OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Chattanooga FBC Committee Meeting: June 11, 2026 – Major Modification for Artisanal Leather Shop

City Council & City BoardsThursday, June 11, 2026
BodyChattanooga, Tennessee
SessionCity Council & City Boards
DateThursday, June 11, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:03:22
Transcript — Verbatim
21:36

These are some of the rules and procedures for form-based code.

21:38

If you plan to speak, you must be sworn in.

21:40

If you speak, you must sign in at the podium.

21:43

When you begin to speak, say your name, address, and interest in the project.

21:48

Use the laser pointer provided.

21:50

You may leave after your case is heard.

21:53

When you leave, please refrain from speaking until you have fully exited the conference room and you're beyond the blue the wood doors.

22:00

If you defer your case, you will need to notify staff.

22:03

Major modification permits shall be issued within a week of the meeting through the online application portal.

22:12

This meeting is being recorded.

22:15

We'll start with staff presentations for the case.

22:17

The applicant can present their case as well.

22:20

Then there's a community comment section, and then the applicant gets to respond to any community comments.

22:28

After that, uh goes to our committee discussion and then a motion and a vote.

24:01

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.

25:00

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.

25:21

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.

25:36

Has everyone on the committee had uh time to review the meetings from the minutes from the last meeting.

25:43

Do I have a vote motion to approve?

25:47

Move vote.

25:49

Second.

25:50

I have a motion and a second.

25:51

All in favor.

25:53

Aye.

25:54

Any opposed.

25:56

Motion carries.

26:01

We're hearing today's case at VCH26 has its address at 207 major avenues, A, but someone is urban edge out front.

26:12

Um XG zone stories.

26:15

They're requesting to increase the intensity for their reposed use to allow up to 10 employees in our Chismal category.

26:25

And in these technicians, uh facility for small scale production with two or five employees to require system.

26:39

And this is um just proposed.

26:45

They haven't submitted any permits to this is some of the developments.

26:50

And again, the request is to increase the use of that state.

26:56

They want to allow up to 10 employees in an artist long use.

27:00

And again, in the use table, this category of RTM allowed and ESH, but um like light industrial cat to sell to the IS.

27:15

So image, context consistent, loaded me, intensity, essential, commercial areas, gestions, license combinated.

27:29

It requires top round floors with large transparent policing to support.

27:34

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.

27:47

And I'd love to invite gap tents on two.

27:53

I appreciate you uh let me come up here and uh talk to you about this.

27:57

Um is Ken Rittman.

28:01

Uh, the address for this particular location is 207 Frazier Avenue.

28:08

Um what else?

28:10

That's it.

28:12

Um I've got is uh can you bring back up the overhead?

28:18

That one, uh that that one right there.

28:22

Um I'll give you a little bit of back history, which will just kind of a long way to get into our request.

28:30

Uh, but we moved over to uh this site of town about a year ago.

28:36

Uh and I'm from out of town originally.

28:38

We moved to Chattanooga maybe six years ago, six and a half years ago.

28:42

Uh we've been in this is our third house we moved to, and uh I was decided I want to kind of settle down, get some roots.

28:50

Set here in Chattanooga, and I got two dollars that moved here.

28:53

And so I decided uh I'm retired that I would invest some money in commercial buildings, give me something to do, try and improve the areas around me just to make things nicer.

29:02

I ended up purchasing uh what you see is 201 and 207 Frasier Avenue, and 207 is the one we're talking about.

29:10

I also purchase across the street 202 Fraser Avenue.

29:13

And I'm doing this uh to give myself a project.

29:16

I'm also wanting to improve the area.

29:18

I look at Frasier Avenue as uh a unique location in Chattanooga that has some really good potential.

29:25

Uh, but in my personal opinion, I may be wrong, but my personal opinion it maybe needs stepped up quality-wise a little bit to attract uh maybe some nicer restaurants, uh nicer retail stores, that type of stuff.

29:39

And I purchased these properties because they're right at the end of the Walnut Street Bridge, which is the walking bridge.

29:44

And I know it's under repair right now.

29:46

Uh, they're gonna be done the end of September.

29:48

But I thought it was a very unique location in that it uh those locations can serve both local community as well as tourist.

