question on a light mfg business on a residential lot (Knoxville: for sale, real estate)

[G in MP]

Hello, hoping to get some insight on here regarding zoning laws in the Chattanooga metro area, in terms of running a business from home. We're considering relocating there, and also bringing along my business, which is light manufacturing. Mostly machine shop type of stuff. I have no walk-in traffic, and minimal truck deliveries besides normal UPS/FedEx. Just me and a part-time worker, but it would just be me for starters in Chatt.

What me and the spouse really have in mind is for a couple + acres, on which would sit our house and the business. We really don't want to be way out in the sticks, though...want to be not too far from shopping and downtown Chatt. Also, absolute requirements are nice scenery, and a safe area. I did my homework on here and elsewhere on the interwebs, am aiming for places like Soddy Daisy, Red Bank, Signal Mt., maybe on the east side, ie, Oltewah? Anything like this possible in north Chattanooga itself? Or East Brainerd? Is this possible at all, or would residential zoning disallow it?

Looking through some real estate listings, I did find some houses sitting on a few acres, together with out-buildings, which would be perfect for what we have in mind. One listing had a house on the west end of Signal mountain with a straight-up commercial building, which was housing a dog kennel business, which would really be even more disruptive to the neighbors than what I do.

Also to add, if the price is right, we wouldn't be opposed to buying land and building a house and commercial space on it. But again, the area must be right. My wife would veto anything too remote/isolated/hicksville.

Thanks for reading!

[G in MP]

Also to add, we have no school-age children, so schools performance is not important, but however the area itself is (and better areas generally mean better schools, so that's usually an indication). I've been reading some mixed reviews about Red Bank, but the complaints seem to be mainly about it's school district performance. Is Red Bank itself a nice area? It seems location-wise, you couldn't ask for a better spot.

There's acreage for sale there, and it's surprisingly affordable. But is the land generally suited for a few buildings, or is the sloping of the land a problem for building on and that's why it's so cheap?

[G in MP]

Anybody, anybody? Bueller?

[keithps]

I'm really not sure how the zoning laws work. It seems like I've seen that kind of thing done before though, so you might just have to call the jurisdictions you're interested in and ask them.

[G in MP]

Oh hey, a visitor! Sound advice, I think I'll do that, yes. Thanks. I did find Red Bank's zoning ordinance online, something about a minimum of 25' clearance from a residential zone, so I'm thinking if I'm on a couple 3 acres with the shop well away from the property limits...

So about Red Bank itself, what's the deal with it? Why so cheap there?

[Lakehopper]

G in MP, as somebody also looking to relocate from the great white north, there were a lot of questions I needed answered before making any life-changing decisions. It all looks good at a distance! My wife and I (after many, many hours of research online and some very frank discussions about our future) took about a week off to drive down through Knoxville, Chattanooga, and a few of the surrounding areas. We drove through some of the neighborhoods and even spoke with a few locals to see if the internet and the actual place matched what we were thinking about. We checked out about six apartment rental areas to also get a gut feeling of what you can get for what kind of money in the short term. This also can let you know about cost of living and property values a little. Prices in Tennessee will not be the same as New York and Chicago like we are used to seeing anyway. As far as zoning, it can be by area in general. If the particular property was "grand-fathered" in with existing conditions, it can be a totally different story and to your advantage at that. Some areas may be more lax in zoning than others. With that in mind, you should also look around any potential properties for any exceptions given for properties that could be close enough to effect what you are planning and property values.

Being prior military (living in several different states and a few other countries...) and real estate agents (Florida and New York) we have been around a bit... Not to be a commercial, but to get the answers you really want, it may be time to plan a trip and make a couple phone calls to a real estate agent for the areas you are interested in and a couple you are not sure about as well. We also picked up a couple local papers and check them on-line from time to time while we are waiting to sell the house up here and get going with our next dream. The first house we ever bought, was the last place we figured we would want because of the way the listing was presented. We only bothered looking at it then because we had some time left after looking at two dozen other places that week. Good luck in your quest!

[G in MP]

Hi Lakehopper. Thanks for the pointers. We actually are going out there in October for vacation and also to do some neighborhood scouting. I'm just trying to narrow down the search parameters.

[Blue502]

Red Bank gets a bad rep, I usually call it RedBakistan . Just because it use to be notorious for the police to harass everyone, all the time. They put up red light cameras all over the place, and people stopped going thru there and it practically shut down the place. The cameras are now gone.
I think the home prices are exceptional, the area is great (10 minutes to downtown from anywhere there), and it is up and coming. I would venture a guess, just seeing how areas around chattanooga have gone, in the next 10 years, it will be the place to buy and prices will go up. I would invest there if I had the opportunity at the moment. There is nothing exceptional there, yet, that makes someone want to move there. It's coming. The city has to spread, and this is the place.
You can also, visit. www.hamiltontn.gov to find out the Hamilton County side of zoning, etc, etc. It's a great website and user friendly.

[knukhead]

I've been looking into the area myself ... at least on the computer so far.

You might find this helpful on learning about the Red Bank area: Red Bank, Tennessee . The "Focus on the Future" link in the center of the page is pretty interesting. You can also get to the CrimeReports website from that page, which is a good thing to check out. Overall, crime in the Chattanooga area seems on the high side -- something to pay attention to in picking an area. I also find the Trulia crime "Heat Map" useful.

Putting in some time using the detailed demographic maps available on this site, along with the real estate sites such as Trulia and Zillow and then of course, Google Earth, give an absolutely amazing amount of information on an area before ever even going there.

Good luck!

[G in MP]

Thanks for the info, guys. Knukhead, that Trulia crime map was a real eye opener. For what we have in mind, looks like the safer bets are in Soddy, Ooltewah, or Harrison.