Chattanooga City Council voted unanimously to withdraw a rezoning request covering properties that include Southside Social and Whiskey Cowgirl, ending — for now — a bid to bring a mini-golf attraction to the popular nightlife strip. Property owner John Wise had sought the change to allow the attraction and to block future residential development on the land, but the request came off the table amid concerns raised about public safety in the area.
According to WTVC, Councilwoman Raquetta Dotley cited public safety concerns during the council's consideration of the rezoning, pointing to police data showing more than 500 calls for service in the surrounding area over the past year. Dotley said it was Wise himself who asked the council to withdraw the request, a detail WTVC attributed directly to her account of the proceedings.
The proposal had received a favorable recommendation from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency’s staff and planning commissioners, who found it compatible with nearby land uses and the city’s land-use plan. Wise had reduced his original request, which covered 4.6 acres, to less than an acre of parking lot beside Whiskey Cowgirl. He described the mini-golf concept as part of a rebrand intended to bring more daytime visitors and families to the area; the requested zoning change was needed to allow outdoor recreation there, the application’s stated purpose.
The police figures covered a larger area than the two venues: Councilwoman Raquetta Dotley cited 531 calls for service in the area bounded by Broad, 20th, Chestnut and Main streets between Oct. 12, 2025, and Oct. 12, 2026, with 139 associated with Southside Social and Whiskey Cowgirl. She also cited 94 calls during Thursday-to-Friday late-night hours and 33 from Saturday into Sunday. The records did not establish how many calls led to arrests or whether any involved repeat reports of the same incident, leaving those distinctions unresolved.
A Familiar Flashpoint for Southside Nightlife
This isn't the first time safety concerns have swirled around the block that includes Southside Social. Back in February 2018, someone shot two women on Chestnut Street near the bar, and one of them, Cachet Peterson, died from her injuries, according to the same outlet's earlier reporting. That shooting prompted neighbors and business owners at the time to publicly call for a safer Southside.
In the wake of that 2018 shooting, Wise himself warned that continued violence could push him to stop developing in the neighborhood altogether, saying, “I cannot have this kind of stuff going on and the city's going to have to get involved.” The stakes for the area's redevelopment were already high: the River City Company reported that developers had poured more than $247 million into Southside projects in the three years leading up to that 2018 report.
Police Data Comes With Caveats
The more-than-500 calls figure cited by Dotley echoes the kind of incident data the city makes publicly available, but Chattanooga's own police-incident portal cautions that its numbers represent general data based on the Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System, with some incidents and addresses removed or generalized to protect privacy. That means the raw call count, while striking, isn't necessarily a complete picture of what's happening block by block.
Southside Social and Whiskey Cowgirl aren't the only Chattanooga nightlife spots to draw scrutiny over noise and safety complaints. In a separate dispute involving Shady's Corner Bar, neighbors who share a property line with that business reported ongoing issues with noise and disruptive behavior, and city investigators looked into three bars in that case. Despite dozens of complaints, police said they found no evidence to cite Shady's Corner Bar, illustrating how difficult it can be to translate neighborhood complaints into enforceable action.
What Happens Next
For now, the rezoning request tied to Southside Social and Whiskey Cowgirl is withdrawn, and Wise's plans for a mini-golf attraction on the site are shelved alongside it. The council's unanimous vote closes this particular chapter of the debate, even as the underlying tension between Southside's nightlife economy and its residents' safety concerns remains unresolved.
