✓ C-TMU — Transitional Mixed-Use Commercial Zone

If you guessed C-C, you are in good company — it is the zone most developers request when they have a commercial project in mind. But in Q1 2026, C-TMU was the classification that actually showed up most often in approved outcomes. That gap between what applicants asked for and what they ended up with tells you something important about how the Planning Commission and its staff are thinking about commercial development right now.

What Is the C-TMU Zone?

The C-TMU Transitional Mixed-Use Commercial Zone is designed to accommodate a moderately intense mix of commercial and residential uses. Its purpose, as defined in the Chattanooga Zoning Ordinance, is to support and serve as a transitional area between neighborhoods and more intensely developed commercial or mixed-use areas.

In practical terms, that means it fits exactly the kind of infill and corridor sites that make up a large share of Chattanooga’s development opportunity — properties that sit between an established neighborhood and a busier commercial street.

The zone allows buildings up to 45 feet in height, has no minimum lot size or lot width requirement, and uses a build-to zone of 0 to 15 feet from the front property line — meaning buildings can come right up to the street edge, which encourages walkable, active frontage.

Where a C-TMU site abuts a residential zone, a 10-foot interior side setback and 25-foot rear setback apply, which is the zone’s built-in mechanism for buffering commercial activity from adjacent neighborhoods.

That buffering is exactly why staff keeps steering applicants toward it. When a developer requests C-C on a site that borders a residential neighborhood, staff often sees a compatibility problem. C-TMU solves it.

What This Means for Your Project

If you are evaluating a commercial site in Chattanooga — particularly one that sits adjacent to or near a residential area — C-TMU is worth understanding before you file your application.

Coming in with a C-TMU request that is already calibrated to the site context tends to move more cleanly through the process than negotiating down from a C-C request that staff is going to redirect anyway.

CEG works with clients on exactly this kind of upfront zoning strategy. If you want to talk through what zone makes sense for your site, we are happy to have that conversation.