30:00

And uh that led me into wanting to get the particular uh potential retail operation into one of these buildings.

30:08

Uh when I moved to Chattanooga about maybe four years ago, I got in touch with Chattanooga Leather Company, which is a very small business.

30:15

They're in your uh incubator building.

30:18

I can't remember the name of it, but it's right down the road.

30:21

The P uh PDC, what's the building called?

30:24

BDC Business Development Center.

30:28

And that's where he's been operating for three years.

30:31

Uh, I had a hobby that I uh was doing that I used his services for.

30:36

He manufactures uh leather goods for uh things like uh tomahawks, knives, she's sword shees, and other stuff that people would typically use leather for.

30:48

And uh he started doing a project for me, which had to do with uh the golf industry.

30:52

He had always told me he wanted to be involved in retail, but you know, he's small and was trying to develop and get into the retail end of the market so he could do both his manufacturing and retail.

31:03

Well, it turns out that they're getting the city's getting ready to close the uh BDC building.

31:09

And uh he was looking for retail, and I told him that look, I'm I'm purchasing these properties, these older buildings at 201 and 207 Frasier Avenue, and I'm gonna remodel them, make them as nice as I can.

31:20

And I knew he wanted to do retail.

31:22

I said, Well, I got an unusual building, this 201 Fraser Avenue or 207 Frasier Avenue, which has got a weird layout, weird floor plan for a normal retail operation, but for something like he's doing would actually be a really great fit.

31:36

And uh I showed him the building, he said he was very interested.

31:39

He wanted to, this would be the first time that he did retail.

31:42

And it is an artisanal building or artisanal business.

31:46

He's got five employees right now, two of them he says are part-time.

31:50

Uh, but then if he moved into this building, he'd obviously need somebody to be able to operate the retail end of it.

31:56

So that'd be another one or two people.

31:58

And if he grew at all, they'd add another one or two people on top of that.

32:01

So I picked out the number 10.

32:03

I thought, well, that would be enough that if you got to the point where you got 10 people working there, and it means you're successful from the retail operation as well as as well as your manufacturing part that you could probably break off your manufacturing and put it in a different building at that time, and then either stay in this building selling your retail or maybe move somewhere else.

32:22

But I thought maybe two to five years, he'd still be able to stay under that 10 employee part.

32:29

And I thought, well, that'd be good enough to find out whether it's really going to work for him and uh whether that works for that particular area.

32:36

I really like this uh leather craft company.

32:40

It's kind of my definition of artisanal type of business.

32:43

You know, it's kind of like glass blowing, you got blacksmithing, leather working is a little bit more mainstream.

32:50

But it's uh people who are crafting products.

32:54

And it I thought it lended itself very well to be both a local uh type business provider as well as a uh tourist type business provider, in that the stuff that they make could attract tourists to come into it.

33:13

And that was my main interest was I want to get retail, I want to get a restaurant, I want to get that type of stuff in 2020 and 207.

33:22

But I want them to be unique.

33:23

I don't want them to be just your trinkets and bobbles and you know, just the basic kind of tourist stuff, t-shirts, that kind of junk.

33:31

I don't want that in these buildings.

33:33

I'm I'm trying to step it up to as high a grade or as high level as I can, specifically around where that bridge is, because I think you do get a lot of tourists as well as a lot of locals.

33:44

I personally thought that the uh leather crafting was a great fit because as tourists go by there, that's something unique that you don't always run into when you're visiting other cities, trying to figure out what are we gonna look at, you know, what are we gonna see?

33:59

And he cross the bridge and others Chattanooga Leatherworks company here that makes some cool leather stuff.

34:04

Let's go check them out.

34:05

So I looked at it as a as an attraction center for my buildings.

34:11

Uh so I I have some personal interest in this that I uh been working with this guy for about four years, and uh I actually had some products I developed for the golf industry that I have him make and would let him sell there.

34:27

Uh so it would be a combination of the stuff he's doing now, uh, which is kind of in the you know, the guns and the knives and the swords and some of this uh uh I can't remember what you call, but you know, people uh do the dress up and that kind of stuff.

34:42

They need a lot of armor and that kind of stuff, but also the golf industry.

34:46

So I thought it spread itself out wide enough that it wasn't just some kind of niche type of thing that he'd be going after, but it spread it out maybe over like three different markets, those three different markets.

