The City Council voted 4-3 Tuesday night not to approve a capital budget that included $6.5 million for the construction of a parking garage that had earlier been promised as part of a deal to keep TVA located in the downtown area.

Opposed were council members Deborah Scott, Jack Benson, Russell Gilbert and Andrae McGary. In favor were Chairman Manny Rico, Sally Robinson and Pam Ladd.

Councilman Rico said the council would revisit the bond issue at a later meeting.

The issue that was not approved also included funds for a new section of marina at Ross's Landing Park next to the new Cameron Harbor development.

Councilwoman Scott led off the argument against the garage by saying, “I’m just not sure it’s a good fiscal move in this economy.”

She said, "This is essentially the city building a parking deck for a federal agency." She said she had not been shown any figures on revenue to be gained from the parking garage, and she said she was advised that parking decks normally are not profitable.

She said, "This is not an emergency. If it was, it would have been built a long time ago."

Mayor Ron Littlefield rebutted this contention by stating, “Most of Chattanooga’s growth has come during down times.” He continued, “Parking is a capital investment that makes downtown succeed.”

Councilman Benson was on record as opposing the construction until the county agrees to fund half of the $13 million construction fee. Mr. Benson stated, “This city cannot stand any more of this double taxation. If we can’t get the county to go along at this point, maybe we should just wait.”

He said, "Nobody builds a parking garage to make money any more."

However, Councilwoman Ladd called the construction of the garage an investment for economic development. She said if the county does not invest in the project that the county would not reap any proceeds from parking fees.

She said, "This is not being given to anybody. It will be leased out and paid for."

The mayor informed the council members present, many of whom were not in office when this project was first being discussed, that the TVA building was originally built with inadequate parking as TVA, at the time, wanted to force its employees to use car and van pools to get to work. The parking garage was initially desired to be built on the Civic Forum property. However, the city never owned that land. It is currently slated for the area at the rear of the Convention Center, which needs additional parking as well. Many of the necessary site requirements are already in place.

Both the mayor and council were quick to point out that this would, by no means be, a “TVA” garage. It would be a city property and open and available for citizens to use.

Mayor Littlefield said the parking lot addition has been designed previously and the footings were put into place.

He said he hopes the county joins in the project, saying it has often partnered with the city on similar projects in the past.

He said there are 2,600 TVA employees in the headquarters on South Broad Street. He said there is a $260 million economic impact in keeping TVA downtown.

"I think it's important that we take a step in the right direction," he stated.

Councilwoman Robinson said, "This was a commitment made a long time ago to keep TVA in downtown."

On another topic that brought various groups to the meeting to voice their opinion, the council was in favor of a moratorium on forbidding new off-premise signs in the areas newly annexed by the city and preserving existing “scenic corridors.”

This was an ordinance up for first reading and would amend City Code, Part II, Chapter 3, Section 3-55.

Councilwoman Scott asked for clarification as to the city having sole authority to create scenic corridors. City Attorney Mike McMahan replied that the state can pre-empt and Mayor Littlefield stated, “By and large the state is not as restrictive as local entities. We need to act now to control our area out by the Volkswagen site. We can put things on hold until we get an idea as to how we want to proceed.”

Councilman Benson said, “We need to preserve our scenic highways right now.”

An official from Luken Holdings was present and made the argument that the company was concerned about the Eastgate area being lifted from the area where signage was prohibited. “We do not want any more signs. We are trying to maintain a professional office park setting.”

Luken’s concern was that if the ban is lifted Eastgate may erect another large highway sign on an easement on the Loop Road circling the development.

Dickie Hutsell from the city’s sign and code enforcement office assured those present that this would not be the case; this area would remain as a scenic corridor.

Jack Crawford, from Friends of East Brainerd, also spoke in opposition of deleting any of the current scenic corridors within the city. “Please don’t do this to us,” he pleaded. Mr. Crawford’s organization has spent in excess of $47,000 in adding over 100 trees and landscaping an area in East Brainerd. “Don’t uproot all our work and efforts,” he concluded. Again, Mr. Hutsell assured him that “no areas currently zoned under this resolution would be allowed to erect a new billboard.”

Mr. Hutsell said earlier he believed the changes could bring up to five new billboards along I-75.

The council’s consensus was to defer this matter, leaving the 30-day moratorium in place.

The council approved the appointment of Al Chapman as administrator of Human Services.

(Email Dennis Norwood at sportswriter56@comcast.net; Follow him on Twitter @ DennisENorwood)