(upbeat music) - [Narrator] You're watching highlights of the Chattanooga City Council meeting, a production of WTCI PBS.

(upbeat music ends) (gavel bangs) - Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for your patience.

We had some very spirited and lively and very needed debate on issues.

So I will go ahead and call to order our Tuesday, November the 8th City Council business meeting at 4:00 PM.

We'll accept a motion for our minutes this afternoon.

The minutes have been motioned.

They have been seconded without objection.

The minutes will stand.

Ordinances on first reading without objection of counsel.

We will move item G to out of respect for everyone's time.

And I know that some people still have to go vote.

Please go vote before they close the polls.

So we will respect your time and adhere that item first.

- [Audience Member] Mr.

Chair?

Yes, sir?

- [Audience Member] If there's no objection, the resolution, 7G, in my opinion, couples with that, I know it has no direct correlation.

I would like to ask that it be moved up to follow with this item.

- Do we have request to move item 7G under resolutions without objection from counsel, we will do that.

All right.

So 7G will follow our zoning K0201.

Madame Clerk, will you read the caption please?

- [Clerk] In ordinance to mention the city code part two, chapter 38 zoning ordinance so as to rezone part of a property located at 7725 Lee Highway from C2 convenience commercial zone to UGC, Urban General Commercial Zone.

- Dr. Berz, I see your light.

- [Berz] Thank you Mr.

Chair.

I move approval.

I move approval without conditions.

The reason for that being exactly what Councilman Henderson is talking about, those should be part of a community discussion.

So with that I move approval.

- There's a motion to approve without conditions.

And for those of you who follow zoning process, I did not ask that the applicant was present because the city is in the room and I do know there is opposition, so.

(audience chuckles) Questions, comments before we vote on the item without conditions?

Seeing none.

All those in favor say aye.

- [Audience] Aye.

- Opposed?

I'm a no.

Does the city wish to present their case with the seven minutes?

- I will keep it brief, council.

- As you know, we have... - [Chairman] Thank you, councilman.

- We have been discussing this for several weeks.

We believe the moving forward with the rezone is the correct decision and additionally, as we have had a community meeting, the mayor did express some very clear commitments and he remains committed to his contract with the community.

I understand that the council may need extra time to additionally consider a resolution on how to exactly codify that if it wishes to do so, as well as you know how that resolution may need to be amended or adjusted.

Additionally, this is broader context, a project that significantly improves our ability to address homelessness in our community.

It's a vital community or it has the potential to become a vital community asset and will improve and uplift the surrounding area, in turning a rundown motel into a building that looks no different from any other apartment building.

And we appreciate the council's consideration on this matter.

And in addition and in the spirit of the mayor's commitment to continue to engage the public on this matter, we do have two additional community meetings scheduled already at the Shepherd Community Center on November 30th from 2:00 to 3:00 PM and then additionally on December 14th from 6:00 to 7:00 PM and we anticipate this would help inform the request for proposal process that will select an operator and developer for this project.

And again, we appreciate the council's consideration, but we do intend to continue to engage the broader community, not only the folks who have made the regular trip to city council, but also surrounding neighborhoods as well as service providers, business partners in the private sector to really ensure this project is successful.

So again, we appreciate council's consideration and urge support for this reason.

- [Chairman] Yes, ma'am.

- I think it may be helpful to those who are opposed that want to speak in opposition.

- [Chairman] I am.

- Okay.

(chuckles) - [Chairman] Yes, ma'am.

- That the reason I made the motion the way I did was for you all to be in on what the conditions are as opposed to us up here saying it.

So that's the reason I made the motion the way it is.

And I will restate that motion because I think I can understand I would be in opposition if I haven't had any input.

I get that.

So I'm opening the door for you to have input in the conditions.

And the city has agreed to that and so that's why I went ahead and made the motion.

- [Chairman] Understood.

- Okay.

- [Chairman] The city has had the seven minutes allotted for their opening, since we have had a session of seven minutes allotted.

