- You're watching highlights of the Chattanooga City Council meeting.

A production of WTCI PBS.

- Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our Tuesday, October the 12th, city council meeting.

I now call this meeting to order.

We now move into our planning items for this afternoon.

Madam clerk, would you read six B please?

- An ordinance to amend Chattanooga city code part two chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So as to rezone property located at 1312 East 36th Street from M-1 manufacturing zone to R-2 residential zone.

- Case number 2021 dash 0-1-4-0.

Is the applicant present?

(murmurs) Is there any opposition present?

(murmurs) Councilwoman, Dotley?

(murmurs) We have a motion on the floor to approve item six B with a proper second.

Are there any questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

Councilman Bert?

- Yes.

Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

Councilman Ledford?

- Yes.

Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

Chairman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's.

- Motion carries moving now to six C. - An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code part two chapter 38 zoning ordinance So as to rezone parts of the properties located in the seventy two hundred and seventy three hundred blocks of Bonny Oaks Drive from R-1 residential zone to R-4 special zone with conditions and C-2 convenience commercial zone with conditions for parcel three.

- Case 2021 dash 0-1-3-8.

Is the applicant present?

Is there any opposition present?

Councilwoman Berz, I'm not seeing an applicant nor any opposition.

(murmurs) We have a motion on the floor to approve with a proper second.

Questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please?

- Councilman Ledford?

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

Councilman Byrd?

- Yes.

Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's.

- So moved, moving now to six D please.

- An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code part two chapter 38 zoning ordinances.

So as to rezone property located at 6701 Shallowford Road, from R-1 residential zone to O-1 office zone subject to certain conditions.

- 2021 dash 0-1-4-0-1.

Is the applicant present?

Is there any opposition present?

Councilwoman Berz, I'm seeing an applicant with no opposition.

(murmurs) We have a motion on the floor to approve with a proper second.

Questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford?

- Yes.

- Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's.

Motion carries.

Six E, please.

- An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code part two chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So as the reason on property located at 2618 and 2620 Carr Street from R-3 residential zone all UGC urban general commercial zone subject to certain conditions.

- Case 2021 dash 0-1-4-2.

Is the applicant present?

- Right here.

- Any opposition present?

Councilwoman Dotley, I see an applicant, but no opposition.

(murmurs) We have motion on the floor to approve with a proper second.

Questions or comments?

Roll call please.

- Councilman Ledford?

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's.

- So moved.

Six F please.

- An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code part two chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So as to rezone property located at 2603 William Street from R-3 residential zone to UGC, urban general commercial zone, subject to certain conditions.

- Case 2021 dash 0-1-5-4, is the applicant present?

- Yes.

- Thank you.

Is there any opposition present?

Councilwoman Dotley, I see an applicant with no opposition.

- (murmurs) - We have a motion on the floor to approve with a proper second.

Are there questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

Councilman Byrd?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford?

- Yes.

- Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's.

- Motion to approve carries, moving now to six G please.

- An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code part two chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So as to rezone property located at 1620 Watauga Street from R-2 residential zone and M-2 light industrial zone to UGC urban general commercial zone subject to certain conditions.

- Case 2021 dash 0-1-3-7, is the applicant present?

Thank you.

Is there any opposition present?

Councilman Byrd, I'm seeing an applicant, but no opposition.

Have a motion on the floor to approve item Six G with a proper second.

Questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please.

- Councilman Ledford?

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

- Chairman Smith?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's.

- Motion does carry, six H please.

- An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code part two chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So as to rezone property located at 1024 East Main Street from M-1 manufacturing zone to UGC, urban general commercial zone.

Subject to certain conditions.

- Case 2021 Dash 0-1-5-0, is the applicant present?

Thank you.

Is there any opposition to this case present?

Councilman Byrd, I'm seeing an applicant, but no opposition sir.

(murmurs) We have motion on the floor to approve six H with a proper second.

Questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford?

- Yes.

- Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's.

- So moved.

Six I please.

- An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code part two chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So as to rezone property located in the 1000 block of East 16th street and 6090 Fagan street from M-1 manufacturing zone to UGC urban general commercial zone subject to certain conditions.

- Case number 2021 dash 0-1-5-1.