35:00

So I thought it would be a great fit for this building, uh a great fit for me as somebody who's trying to develop this area into something nice that it would be a great attraction getter, something that somebody would want to go in and take a look at.

35:11

And that helps me then draw uh nicer higher end stuff to the 201 and the 202 Fraser Avenue.

35:18

So uh I would like to be able to uh to get that number up high enough to where he can uh over the next couple of years know that it's gonna work and get it working, or if it's gonna grow too much, then he can move his manufacturing away and just do the retail, or if it's not gonna work at all three years from now, then he's not gonna be there and somebody else will be there.

35:38

So I, you know, the number was the metric that was spelled out in the code, and so that's the number I have to look at and say, okay, well, so it's less than five.

35:48

Give me a number up to 10 and include 10.

35:50

I think that would uh at least give him the opportunity to try this thing out, give me the opportunity as a developer to get it to work for him.

35:58

Um if it doesn't work, then obviously it's not gonna work for him.

36:02

But if it does work and it grows big enough that you know that you've got the ceiling of 10 employees, and if it's gonna get bigger than that, then he's gonna have to do something different.

36:10

And I would suspect it'd take at least three years for him to get to there.

36:14

So that's what I'm asking for.

36:16

That's what I'm looking for.

36:19

All right.

36:25

Um Brad Northcutt with Tinker Ma Architects address 714 Cherry Street.

36:36

Um to remediate um very briefly what Ken said, uh, we think that this is a very good opportunity to help uh promote local businesses and um especially on that Frasier Avenue area.

36:50

Um as those businesses help reinforce the riverfront development and both um how pedestrians and either local or tourists are able to experience um that riverfront retail and um you know keep it to something that is uh locally produced and um you know benefit to the community.

37:11

And we are uh approaching this project as Ken mentioned, uh, with um the overall 201 and 202 improvements uh other than the employee count for 207 um after having presubental meetings, both with the um FBC and land development office.

37:33

Um everything else we're potentially looking at um should be within guidelines.

37:38

And um it's primarily for cosmetic improvements, maintenance improvements, um, sustainable building material and by sustainable, I mean um just having uh the building materials uh be something that can last longer with a bit less maintenance.

37:55

The storefronts are kind of rotted out now, and some of the accesses into the shops aren't great.

38:00

Um the access into the rear of the building uh is also not great.

38:05

So making some of those improvements to where that building overall is of um better use and available to uh more folks in the community.

38:14

So um that's that's what we're looking at today.

38:17

Thanks.

38:19

Is there anybody from uh Canadian comment?

38:25

Stage.

38:30

Hi, y'all.

38:31

My name is Katie Campassi.

38:33

I live in Hamilton County District Six in the North Shore neighborhood.

38:36

So I am a resident of this community uh that they are considering uh changing with this retail.

38:43

And sorry, Stoppy, did you swear in at the beginning?

38:46

I did.

38:47

Sorry.

38:49

Uh so I came to attend the public hearing to see what type of use this building would be.

38:54

If this was something that was going to be rent residential apartments, condos, things like that, considering this is already like a very congested area.

39:02

That was something I was concerned about.

39:03

I'm glad to hear from the developers that it is uh gonna continue to be a retail area and love the idea of leather work, handcrafted goods as someone who has been a resident of downtown for about 12 years and also been a um resident of the North Shore now for about eight to nine years.

39:21

I think that that really fits in with the current vibe of the retail and then other offerings that that area has.

39:29

Uh I just wanted to comment to the developers and to the committee that this is a very congested area.

39:36

The picture that was shown is an old picture before they redid the roads, where you can see that there's two lanes going each way.

39:45

Uh that has obviously changed uh with the horrific accident that did occur a few years ago.

39:49

The trial is currently ongoing.

39:52

And the roads have since been changed.

40:00

And so it is one lane going each way with pedestrians and with bicycles and with planters and with parking along the sides of the road.

40:04

So it is very slow.

40:06

It is very congested.

40:07

As a member of the neighborhood, that is something that I drive and walk every single day.

40:13

And so that's something I see on a regular basis.