And thank you for your comments.

Mayor's chief of staff, the opposition has nine minutes.

Is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition?

You have nine minutes.

Please come to the podium.

And if you would state your name and address for us for the record, please.

- Thank you.

My name is Tim Ballard.

I'm from Evans Harrison Hackett.

Our office is located at 835 Georgia Avenue, Suite 800, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 37402.

I'm here on behalf of a group of stakeholders and homeowners, parents, business owners from the area who have serious concerns about this rezoning and the city's stated intentions for this property.

As the city and mayor's office have told the community, the property known as the Airport Hotel has intended to become a permanent supportive housing facility, possibly operated by a California based organization called Step Up.

My friends at the city and at the mayor's office have attempted to paint this facility as a few different things.

A pretty low income apartment complex, a complex forest sheltering those who are affected by homelessness, a mental healthcare facility or some mixture of those three.

They would like to paint the picture of a repurposed, formally rundown hotel now transformed into a place of healing and growth for those in need.

Unfortunately, it appears for several reasons that the road has not been paved to that destination.

We can all agree that people who will be in this facility are in need of some assistance, either in dealing with mental illness, substance use, a criminal history, or some combination of those.

We can all also agree that steps must be taken to support residents with these needs.

Simply placing them under a roof is well and good, but it is not nearly enough to achieve the goal of establishing stability for those residents.

It appears to me that the city is not accounted for certain other needs such as transportation.

For example, the nearest CARTA bus stop is a 43 minute walk down Bonny Oaks Road, which is a road with virtually no sidewalks and which at certain points significantly narrows.

This means that residents will have a dangerous walk not only to the nearest reliable means of transportation, but to each of the following: food, healthcare, clothing stores.

For example, the nearest grocery store, if you look on Google Maps is a Dollar General, which is a 20 minute walk down, a busy road.

Again, little to no sidewalks.

And there are no crosswalks at significant intersections in this area that the residents might immediately need.

The closest Walmart is a 58 minute walk from this facility.

I understand that Step Up, the purported runner of this facility teaches people how to cook, which is laudable, but somewhat difficult without access to food.

The nearest urgent care facility and pharmacy, not an emergency room, mind you, just urgent care and pharmacy is on Volkswagen Drive and is a 38 minute walk down Bonny Oaks.

The nearest emergency room is Park Ridge North.

Not bad at an 18 minute walk, but not great when you have to walk it under emergency circumstances.

I understand that assurances have been made that CARTA Dial Ride or CARTA Go services will be available.

Now to be clear for everybody in this room that doesn't know, those services consist of four small buses per shift.

Small buses, that's CARTA's words, not mine, per shift running between the hours of 5:00 AM and 7:00 PM servicing all of Brainerd and the East Brainerd areas.

Now, assuming that all individuals and residents in this facility intend to not need anything outside of those hours, such as transportation to and from work or the pharmacy, that might be all right, but it's simply not reality.

Further, the service only stops at intersections, not at specific addresses.

I'd be curious to know at which intersections they would prefer to assist people in this particular facility.

Further, we're all aware that there is a resolution before the council, which attempts to alleviate some of the safety concerns, but which perhaps raises more questions than it answers.

For example, Chattanooga Police Department will increase enforcement efforts and resources around the area.

I understand nobody has a crystal ball in this, but this seems terribly vague to my clients.

What exactly does it mean to increase enforcement efforts?

What are the present enforcement efforts?

For how long will those efforts be increased?

Will the size of our police force be increased or will we simply demand more from our current officers?

Onsite security in a fencing perimeter or I guess the council is considering installing a wall now, perhaps on all four sides, perhaps on one side or none at all.

I'm not totally sure.

A fence or a wall that sounds a little bit like a prison to me and I'm not sure that that's a good message to send to residents of the facility or the surrounding area.

And I'm not sure how that will help residents, both inside the facility or outside or even the local businesses.