Is the applicant present?

Thank you.

Is there any opposition present?

Councilman Byrd?

I'm seeing an applicant with no opposition present.

- [Byrd] Motion approved.

- Second.

- We have a motion on the floor to approve with a proper second.

Questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please.

- Councilman Ledford?

- Yes - Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's.

- So moved.

Six H please.

- An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code part two chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So as to rezone property located at 1495 East 14th street from R-1 residential zone to UGC urban general commercial zone.

Subject to certain conditions.

- Case 2021 dash 0-1-5-2, is the applicant present?

Thank you, Sir.

Is there any opposition to this case present?

Councilman Byrd, (murmur) I have a motion on the floor to approve with a proper second.

Are there any questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford?

- Yes.

- Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's.

- Motion to approve does carry, six K please.

- An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code part two chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So as to rezone property located at 1314 Duncan Avenue from R-3MD moderate density zone to UGC urban general commercial zone, subject to certain conditions.

- Case 2021 Dash 0-1-4-4.

Is the applicant present?

Is there any opposition to this case present?

Councilwoman Coonrod, I am not seeing an applicant nor any opposition.

- (murmurs) - We have a motion on the floor to approve with a proper second.

Questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please.

- Councilman Ledford?

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's.

- So moved.

Moving now to six L please.

- An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code part two chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So as to rezone property located at 513 Dodd's Avenue from R-2 residential zone to C-2 convenience commercial zone.

- Case number 2021 dash 0-1-5-7, is the applicant present?

Thank you.

Is there any opposition present?

Councilwoman Coonrod, I am seeing an applicant, but no opposition.

- (Murmurs) We have a motion on the floor to approve item six L with a proper second.

Questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford?

- Yes.

- Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's.

- Motion to approve does carry, moving now to six M please.

- An ordinance amending Chattanooga City Code part two chapter 38 article six, height and other special exceptions.

Division One: height and area exceptions.

Section 38, 502, lots of record: three single-family dwellings and section 38, 504 rejections over yard.

- Councilman Ledford?

- [Ledford] move to approve Chairman.

- (murmur) - Alright, We have a motion on the floor to approve item six M with a proper second.

Are there any questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please.

- Councilman Ledford?

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's.

- So moved.

We move now to resolutions under economic development.

Madam clerk seven A please.

- The resolution considering short-term vacation rental application number 21 S-T-V-R 130 for property located at 1454 Jefferson Street.

- Case 2021 dash 0-4.

Is the applicant present?

- (murmurs) - Alright.

Is there anyone here in opposition to this case?

Okay.

- Here we go, 1454 Jefferson street.

Here, you'll see an overhead of the property in relation to the rest of the neighborhood.

Here's the front of the house, you can see from front, up the street; up Jefferson and down Jefferson towards Main.

Then there's a little alley to access the back ends of all the structures.

And this is their garage on the end.

Surrounding short-term rentals; you can see purple are non-owner occupied issued.

Green are owner occupied issued, the yellow in the middle is the property under consideration.

Sorry; the blue is under consideration and the yellow in the middle is the next property.

And here's the timeline showing the, the turn of events from August 4th, all the way down to today, they did fail their initial inspection due to the power wasn't on to test the GFCI outlets.

They needed a child safety upstairs for the windows and some additional CO and smoke detectors as well.

And that brings us to today.

- [Chairman Henderson] Alright.

Any questions, Councilman Byrd for Caleb, at this time?

- (murmurs) All right, hold on one sec, Councilman Ledford?

- [Ledford] Thank you,Chairman.

Property fails inspection.

We're here today.

Has it been reinspected?

- It has not been reinspected.

This is one of those that the applicant is just looking for permission more or less to continue.

If they're going to be denied, then there's no reason to make any renovations, upgrades, or to meet any of these requirements.

If they are green-lighted tonight, then obviously all of these have to be taken care of before we can issue.

They will have to be a passing inspection prior to issuance of the certificate.

- [Ledford] Understood.

Thank you.

Thank you, chairman.

- [Chairman Henderson] Thank you for now.

Alright, applicant.

If you would come to the podium and you'll be given five minutes.

- Alright, thank you to the council for allowing us to be here.