40:15

And so I would just like for the developers and the community to keep that in mind as they go forward with these renovations and as there's going to be construction trucks and cement trucks and a lot of workers and potential road closures that it is already heavily congested.

40:34

And there is a lot of construction on houses happening in the North Shore neighborhood and over on Tremont.

40:42

Uh there's things that are in development.

40:44

There's things that are coming before different committees to be developed, new housing, new condos, new apartments, etc.

40:51

Really all within on that same street and also within several blocks.

40:57

So I would just like for there to be a level of accountability and responsibility moving forward as the residents will have to drive those areas and walk those areas and bike those areas.

41:09

And I want that to continue to be uh safe, and I would like for that to be thought about as this project moves forward and taken into account.

41:21

Thank you.

41:22

Thank you.

41:41

Any response?

41:43

Okay.

41:47

I'll respond two ways.

41:48

One is uh I agree with that section of Fraser Avenue.

41:51

I'll even throw this out.

41:52

I wouldn't mind the speed limit being up to 15 miles an hour there, but that has nothing to do with what we're doing.

41:56

Uh for the property that uh I'm referring to the 207 Frasier Avenue.

42:01

Uh I own all the parking back behind there as well.

42:04

So there's a large space to the north of 207 Frasier Avenue, which is where all the staging would take place as far as contractors, that type of stuff.

42:13

I I can't say that you'll never see anything on was it Delmont is the one to the east.

42:18

So that's right in between Forest and Delmont.

42:21

Yeah.

42:22

So uh I own all the property from Frasier.

42:26

Uh up along Forest.

42:28

I can't remember the street is to the north and then Delmont.

42:30

So everything within that section I own, and there's 12 to 14 parking spots that are on that property.

42:39

So I expect all the contractors, everybody working on my projects would be parking back there to the north and it would stay off of Delmont.

42:47

Uh definitely would not want them to be on uh Fraser.

42:51

I can't tell you whether or not they'd be on force uh because that side of the building has to be improved as well.

42:57

So there may be something along there as far as uh uh maybe when they're rebricking the side of that building.

43:03

There's a lot of places on that building that have some fake brick put on the side, it's just particle board made it look like brick.

43:08

I'm gonna replace all that, have brick all put into that.

43:12

Well, there's a Boeing section or a bulging section of brick I gotta fix.

43:16

So there will be some uh maybe some scaffolding or whatever they would need, a lift or something that would be used on forest uh to fix that side of that building, the 201, but it is part of my whole development.

43:32

Uh I wouldn't expect that to take too long, and then painting the whole building would be another thing.

43:36

Other than that, I'm pretty sure everything would be to the north in the parking lot where everybody'd be staged.

43:47

Uh again, uh the major modification request is just to increase the intensity and allow to the center choice to use and um again there are small facility on crack rushes.

44:06

Um first I wanted to to speak to the issues that were brought up by community.

44:11

Um the developer will have to get a right of view, uh a right-of-way permit to do any set up any equipment on the sidewalks or whatnot as part of the permitting process.

44:23

Um, if any member from the community sees something blocked or there's not an alternative route, um the best thing to do is to take a picture of it and email it to 311 services, transportation in the city, they take all that very seriously.

44:39

Um, and there is a process.

44:41

I think the process the problem is a lot of people just don't know the process.

44:45

So there is a way to make sure everyone stays safe throughout the process of this building.

44:54

Is anyone from the committee have comments about the specific request?

45:02

I had a question about the employees.

45:06

Uh assume the original co-limited to five.

45:10

Well, it says fewer than five, which in five.

45:13

So we're actually doubling going from five to ten, basically.

45:19

Okay.

45:19

Well, the only other alternative would be they would have to rezone and go into uh the EIM, which allows like industrial, but generally the RP is not gonna just rezone like one spot if an entire block is ESH3.

45:38

So this seemed like the better alternative with to just get a modification to increase that intensity up to and this is zoned.

45:51

ESH.

45:52

Shopfront mixed use zone.

45:54

So if a restaurant wanted to be in there same space and have 20 employees, it would not be an issue.

46:01

No.

46:02

It's only because this is a use of the building.

46:05

Yeah, it's only because they use provisions provided.

46:09

I'm assuming that they want to keep that type of industrial use limited to small scale so that it is compatible, say the restaurant being adjacent to it where it's something more intense, like something you might not want in a shop.

