VOL. 126 | NO. 204 | Wednesday, October 19, 2011
By Bill Dries
Updated 2:32PM
After several delays, phase two of the plan for Uptown development cleared the Shelby County Commission Monday, Oct. 17.
Shelby County Commissioner Henri Brooks tried unsuccessfully this week to change the next phase of the Uptown redevelopment project to push north of Chelsea Avenue.
(Memphis Daily News File Photo)
But only after the commissioner whose district includes Uptown tried to shift the emphasis from continued development south of Chelsea Avenue moving west to new development north of Chelsea.
Commissioner Henri Brooks held a public hearing over the weekend at Greenlaw Community Center after delaying approval of the community redevelopment plan for Uptown for several weeks.
Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr.?s administration along with Uptown developers Belz-Turley had several public hearings over several years before that.
But Brooks came to a different conclusion about Uptown?s progress ? or lack of it.
?What I saw I would describe in my terms as gerrymandered redevelopment ? cherry-picked redevelopment,? Brooks said. ?You have two or three rehabbed houses and you have nine dilapidated houses.?
The new plan already approved by the Memphis City Council earlier this year involves $4.2 million in financing for infrastructure paid for with city and county property tax revenue generated in the Downtown area ? what is called TIF, or tax increment financing. It also makes possible the leveraged financing for the development of a supermarket in the area.
The council also delayed approval of the plan for several weeks at the request of council member Joe Brown who, like Brooks, questioned its priorities. Unlike Brooks, Brown didn?t offer an alternative plan.
Belz-Turley?s plan was and remains to push west to the river with development but remain south of Chelsea between Chelsea and A.W. Willis, said John Dudas, vice president of Belz Enterprises and point person for Belz and Turley in the Uptown planning.
?Within that area we concentrated on the acquisition of blighted and slum property, the development of new streets and sidewalks and so forth as well as the rehabilitation of structures in the area,? Dudas said citing the construction of 270 new single-family homes in the last five years.
?The concentration south between Chelsea and Willis is really the most effective and proper way to take this program. ? There are still areas that do require improving. That?s why we want to concentrate and finish south of Chelsea before we move north.?
Brooks disagreed, saying there should be a jump north of Chelsea now and Uptown West could wait.
?That part does not serve the individuals living in that area,? she said. ?It is $4 million that could be used to have a greater impact in terms of providing single-family homes, multifamily homes, commercial loans and grants and other improvements.?
Brooks brought with her residents north of Chelsea who say the area has decayed for decades. But others in a similar situation south of Chelsea made the same argument in supporting the Uptown West push.
Developer Henry Turley countered that the plan ?cannot be amended casually.?
?The simple idea was that with the incremental taxes we were generating in Harbor Town we had a unique opportunity to invest money and resources in an inner-city area,? he said of the origins of the Uptown plan. ?It was a simple idea. It?s not simple to do.?
Brooks argued that more citizens could be affected with her plan.
?We can maximize the use of these dollars without delay,? she said. ?The opposition is simply because it was not picked by the developer. That?s not how it works. It doesn?t work that way. The community is supposed to drive this.?
The amendment by Brooks was defeated on a 3-8 vote. She and commissioners James Harvey and Melvin Burgess voted for her amendment.
The original phase two plan was then approved on a 10-1 vote with Brooks as the lone ?no? vote.
Source: http://kwindur.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/uptown-phase-two-gets-go-ahead/
Source: http://kwindur.blogspot.com/2011/10/uptown-phase-two-gets-go-ahead.html
Source: http://kwindur.blogspot.com/2011/10/uptown-phase-two-gets-go-ahead_22.html
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