Last month, we received 12 objections to our short-term rental permit, to our understanding, a gentlemen went door-to-door and asked for signatures to block our permit.

These are not organic objections.

When you ask residents to sign a paper with their fellow neighbors' signatures, this creates peer pressure since no one wants to be the odd one out.

So this could be defined as coercion.

That said, we do respect the community's point of view, and we believe their concerns are legitimate.

We agree that parties with alcohol consumption are very disruptive, creating a toxic environment where parents are raising young children, loud music is also unacceptable, and we agree that parties overcrowd parking areas.

If I live in this neighborhood, I would definitely have the same concerns as a small local licensed and state regulated management company.

We have significantly higher standards and we have very solid relationships with the neighbors that are other properties in town.

The objection says Airbnb disrupts their ability to raise young children.

You know, I have two children, myself ages four and seven.

So I fully agree with putting family first.

They said, there's concern about parties having excessive alcohol consumption, spilling into the street.

We've hosted over 1,200 stays.

And we've only had a single alcohol-related party in 2019 after which we immediately created systems to prevent that from happening again.

So here are the steps we've taken, which we will do at this property if approved, which are proven since we've had our past 1,000 stays with no parties at all.

First, we will install 24/7 noise monitoring technology in the home as well as sensors outside.

And we personally respond immediately when decibel levels are triggered bar above our threshold, which is quite low.

This allows us to quickly respond to noise before it becomes an issue.

Guests are also much quieter when they know they are being monitored, as we are required to disclose the surveillance.

Second, since the incidents mentioned in the objection letter, Airbnb has created a powerful new initiative to prevent house parties.

They've designed a new algorithm that prevents a risky guests from booking in the first place based on proven red flags, such as single night bookings on weekends, fewer than three positive reviews from other hosts, young guests under the age of 25 and reserving a house near where they live.

These high risk guests who've disturb this neighborhood in the past are now unable to book due to these new stringent requirements.

In fact, Airbnb says its anti-party safety system has blocked more than 100,000 suspicious bookings since launching in the U.S. last July.

Third, we personally vet each guest after they are filtered by the new party detection algorithm, we do not allow guests to have concerning track records or low ratings from other hosts.

We tell guests before and after they book that we have a $3,000 penalty for house parties and we will call the police immediately.

If they do so forth, we are hyper-responsive.

We respond immediately to any issue around the clock and we take our community's happiness very, very seriously.

Our guests, clients, and neighbors enjoy the experience we offer.

We do not allow guests to book a single night on a Friday or Saturday, which eliminates 99% of party risk.

We scare off party goers, with our $3,000 penalty, our zero tolerance policy and our software requires a government issued ID to book.

The community, mentions loud music.

Again, our decibel monitoring sensors alert us immediately if noise arises above our threshold, these devices are tamper-proof and cannot be disabled.

The community says residents are left to clean up trash and vomit left behind.

This is a symptom of parties, which we prevent with the systems above.

And we have not had a party during our past 1,000 stays.

If there is trash from other causes, our operations team follows 150 point checklist to make sure the property is beautiful at all times.

Finally, we create dozens of jobs in the local community and our industry creates significant income for the local government through local taxes.

Many of our guests stay at our units with the intention of moving to Chattanooga and making it their new home, which allows our city to grow, expand, and prosper.

Almost all our guests spend their money at local venues, restaurants and attractions, significantly driving the local economy.

Local businesses need foot traffic and we've hosted thousands of guests who patronize these businesses.

We send them local recommendations and they are tangibly contributing to your district and to the city at large, we respectfully ask for a mutually beneficial solution that will allow this beautiful community to enjoy peace of mind while allowing our guests to make magical memories with their own loved ones and thus allowing us to provide for our families.

Thank you.

- [Chairman Henderson] All right.

Any questions for the, for the applicant?

All right, thank you, sir.

The opposition will be granted five minutes to speak as well.

If anyone in opposition would like to address the council, you will be given five minutes.

If there are others, we would ask that you respect their time.

if they do not wish to speak, you can take the full five minutes.

(murmurs) There we go, go ahead.

- Okay.

So we've all written letters.

Everyone who is peer pressured, all wrote letters, and we've already emailed them to at the Councilman, but my letter may be different than everyone else's, but I'm the first house that you come to that has a driveway, which many of our neighbors as that showed does not.