46:24

Are there any clear definitions of what constitute an industrial use versus the use provisions?

46:30

It does.

46:31

Leather works, it's not specifically called out, but from the descriptions when we have our pre-consulting meeting, it seems like it could fall into how much is all my industrial.

46:43

It's definitely not a heavy industrial.

46:45

And as he said, it's meant to be a combination of the craft business along with retail.

46:51

So that was the reason why it's a proper to say for the lowest intensity of industrial place.

47:00

Can anyone think of another business downtown that's similar?

47:03

I mean artisanal cupcakes, artisanal the glassmaker hot chocolate.

47:13

Yeah.

47:13

At least the glassmaker, you know it, but I just don't know how many employees they have.

47:16

And it would have to keep four employees on on-premise.

47:22

Which is really small.

47:24

It's really small.

47:24

I mean, you can you could have a five thousand square foot building, but you're only allowed to have four employees.

47:30

This feels very reasonable to me.

47:33

I mean, considering it to your point, if this is a restaurant, you could have 20 employees in the same space, no problem.

47:40

How many employees are expected to be on business at a time, up to 10?

47:46

Well, right now he's he has five employees, two of them are part-time.

47:51

And they would be typically, you know, uh full-time.

47:54

Well, I mean, other than the part times, it'd be whatever their hours are, eight hours in a day.

47:59

And they're there and they produce product.

48:02

Uh, you know, it's a lot of pan type stuff.

48:06

Uh I just pull, you know, he said, well, maybe he can get away with eight.

48:10

And I said, well, let me try for 10 because I don't want you in there a year and a half, and the retail side is doing real good.

48:16

You know, you still got your five people in the manufacturing, but now you got three people in retail, five and three, and you is nine people.

48:24

Now you've exceeded your employee count.

48:27

I I wanted to give him a buffer so if it started working out and working out well for him, he could still stay there for let's say up to like a three-year time period before we would have to move, let's call it his manufacturing part of the uh business to a different location.

48:43

So I wanted to give him at least three years, and I thought three years and ten employees should be a high enough ceiling that it's either gonna work or it's not gonna work.

48:52

And we'll know by that time period, and then it's either you move out or do something different.

48:58

So I I didn't want him to he's having to move out of that uh business development center, and I've moved businesses in the four, and that's a really big pain, even though it's a small business, it's still a really big pain to move your equipment, your employees, and you know, set up your electrical, your lighting, everything you need.

49:15

That's a big hassle.

49:16

So I thought, well, if if I could get the number 10, I felt comfortable that if he was to double his business and have the retail part of it, he could work that with 10 employees and anything bigger than that, then it kind of exceeds what you're looking for, which is an artisanal type of business.

49:33

Well, it may be artisanal, but it's got too big where you need to have your retail separate from your manufacturer.

49:38

Right now, he's such a small business, he can't do that.

49:41

He can't have a retail operation and a manufacturing process.

49:44

He just had to make that kind of money and have that much business.

49:49

So I thought this was just that sweet spot, you know, it was 10 a magic number, not just from my experience, a number I thought put a high enough ceiling on it to keep him happy, but a low enough ceiling that it would keep the city happy.

50:02

Does anyone else know from the business center that's closing how many businesses are operating in there now that are gonna be displaced by the county?

50:13

There's quite a few.

50:14

I know a lot of them are looking for places to move to.

50:17

I've actually been looking for M1M2 zone property to uh develop because I have a son-in-law who moved here in town, he's a manufacturer, and we had an extraordinarily difficult time finding that sweet, you know, spot 5,000 to 10,000 square feet in M1 or M2 zoning, it's just doesn't exist.

50:36

You just can't find it.

50:38

And uh there's a lot of the people in that building that need that type of zoning, and I think they're having difficulty finding it.

50:45

But I uh I know at least three that are him and two others that are doing fairly well uh that are looking for that type of zoning.

50:54

The reason I was asking was if we're setting this precedent and there are others looking for the exact same situation where the only space they can find is zone shop front like this because it is a local localized commercial area.

51:09

Um is this a positive precedent we're doing um to help them in the future?

51:16

But do we need to consider any other conditions so it doesn't become uh a rolling thing where you can have you know 40 employees in a shop front?

