Controversial Nashville Agency Might Get A Leash Put Around its Neck

housing

A Nashville Metro Council member wants to rein in the city’s Metro Development Housing Authority. As reported, the MDHA has vast powers and gives real estate developers millions of dollars in incentives to build in ritzy areas of town. Many of those details aren’t public record. This process, Tax Increment Financing, is supposed to help blighted areas — but not, in theory, a project such as the one at Fifth and Broadway in tourist-heavy downtown Nashville. Metro Council member Bob Mendes has three bills up for consideration currently making their way through the council. According to the Nashville Business Journal, one bill tries to make the incentives process more transparent. That bill, if passed, would accomplish that through a seven-member committee. “The other two would divert a portion of money otherwise earmarked for MDHA to Metro Nashville Public Schools,” the website reported. The latter two bills passed their first reading Tuesday on a voice vote. Council members are scheduled to hear them again on Sept.18, said Metro spokeswoman Raven Misch. “They will have to go through three readings before it is actually law,” Misch told The Tennessee Star, adding this is how bills are passed through Metro charter policy. MDHA,…

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Tourist Heavy Nashville Development Might Get Money Meant for Blighted Areas

Nashville

A tax incentive normally designated for heavily blighted areas might go to a new development not in a poor and underserved part of Nashville but instead in and around one of the city’s most popular destinations. The developers behind the new office, retail, and residential development at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Broadway want Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency officials to help. Specifically, they want MDHA officials to give them $25 million in Tax Increment Financing, reports The Tennessean. According to the people at Good Jobs First, a Washington, D.C.-based policy resource center, TIF subsidizes companies by refunding or diverting a portion of their taxes to help finance development in a certain area. TIF usually pays for, among other things, infrastructure improvements, acquiring land, or demolishing buildings, the website said. “The area may have to meet criteria for blight such as property abandonment, building code violations, or aging housing stock,” according to the website. The Tennessean called Fifth and Broadway “the city’s most prime commercial real estate.” In an emailed statement, MDHA spokeswoman Jamie Berry told The Tennessee Star that the area still meets TIF criteria. “The district was blighted at the time it was created, and Metro Council…

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