There's been no clear unified indication to citizens of whether this is a facility which will provide mental healthcare services on site.

If it will not, where will the residents go for those needs?

If so, will UGC zoning permit a healthcare facility?

Is this going to be a mental healthcare facility?

Overnight guests will be documented and monitored, which is a great idea perhaps for boarding students or college freshmen.

But what about a screening process for these guests?

How long do stays last and who enforces this?

UGC zoning does not place a limit on density.

While the city has been clear that the Airport Inn has 70 units, what remains unclear exactly is what the future plan is.

Are they're going to remain 70 units?

Is the size of the building going to be increased per UGC limits to five stories?

Is it gonna be 70, 140 units, 280, 350?

So on and so forth.

In order to approve this rezoning, knowing the intended purpose for the site, you will have to turn a blind eye to each of the following: you have to turn a blind eye to your own area plan from January 11th, 2005, which clearly states on page 15 that it is recommended that this continue to be a residential area with some commercial businesses grandfathered in, but no expansion of those or non-residential development expansion.

Now, again, due to some conflicting reports, it is difficult to know whether this is a residential or non-residential development, which points to perhaps a lack of proper planning.

The total lack of infrastructure in this area will also have to be ignored, as I've already discussed.

But it bears repeating.

There's a lack of sidewalks and designated crosswalks in the area, which raises serious safety concerns for the residents of the facility themselves.

The nearest CARTA bus stop, again, 43 minute walk, nearest grocery store, 20 minutes, nearest Walmart, 58 minutes.

Nearest urgent care facility or pharmacy, 38 minutes, nearest emergency room, 18 minutes.

You have to ignore that there are better locations for this facility.

This is not the only building which could be put to better use, far from it.

Most importantly, you will have to ignore the needs, not only of the residents, parents, and business owners in the area, but the very people that you purport to try to help.

You wanna build a facility which will house a portion of the population clearly struggling with mental health and or substance abuse issues, right in the midst of small businesses and family homes and about a thousand yards from a school with a nursery and students age K through 12.

But you do not appear to have a plan which is adequately structured to see to the needs of those in the facility or those without.

And once this is rezoned to UGC, you will have missed an opportunity to actually accomplish what you set out to do, which is to help people in need.

This is not a well considered cogent plan.

With all due respect, it is a half step.

As far as my clients see it, this is not a step up, but it is a sidestepping of the issue and it is a half step at that.

Thank you for your time.

- [Chairman] Thank you.

There is one minute and 40 seconds left, Timekeeper.

If anybody else in opposition would like to speak.

- [Chairman] One minute, 40.

- I don't know if opposition is the right word.

- My name is Tyler Owens and I live at 7413 Old Cleveland Pike, which is right on the other side of Friar's Creek Branch, I guess the creek, the neighborhood that's right on the other side of this.

The bigger issue to me, and that's a very good summation of the things that have been going through my mind is it feels like a railroad process.

Like this is just being shoved through.

And the tone that we get from the mayor and his advisors is that, hey, this is a done deal and you guys are just ridiculous for wanting to know what's going on and saying there's a problem here.

It's not ridiculous for us to be concerned.

The fact that there's so many, sorry.

The fact that there's so many people here that are saying, "Hey, wait, what's going on here?"

means that the process is not resolved.

And just having another meeting where we can sit and be told, "Hey, you're ridiculous for being concerned about this."

or the tone of that meeting was like that.

Or that, hey, this is a done deal is just wrong.

And I don't think that this should be approved.

If this approving of this zoning is the first step in that making that process happen, then it shouldn't be approved yet because we're not ready to move forward with this in our community.

- [Chairman] Thank you, sir.

I think that time takes us right to the end, unless someone has about 10 seconds.

Okay, then that will, we'll now move back to the administration or the applicant in this case.

You have two minutes.

- Yes.

So one thing I wanna point out, council, is that the opposition to this project consistently comes to you with a argument against this project that is not this project.

