Courtyard Hotel Tax Abatement Approved
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 6/11/08 @ 12:20 am - Filed Under City Council
Tonight the council held a public hearing as well as a preliminary vote on the Courtyard by Marriott’s tax abatement application. There was quite a bit of discussion but in the end the council approved the abatement 8-1 with Tom Smith being the sole vote against the abatement. Even councilmembers Shoaff and Harper, who appeared to be against the abatement in principle, voted aye due to the previous negotiations and council approvals - a similar feeling I had and shared in my Harrison Square Capitulation post.
One of the problems with the Redevelopment Commission is that they have been promising abatements all along to these developers but they aren’t the body that actually approves them - city council is. Greg Leatherman said they commission was using “precedent” when they told the developer they would receive an abatement. And therein lies the problem if you ask me - all these developers expect abatements and organizations like the Redevelopment Commission are promising them when they have no power to do so. Then they come before council and say “golly we promised them an abatement so now it would be unfair to go back on that.”
In fact during tonight’s meeting the developer said they would have to “re-evaluate” their decision to go forward with the project if the abatement wasn’t given. Councilman Harper asked the developer if they would be willing to forgo any future abatements on the adjacent land they were given for future expansion. Obviously the developer did not agree to that.
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This will come back to bite lots of people. I’m hoping for the best…….