51:27

Yeah, my comment on that was this was I would consider it an artisanal business leather crafting.

51:35

Um it's not like they're making uh robots or they're making uh door panels or something like that.

51:40

They're making something, at least from my perspective, as somebody who wants to have retail stores there.

51:46

I want to attract tourists and I want to attract local people, there's two combinations.

51:50

What's available?

51:51

Uh clothing stores, you got coffee shop, you know.

51:54

What else do you have?

51:54

Well, here's this company that's making leather goods that uh some of it is being sold into industry, some of it's being sold to other local manufacturers who make tomahawks and knives and all that kind of gun and knife industry, and then doing some stuff for me and the stuff I'm doing is in the golf industry.

52:13

You know, I thought you could with the name Chattanooga, leather works underneath it on everything from keychains to maybe purses to wax cotton clothes and bags.

52:25

That's something that attracts tourists when I go in there.

52:27

It's got chat the word chattanooga on it.

52:30

That's a leather thing, it's something unusual.

52:32

I can't buy that anywhere else here.

52:34

I'll buy a bag, or I'll buy a keychain, or I'll buy something that's got that on it, a powder cover, whatever this guy makes.

52:41

I looked at his operation as an artisanal leather company as something that would attract tourists to that building, and that's what I was looking for for you look at some of the other systemal woodworking.

52:55

There it's just I think that the scale of difference to measures the only is just the size of this.

53:02

So we want to avoid large-scale traditional businesses, but again, it sounds like business is still very small, but they're adding some more of a retail side.

53:10

Yeah, and I think uh speak other than sorry.

53:17

I've got uh another question.

53:19

Once you increase the 10, anybody can come in that space that fits under that use, and you did say wood crafting.

53:29

Yeah, like yeah, well, I mean, yeah.

53:32

Wood shops can get very heavy use with the llama cutting and all the dust and all that stuff.

53:39

So, you know, that would not really fit in that retail use.

53:44

I think we'd have to have a condition that this is specifically for this business.

53:50

This leather, but they're artisanal businesses spelled out in the code, are like cabinet maker, blacksmith, glass blowing, and I thought leatherworks what seems a similar, even though it wasn't specifically spelled out as leather working.

54:04

I thought, well, that's kind of similar to those other types of operations.

54:08

Uh it's like you say, it's the intensity aspect of it.

54:12

And uh that's I just kind of pulled the number 10 out of the hat.

54:15

There's eight less intense than 10, yeah, but you know, where is that ceiling?

54:19

Where do you draw the line on?

54:21

Now it's an intense business.

54:22

This isn't what we want in this area, and so I'm just throwing up the number of 10 would give me enough flexibility with him with his business that I think I give at least three years there.

54:33

Uh, anything more than that from your standpoint, I would probably look at and say, eh, you're pushing the boundaries.

54:39

So yeah, um, I'd like to add it's there's not a lot of square footage there.

54:44

Um, and we are still a held to the um IBC standards for life safety and occupancy and egress and and all of those things.

55:00

I think you're you're pretty limited in what could be um occupied with any sort of heavy equipment because you'd run out of space pretty quickly um there's I think getting larger scale material in and out of that space would be really challenging and not ideal.

55:17

So I think there are some practical constraints just with the size that makes it fit with this smaller scale use and smaller scale production and smaller scale material production um that fits here um but understand um representative rough's um concern with uh some some other type of artisanal uses that might not be as um desirable that uh I would say that we did uh Ignos glass glowing with my family a few weeks ago and I'd say that's pretty large scale and kind of heavy and it was a lot of fun you know but uh that's I think that's all I think another key part of this is that like a public facing retail component and I think I don't know if that would be an appropriate condition but for any other future artisan production I think up to 10 you can still provide that if we're thinking about it from a continuing to maintain grade or an active ground score front that's that's really I think a differentiator in your inviting customers the public that it's not a closed off um production facility um even if it does maintain artisan use it kind of reminds you a little bit of the actual arts district where you kind of have the engagement of the pot like at all but it would be the condition yeah it's still it's gotta be open to the public and it's in a retail component um so then it's not a closed off like your industrial factory area.

56:59

But yeah I I'm okay with it as long as that's a condition.

