Helen Burns Sharp makes presentation
Members of a city board voted 5-0 on Thursday to continue a tax break for an apartment complex on Walnut Commons, though members of a citizen group said the developers have not lived up to the requirements.
Deborah Scott, former City Council member, said the $2.4 million tax break was given to gain low to moderate-income housing units as well as a parking garage. She said neither happened.
She accused board members involved in approving the project with using "poor judgment."
Attorney Alfred Smith said, "What it boils down to is a deal is a deal. You can't take this away."
He said the generous abatement in which the developers do not even have to pay school taxes for a lengthy time was given because the city at the time was anxious to get downtown housing in place.
Attorney Smith said members of Accountability for Taxpayer Money "have spent months picking at every little detail of the deal" and caused assistant city attorney Phil Noblett to spend considerable time responding to a list of ATM questions.
Helen Burns Sharp of ATM said this project is "the poster child for we don't want to do this again."
She said, under the advice of attorney John Konvalinka, that the Chattanooga Downtown Redevelopment Corporation had the option of discontinuing the tax break at a time when the deal with being reshuffled because the developers want to buy the property under the apartments.
Attorney Konvalinka, noting that the board was told it could have some liability if it reneged on the deal, said the panel might if it did not.
Stacy Richardson, member of the board, asked, "Are you threatening us?"
Julian Bell, another board member, said he was personally sympathetic to concerns of the citizen group. He said CDRC members had no part in "a deal that was made in 2007 at a time when we were trying to get housing downtown."
Moses Freeman, city councilman who is on the board, said, "In hindsight, it was a bad deal. We should have never given up the school tax." He said since that time there have been a number of improvements in the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program.
David Dalton, another board member, said the terms of the PILOT had been worked out in good faith. He said, "This board had nothing to do with the terms of the PILOT."
Daisy Madison, city finance director, is the fifth board member.