This project is not a homeless shelter.

It's not a mental healthcare facility.

The mayor made that very clear, permanent supportive housing is specifically designed to provide the support that ensures these residents are successful.

This happens not only in communities across this country, but in communities right here in Chattanooga.

This already happens when we pull the safety statistics or 9-1-1 incidents that happen in the permanent supportive housing that already exists here.

I looked, there's one incident and a person who was not even a resident threw a rock and didn't even hit a window.

That was the only one.

So when it comes to a CARTA question, a transit question, Dial a Ride has worked for the Brainerd community for years.

This is something that works and we know how to train people how to use it.

And better than regular residents, folks are gonna have case managers on site to help them learn how to use it and they will come right to the front door.

Again, when we talk about the process for this project not having all of the specifics, we have a process to help us get to those specifics, which is what the administration would like to move toward, which is the RFP.

The RFP will allow us to select a developer and a service provider that will help us get to those specifics.

So again, I think it's a bit disingenuous, which is something that we've heard over and over again that we want more specifics.

But there's a process to help us get there, which is to select a provider and actually before we even select a provider, we get a bunch of proposals that we can then evaluate.

And then ultimately, council has the ability to approve or reject that contract whenever we bring it to city council.

So again, we take issue with the shifting concerns, but we feel that we have addressed a significant number of those.

We feel a lot of them are genuine.

But then I'd ask this council to move forward so we can get to those specifics.

- Thank you, Joda.

(audience claps) - [Attendee 2] He's right.

He's right!

They're people!

- Point of order.

Thank you.

Point of order, everyone.

Thank you.

The vote on the floor is eight.

Does anybody wish to change their vote?

The eight yeses.

Councilman, I see your light.

Are you, are you?

- [Councilman] Yeah, I have a question.

- Please, sir.

- Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So I was a little confused at the very beginning because we seemed to deviate from what our normal zoning process is.

And I think the motion on the floor was to approve the rezone.

Is that correct?

- [Chairman] With zero conditions, sir.

- With zero conditions.

- [Chairman] Yes, sir.

- So normally we call for questions or comments also before we vote.

And I would like to make a comment before.

- [Chairman] Yes, sir.

- Before I cast my vote.

- [Chairman] You have the floor.

- Thank you.

So it matters to me that we honor our commitments.

And yes, we can say that the rezone is completely independent, but it's not.

The rezoning is for the purpose of supportive housing.

And I feel like the mayor has made a commitment to the community, to a community contract that I included in the resolution that's gonna follow this.

So this is what I'm gonna say.

So a rezoning requires two votes, it requires a vote tonight, and it also requires a vote next week.

I will support the motion to approve the rezone based on the resolution passing.

So I will vote yes tonight, but if the resolution fails, I will be voting no next week because I do feel like we need to honor our commitments.

And this was a commitment that was made by a public official in the city of Chattanooga that addressed the rezoning for supportive housing.

So Mr. Chairman, my vote is a yes.

- [Chairman] All right.

The vote stands at eight yeses.

Anyone else wish to comment or make a change to their vote?

The vote is eight yeses and the chair dissents.

Madame Clerk, upon request of counsel, will you read item or resolution G?

- [Councilman] Am I still active, Mr.

Chair?

- You are sir.

- [Chairman] Thank you.

- [Clerk] A resolution directing the mayor and the city of Chattanooga to fulfill certain obligations and commitments in any future RFP and or contract with a developer, operator, and service provider of supportive housing units on the city of Chattanooga Rio Property, formerly known as the airport, and located at 7725 Lee Highway property.

- [Chairman] And for the record that is version three and not the alternate version.

- The original version.

- [Chairman] Yes, sir.

- And Mr.

Chair, this is what we have considered in the slide, the contract with the community.

And with that, I move approval.

- [Chairman] I have a motion for approval.

There's a motion on the floor, awaiting a second.

- [Councilwoman] Second.

