor retail component and public visibility.
Key Outcomes
- Motion and Vote: The committee approved the major modification (increase in use intensity to allow up to 10 employees) with three conditions:
- All operations must be visible to the public.
- The space must maintain a retail component open to the public.
- The use is specifically limited to leather works (artisanal craft) and not other artisanal categories.
- The motion passed unanimously (all in favor, none opposed).
- The decision is effective immediately; the developer was reminded that a right-of-way permit is required for any sidewalk work during construction.
- Next meeting: scheduled for a future date (not specified).
Meeting Transcript
These are some of the rules and procedures for form-based code. If you plan to speak, you must be sworn in. If you speak, you must sign in at the podium. When you begin to speak, say your name, address, and interest in the project. Use the laser pointer provided. You may leave after your case is heard. When you leave, please refrain from speaking until you have fully exited the conference room and you're beyond the blue the wood doors. If you defer your case, you will need to notify staff. Major modification permits shall be issued within a week of the meeting through the online application portal. This meeting is being recorded. We'll start with staff presentations for the case. The applicant can present their case as well. Then there's a community comment section, and then the applicant gets to respond to any community comments. After that, uh goes to our committee discussion and then a motion and a vote. Maximize opportunities for redevelopment, provide a diversity of housing, promote development that will support transit commercial services, protect established single family residential areas, protect the integrity of established historic districts, balance development opportunity and conservation along the riverfront by promoting development scale form that maintains public accessibility to the river. If is the responsibility responsibility of the applicant to meet the burden of clearly demonstrating the reason for the request code exception, and to provide sufficient documentation to illustrate how the modification is relevant to the site constraint and or how the modification would equal or exceed the existing standard in terms of achieving the principles stated above. The FBC committee's role is to review requests for major modifications to the FPC that do not qualify for staff approval and to review appeals to staff decisions or interpretations. Has everyone on the committee had uh time to review the meetings from the minutes from the last meeting. Do I have a vote motion to approve? Move vote. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor. Aye. Any opposed. Motion carries. We're hearing today's case at VCH26 has its address at 207 major avenues, A, but someone is urban edge out front. Um XG zone stories. They're requesting to increase the intensity for their reposed use to allow up to 10 employees in our Chismal category. And in these technicians, uh facility for small scale production with two or five employees to require system. And this is um just proposed. They haven't submitted any permits to this is some of the developments. And again, the request is to increase the use of that state. They want to allow up to 10 employees in an artist long use. And again, in the use table, this category of RTM allowed and ESH, but um like light industrial cat to sell to the IS. So image, context consistent, loaded me, intensity, essential, commercial areas, gestions, license combinated. It requires top round floors with large transparent policing to support. And the new artist tenant currently has five employees, and they're requesting time office deliveries to uh go out to tenant place to support the production application passing. And I'd love to invite gap tents on two. I appreciate you uh let me come up here and uh talk to you about this. Um is Ken Rittman. Uh, the address for this particular location is 207 Frazier Avenue. Um what else? That's it. Um I've got is uh can you bring back up the overhead? That one, uh that that one right there. Um I'll give you a little bit of back history, which will just kind of a long way to get into our request. Uh, but we moved over to uh this site of town about a year ago. Uh and I'm from out of town originally. We moved to Chattanooga maybe six years ago, six and a half years ago.
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