Paint me stupid, but I never knew there was much difference in the terminology regarding the proposed Rock City gondola. We all know a gondola traversing National Park land and the eastern valley would be breathtaking; floating hundreds of feet above the treetops, and soaring along the thermal currents of migratory hawks is a high-exposure, glass-bottom thrill ride. But Rock City claims their primary purpose for the gondola is to “reduce traffic on Lookout Mountain.” And that claim would allow them to classify the gondola as transportation.

That didn’t raise a single red flag for me.

But at the recent city council meeting in Lookout Mountain, Ga., I realized there is a vital difference between the two classifications; each a game changer for the two entities involved: Rock City and the city of Lookout Mountain, Ga.

When you hear the word “transportation,” you think of subways, commuter buses or city trains - systems built to solve public mobility issues. Rock City is framing its proposed $30-million to $40-million gondola as a "clean, zero-emission transportation system" designed to relieve traffic on Ochs Highway.

Lookout Mountain’s Zoning Ordinance (Section 10-12) explicitly prohibits mechanical rides, carnival devices, sky lifts, and chairlifts within city limits. If the proposed gondola (and let’s call a gondola a gondola) is classified as a commercial amusement ride, it is outright illegal under existing city code, meaning Rock City must convince the city council to pass Ordinance No. 292 to create a brand-new commercial exception. Calling it "transportation" lets them market a $40-million thrill attraction as essential public infrastructure to pressure city leaders into rewriting local zoning.

Hmmmm … While Rock City’s PR campaign insists this gondola is "modern transit" rather than an amusement ride, their own draft text submitted to amend Section 10-11 explicitly references Georgia’s Amusement Ride Safety Act (O.C.G.A. § 34-12-2) to carve out their legal exception. In public, it's public transit; in official State legal paperwork, it's an amusement ride.

I am no financial genius, but how does spending $40 million to reduce traffic (unsolicited by the way) make sense? If Rock City’s primary goal were truly a green traffic shuttle, wouldn’t a fleet of top-of-the-line electric tour buses and charging depots that cost around $7 million to $10 million total be a better solution? Buses operate on existing public roads, require zero zoning rewrites, and leave mountain slopes intact.

From a pure return-on-investment perspective, does spending $40 million just to relocate static parking down the hill make financial sense on its own? On a massive 140-acre commercially zoned valley footprint, what else completes the financial puzzle? In the resort industry, high-capacity cable systems are rarely built as standalone shuttles; they serve as the central spine to feed a broader commercial resort ecosystem - the exact transit engine used in Gatlinburg (like Anakeesta) to funnel tourist crowds directly into commercial centers.

In 2024, Rock City hired COO Greg Scheid. A whiz at scaling high-volume theme parks, he spent over 40 years in executive leadership at Cedar Fair Entertainment - the theme park giant behind the recent $8-billion Six Flags mega-merger. Even amidst the controversy and distrust about the undisclosed future phases, his LinkedIn profile picture includes a massive roller coaster in the background.

Public transit is built to serve local taxpayers, but moving primary parking, ticketing, and concessions down to the valley hub shifts the overwhelming majority of new commercial tax revenues to Walker County - leaving the city of Lookout Mountain, Ga., to absorb hundreds of thousands of additional visitors while receiving only a negligible sliver of property tax from a single upper terminal landing.

Rock City isn't asking for a simple one-time conditional permit. They are asking the town to permanently rewrite municipal zoning laws. By changing Section 10-5 to permit "aerial ropeway passenger conveyance systems," the town hands over an irrevocable commercial entitlement attached to the land forever. That vote also directly violates the city's adopted 2022–2032 Comprehensive Plan, which explicitly pledges “to preserve the peaceful residential nature of our community.” Rock City’s zoning request seeks to convert an entire 14-acre residential parcel on the mountain face for an aerial line that takes up less than half an acre. Once commercial ropeways are written into our code, future “phase creep” will already be legal.

While Walker County quickly approved rezoning the valley parcel to commercial in February 2026, it has zero legal authority inside the municipal boundaries of Lookout Mountain, Ga. Rock City's public releases suggest they could build outside city limits anyway, so why are they mounting a massive effort to rewrite town ordinances? The Lookout Mountain, Ga. City Council holds sole, absolute authority over Ordinance No. 292. (Notably, the Lookout Mountain Municipal Planning Commission already voted 5–2 to recommend rejecting this amendment.)

Once the town rewrites the zoning code to permit aerial ropeways, it forfeits all ongoing regulatory authority - surrendering any legal power to control operating hours, ticket pricing, crowd volume, or future expansion.

Paint it any way you want, but a gondola is still a gondola. Ask Gatlinburg.

Go to www.nogondolalookout.com for more information.

* * *

Ferris Robinson is the author of three children’s books, “The Queen Who Banished Bugs,” “The Queen Who Accidentally Banished Birds,” and “Call Me Arthropod” in her pollinator series “If Bugs Are Banished.” “Making Arrangements” is her first novel and is available in paperback and on Kindle. “Dogs and Love - Stories of Fidelity” is a collection of true tales about man’s best friend. She is the editor of The Lookout Mountain Mirror and The Signal Mountain Mirror.