LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, Ga. (WDEF)- “Well I was ecstatic. I think the people really did their homework. I think they studied the whole issue at hand.”
Daniel Fisher and Leslie Davenport, both residents of Lookout Mountain, say that the Georgia town’s planning commission’s decision was the correct one to protect the interests of the town.
The Lookout Mountain, Georgia Planning Commission voted against Rock City Wednesday evening by a vote of 5 to 2 to change an ordinance.
The attraction was looking to build the top station of their proposed gondola inside town limits in their parking lot, and wanted the town to change an ordinance to allow them to do so.
However, residents say they are glad the town decided against doing so, as a room full of people wearing red shirts and bandanas with ‘no gondola’ signs applauded the decision.
Davenport said, “It was one of the things I was really hoping would happen. If that had not happened I was hoping Rock City would pause and try to regroup with the neighborhood and start all over again.”
The decision was made after an hour and half long meeting, where commissioners questioned various aspects of the project including traffic, noise, and the safety of the gondola system.
Rock City has maintained through this debate that the gondola would significantly reduce traffic up Ochs Highway, as a traffic expert they hired to do a report says that the gondola would “Reduce traffic by 2800 cars a day.”
However, that expert also stated that it would increase traffic through St. Elmo by 1600 cars a day, with most of the remaining being diverted through Fort Oglethorpe on Battlefield Parkway.
There were concerns raised about how riders may be rescued in the case of emergencies, and if the gondolas would cause noise pollution, to which Rock City President and CEO Doug Chapin said that the main machinery of the gondola would be contained inside of a building.
One board member, Philip Whittaker stated his opposition was because, “There are too many unknowns. We don’t have an environmental impact report. We don’t have a view shed impact report. We don’t have a noise study. I can’t vote on something that I don’t have enough information on.”
Rock City President and CEO Doug Chapin said after the meeting the vote was disappointing but says that they plan to have more discussions with the town.
Chapin said, “We are going to take some time just to kind of reflect and strategize and figure out what we’re going to do next. So will be following up with folks. I know that we put a letter out this week just sort of letting people know we intend to keep following up with them and making sure we answer questions and concerns that people have and we want to be able to address them with folks.”
Fisher and Davenport, like other residents we have spoken with, say after this situation, there will need to be some tough conversations between Rock City and residents.
Fisher said, “I know historically Rock City and Lookout Mountain have been pretty tight with each other, but it’s been a good neighbor policy. But I’ll tell you with some of the comments that have been passed around, they’ve got some damage control to do…. This is a residential area, not a commercial zone.”
Davenport added, “I think the first step was made earlier today when Doug Chapin sent a letter to the community saying, ‘You know we’re going to we’re gonna try to do better’. But you got to take action. Actions are louder than words so let’s keep our fingers crossed things happen in the right way.”
Chapin to those concerns responded, “Let’s not hope we are doing damage control. We want people to know who we are. I think in this process there was a lot of opportunity to know us better through the process and so we want to do a good job of communicating with the community to make sure we’re getting people the info that they need.”
He does say there is an alternate top gondola station site on the side of Lookout Mountain outside of the town limits they are considering.
They could build there following previous approval of the project on unincorporated land by the Walker County Board of Commissioners.
He says however this is the less preferred option as that would not be at the main entrance to the attraction, instead being at the bottom of the attraction’s waterfall, High Falls.
The Lookout Mountain City Council still gets to vote on this ordinance, but will not do so at their regularly scheduled Thursday meeting.
