Riverside Drive walk-through meeting Saturday

photo Heather Shank, a senior planner with the community design group of the Regional Planning Agency, is photographed in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in this Sept. 25, 2014, photo.

The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency wants to lead local communities in developing a master plan that makes the traffic-dense Third Street and Riverside Drive areas more pedestrian friendly and connected to the Tennessee Riverpark.

But only about a dozen people attended the first meeting on the plan, and even fewer committed to attend a walk-through of the property this weekend. Not having a plan makes it easier for developers coming to the area to do whatever they want, planning officials said.

"We're trying to get a vision out before those properties get sold and developed," said Heather Shank, senior planner at the regional planning agency.

She's leading a walk-through of the area at 10 a.m. Saturday. The group will meet near the parking area of Lincoln Park. The planning area on Third Street and Riverside Drive includes about 50 acres of vacant property, and planners anticipate that developers will want to put residences or businesses there with the $5.9 million Central Avenue extension scheduled to start construction in 2016.

The road extension promises easier access from Central Avenue to Amnicola Highway, and planners say it will make vacant properties around Third Street and Riverside Drive more accessible and connected to the community.

Some Lincoln Park residents have expressed concern about the connector road taking over their property. Fort Wood residents don't want the connector road or development to lead to too much traffic through their neighborhood. Other residents have said they feel their ideas don't matter and that the city eventually will do whatever it wants regardless of their input.

Shank said she sent letters to most of the residents in the area and hand-delivered some when they were returned. She learned from talking to residents that several of them didn't know about the planning meetings, she said.

The goal, she said, is to get out a resident-driven vision before the properties are sold and developed with little consideration for what residents want.

"I hope people give it a chance," Shank said. "There are a lot of people out there, myself included, who want to do the right thing and want to know the community, so it's important to make allies where you can so you can get your needs met."

Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.

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