Hamilton County, the city and other area agencies are joining forces to apply for a grant that could lead to the revitalization of several East Chattanooga neighborhoods including Harriet Tubman public housing site and the Glass Farms Historic District.
"This is an opportunity for us to do some strategic planning for a specific area in the county that's within the city," said Jeannine Alday, the county's chief of staff.
Officials said they expect to send the Choice Neighborhoods grant application off within the next 30 days. It's expected to take four to six months for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to respond.
If the application succeeds, the county will receive $250,000 that will be divided over two years to design a better Harriet Tubman site and Glass Farms Historic District community.
Glass Farms is bounded by Wilder Street on the north, Crutchfield Street on the south, Camel Street and Glass Street to the east and Taylor Street to the west. The community is mostly zoned for single-family homes.
Etta Kanipes, president of the Glass Farms Historic District, said she remembers when the East Chattanooga neighborhood included stores, banks and all that a neighborhood needed. She said she would like to see the area have shopping centers and services again.
"When it was booming downtown, this area was the same way," Kanipes said. "Red Food Store was here. We had banks, about three dry cleaners, dentists and doctors and you felt safe walking to and from."
Harriet Tubman, with several boarded-up buildings, a 20 percent vacancy rate and 440 units, is the largest and most distressed public housing site in the city, housing officials said.
The site is in East Chattanooga, a neighborhood that the U.S. Department of Justice recognized as a high-crime area. In 2007, the Justice Department awarded a $1 million Weed and Seed grant to reduce crime and increase community development in East Chattanooga. The grant lasts through 2012.
Having a plan for East Chattanooga could also set the city up to receive funds to implement it, including money for construction costs, said Karen Rennich, senior planner with the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency.
HUD may spend up to $65 million for Choice Neighborhoods this year. About a dozen $250,000 planning grants will be awarded and up to $31 million per grant may be given for implementation, officials said.
The revitalization focus in Chattanooga will not be limited to fixing buildings but will also center on developing people by helping them with jobs, said Betsy McCright, CHA's executive director.
"This time around, HUD doesn't want you to just look at the housing development," McCright said. "They want you to look at the neighborhood around it as well as the people in it."