They do not have driveways.

So my letter just said our home is one of the few in the neighborhood with the driveway in the first driveway that you come to, from the two houses, with the applications in today with the current, everyday traffic coming down our street, our driveway seems to be the consistent turnaround for all traffic that comes down our street.

And now with the two new applications, I'm sorry, I did not expect to speak today.

There will also be more increased traffic into the turnaround for my driveway and it creates damage to my property; and it's a nuisance.

Honestly, my pets go crazy every time a car turns around in my driveway, and with the two applications, they are at the very beginning of the street.

And then the owner, the owner occupied one, they're there about half the time.

And there's I think one house in between them.

So if you have three bedrooms in each of the houses and then the owner occupied, I think he has three.

If they're all driving cars in.

So I can't even park down my street.

When all of them have VRBOs going at the same time on a weekend.

And now it's, to me creating, is there going to be a firetruck that's able to come down?

Especially when it's the very first one, the very first three or four in there.

I think that's all with mine.

Cause I don't have children.

So that's not my fight.

I will let you, and I have all the other emails.

- Yeah.

So I do have children in the neighborhood.

And one of the things that we have is we have known entities.

We get to see everyone.

We know our neighbors.

We talked to them on a daily basis when we've got Airbnbs behind us, we see regularly those people, I don't know who they are.

My kids play in that alley.

They also play on the street.

Now we're going to have more folks that we don't know who they are.

In addition to that, we don't have the parking to support the Airbnbs.

Especially along Jefferson Avenue.

We have street side mailboxes.

So whenever there's four cars per Airbnb, we don't get our mail.

We have to go chase down the mailman, say, wait a second, come back.

If you're home, you don't get your mail.

The other thing that that was not mentioned is the trash.

The trash is not just from parties.

I think I took a picture of it.

We have trash cans sitting on Jefferson Street.

There's four of them right now because nobody from the Airbnb is responsible for pulling those back in.

We also have a recycle can that's overflowing sitting in the street.

That's from an Airbnb right behind us on Madison that we share an alley with.

So these are not guesstimates as to what's going to happen.

We, we deal with these issues already and there'll be exacerbated with the additional Airbnbs on Jefferson.

So thank you.

- [Chairman Henderson] Anyone else in opposition that would like to speak?

- (murmurs) - [Chairman Henderson] Thank you.

- I live in the cul-de-sac at Jefferson.

It's one way in one way out.

When people don't know, they're blocking driveways that access eight or nine houses, and I've noticed people park and they walk up the street to other houses and you know, it's not people that live there cause we know the driveway.

That's the only way in to nine garages and people block that and you can't get to your garage.

Also, I was gonna bring up the garbage can they just sit out there.

There was a police chase.

a couple of weeks ago down our one way street.

And they nailed some garbage cans.

Cause they were sitting in the middle of the road because nobody pulls them back in.

They're just left out there once I guess the people leave the Airbnbs or the rentals and nobody pulls them back in.

So that's another thing also.

Thank you.

- [Chairman Henderson] Stop the clock just a minute.

Is there anyone else in opposition that would like to speak to this case?

Okay.

Councilman Byrd?

(murmurs) - [Chairman Henderson] Hit your light, thank you.

- [Byrd] Can you hear me now?

- [Chairman Henderson] Now we can.

- Okay.

Hello?

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you chairman.

Just due to the overwhelming response that I've gotten from the community and the people that live there, definitely understand all the provisions there.

The Airbnb managers and people that own it wanted to take, but this community definitely is indeed have some work and especially due to traffic, I've had some issues standing there myself.

And so with that and them getting an HOA in order as well with that, I move to deny.

- (murmur) - We do have a motion on the floor to deny with a proper second.

Madam clerk, roll call please.

Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford?

- Yes, - Vice-chairman Smith?

- Yes.

Chairman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Eight yes's - Motion to deny carries.

Is there anyone else in the audience that's here with us this afternoon that would like to address the council at this time?

Counsel?

I am not seeing any other hands.

What is your pleasure?

- (murmurs) - So moved.

- You've been watching highlights of the Chattanooga City Council meeting a production of WTCI, PBS