Neighborhood Health and Revitalization

Through the Office of Capital Planning, the City of Chattanooga is coordinating activities that help create and sustain healthy neighborhood. The City of Chattanooga and its partners are working together to ensure that all neighborhoods in Chattanooga are Neighborhoods of Choice; that a wide range of fit and affordable housing options are available to current and prospective residents; and that neighborhood investments are coordinated in a manner that ensures positive and cost-effective results.

The overall objective of this initiative is to increase the number of neighborhoods in Chattanooga that are healthy. Healthy neighborhoods are defined as places that make economic sense for the investment of time, energy, and resources by neighbors and other stakeholders and where neighbors have the capacity to manage the day to day issues that occur in these neighborhoods. Healthy neighborhoods are characterized by stable property appreciation rates, strong patterns of resident involvement, a set of shared values around property maintenance and public behaviors, and an image of the neighborhood that is positive. These ideas are not abstract – there are many neighborhoods in Chattanooga that exhibit these qualities – and the objective of intervening in neighborhoods is to expand the number of these neighborhoods.

In order to ensure that Chattanooga can be a competitive city in which to live and do business, the City and its partners work together to carry out a strategic investment program.  Different neighborhoods have different needs and present different opportunities. Our investment program targets a range of neighborhoods city-wide and uses a comprehensive set of program tools to address issues of disinvestment and neighborhood maintenance. These tools include:

• Code Enforcement
• Lending
• Marketing
• Capacity Building
• Development (Market Rate and Affordable Housing)
• Capital Improvements
• Monitoring and Evaluation