57:03

Yeah well one of the aspects of this is where they want to do it's where you got the retail section and they want to build kind of a plexiglass type of wall so there's certain parts of the operation a retail customer can come in and see them doing you know whether it's sewing or or burnishing the edges or something to where they can actually see some of the operation to make it interesting to where it's not just you're walking in a store and here's 30 different leather products.

57:27

It's like walk in well there's 30 different leather products but they're manufacturing it right there they're sewing it right in front of me.

57:34

That's the part of it that I liked as well.

57:37

And I think that brings a very unique local attraction as well as a tourist attraction.

57:44

And that's why I thought that uh I would really like to have it in that building that particular building is also a tough one uh none of you have been in it but it's got some other issues with it that doesn't lend itself to many other type of operations there's a high likelihood if we can't get this 10 employees or can't get him moved in there for whatever then I got like also gonna be a coffee shop or as what uh tanker mall suggested maybe I just tear the whole building down and do something different.

58:14

And um I thought before I do that I wanted to try and give this leather guy an opportunity to try and see if it can work for him if we can get this set up get the employee count up give him that however many years it takes and if you can make it work then great it's a win-win but if it doesn't work then at least I gave him an opportunity and uh we'd have to move on from there zoom more craft or motion with the conditions with conditions.

58:53

Finally help crafting has conditions we covered we'd say we would craft conditioning before making motion that was I would say no conditions would be the all operation operations are physical to the phone maybe not all of them at all but standpoint operations are accessible visible.

59:30

And that the space maintains a um retail component retail component and truly quality artisanal leather specific auto specific so then we're really not creating a precedent unless we just happen to have a run of leather workers it would be what's your time uh for when he may be moving in uh well I've uh I got tank them all working on the uh the demo and the remodel aspect of it

1:00:03

Come again.

1:00:05

Yeah.

1:00:16

What is your time on?

1:00:19

Uh for when he may be moving in.

1:00:22

Uh well, I've uh I got tinkamall working on the uh the demo and the remodel aspect of it.

1:00:30

Uh if this 10 thing passes, then I would go to him and say, look, you it passed, you're going to be able to move in.

1:00:37

You gotta start figuring out what you need me to do to this building.

1:00:41

I mean, uh from the developer standpoint, I'm just gonna clean it up and make it safe, put it in new HVAC lighting, and give him a for lack of a better word, a box.

1:00:50

Uh, but I think he's gonna need some help on doing some of the retail type design, and I've uh actually one of my daughters does that.

1:00:57

And so them and tinker mall I'll piece it together for him.

1:01:00

Just I'm kind of doing this obviously because I want that type of business in there, but also uh I want to kind of do him a favor.

1:01:08

He did me a favor when it came to uh the hobby side of things that I was working on, and I thought, well, I'll give him an opportunity here.

1:01:16

So we've got our points.

1:01:48

With the following conditions that operations are visible to the public.

1:01:52

This space maintains a retail component and uh maintains leather works as it's artist artisanal use.

1:02:01

Did you say approved now I just wrote uh approved use intensity?

1:02:07

Second.

1:02:12

All the operation has to be visible.

1:02:14

Uh I'm not sure how you reported it.

1:02:16

No, I think to just say it's a public of the extra.

1:02:19

Okay, I just want to make sure component because this is a like a split level type of operation and the back part of it you wouldn't be able to see from the front.

1:02:30

Okay, all right.

1:02:31

Sorry about that.

1:02:32

So we had a motion and motion to agree all in favor.

1:02:37

I try against motion carries.

1:02:45

Thank you very much.

1:02:47

We almost see your operation.

1:02:51

Thank you, everybody.

1:02:52

Thank you.

1:02:55

Final information, announcements next meeting.

1:03:10

And for additional questions and staff.

1:03:15

I have a motion to adjourn.

1:03:20

Any seconds?

1:03:21

Second.

1:03:22

All in favor.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Planning And Zoning█████████████████████████████████████████████55%
Economic Development█████████████████████████30%
Transportation Safety███████9%
Community Engagement██3%
Procedural██3%
Summary of Proceedings

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:
    1. All operations must be visible to the public.
    2. The space must maintain a retail component open to the public.
    3. 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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