Montague Park project enters new phase

June 20, 2024

Nick Hill,

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — Chattanooga officials provided an update on the future renovation of Montague Park this week.

“This is the largest piece of public park land in our urban core, 47 acres, and Chattanooga is not getting it back,” said Scott Martin, administrator of Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors.

This week, Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors announced they have moved into the construction drawing phase of the Montague Park renovation project, which will help determine what is put into the final plans and its cost. That was previously estimated at a city council meeting last year to be about $80 million, but it is subject to change.

Plans for Montague Park (City of Chattanooga)

Martin explained, “This is where you get into those numbers, and the construction drawings tell how you can do phased development and how you can work that over time. And you can actually design two real budget numbers at the point. So, this is when pencil becomes ink, and you become really serious about chasing that out.”

One of the challenges to ongoing development at Montague Park is this site was once the city’s landfill.

Martin told News 12 that, in the past few weeks, crews began digging holes around the site to see what is under there. But despite that history, they can still fully realize this piece of property as Chattanooga’s Central Park.

“As we move into being a larger city, it’s really important that we get this park done right. And this very thoughtful and methodical design process with our partners is important to making that happen,” he said.

Martin adds the construction drawing process should take about nine months to complete.

He said, “We will know a phased development plan that we’ll bring back to council and to the partners at Sculpture Fields and CFC about how to turn this into a park project that we can build out. And we’ll have public input throughout that process. We’ll be engaged with the partners, and this is where the rubber hits the road, and you figure out what you can get done.”