- [Chairman] There's a second to the motion.

Questions, comments?

It's now on the floor.

- May I, sir?

- [Chairman] Please, sir.

- Thank you, Chair.

Through the conversations that we had earlier today, there were a lot of questions about the items not just listed in this resolution, but then there was another version of the resolution.

- There were more items on that.

And then there were conditions that Councilwoman Berz so eloquently brought forward, conditional considerations from the community.

And since those were not set as conditions, I think they should be considered as part of this resolution.

But since we don't know for sure all of the ins and outs of those, as we found out earlier this afternoon, what I was hoping to do was have this resolution deferred to allow a little bit more community input and allow this council to look over these items a little closer.

Mr.

Chair, knowing that the administration does plan to have two more meetings, the last one being on December 14th, I would like the items that Councilman Henderson and Councilwoman Berz have presented to be discussed in those meetings and to be maybe further dialed in to exactly suit the needs of the community.

So with that, Councilman Henderson, I hear what you're saying about your support for next week.

If this does not pass, since we do have a second, I will be making a motion to defer a resolution until or to, I guess, put it back on the agenda for December 20th.

And those items I would like finalized after the December 14th community meeting, sir.

So with that, I yield to see our vote.

- [Chairman] Yep, thank you for that.

We have a motion on the floor to approve and we do have a second to that motion.

Are there questions, comments?

I see the lights on the board.

Councilwoman Hill, I see your light.

You are active, thank you.

- I would like to second Councilman Smith's motion.

- [Chairman] Okay, let's hold on.

- Oh, okay.

- [Chairman] Before we make motions on top of motions on top of motions, we have a process.

We have a motion on the floor to approve.

We do have a second to that motion.

Do you wish to continue with those motions?

- [Councilwoman Hill] No, I don't wish to continue with the first motion.

- I know, I'm asking.

(Councilwoman Hill chuckles) Do you wish to continue with your motion?

- [Councilman] I do.

- Okay, then we will vote.

We will take the vote.

There's a motion on the floor.

- [Councilman] I have a follow-up question.

- Of course.

- Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

- [Chairman] Mm-hmm.

- Phil, is there any reason, so what I'm trying to do is give the community some assurance that we're going to do what we say we're gonna do in passing, also in addressing the rezoning.

Is there any reason after these meetings that we can't come back and amend a resolution or even present a resolution that enhances this resolution?

I mean, we can always come back and address this resolution at another time, correct?

- [Phil] Well, under Robert's Rules, this resolution would've had a motion and a second and a vote with the body.

- It does.

It has a motion and second.

- [Phil] And if there is a vote that it is denied, then that resolution has been denied.

It could be a new resolution with different provisions within it that could be presented at any time or there could be a motion to reconsider under Robert's Rules by someone that voted against the resolution.

- My question, my question, Phil, is if we pass this resolution tonight... - [Phil] Yes, sir.

- Can it be amended after these community agreements?

- [Phil] Oh, sure.

- Or community members?

- [Phil] You could do amendments if it is approved here by the voting.

- So we can give the community some assurance here tonight by passing this resolution and then continuing to dialogue and then we can further amend this resolution to enhance it.

Is that correct?

- [Phil] You could do that as well, yes.

- Thank you.

- [Phil] As a body.

- Call for the question.

Mr.

Chair.

- [Chairman] Question has been called.

Any questions or comments further on this item?

A yes vote will approve, a no vote will deny.

Madame Clerk, roll call, vote please.

- [Clerk] Councilman Henderson?

- [Councilman Henderson] Yes.

- [Clerk] Councilwoman Hill?

- [Councilwoman Hill] No.

- [Clerk] Councilman Smith?

- [Councilman Smith] No.

- [Clerk] Councilman Hester?

- [Councilwoman Hester] No.

- [Clerk] Councilwoman Berz?

- [Councilwoman Berz] No.

- [Clerk] Councilwoman Noel?

- [Councilwoman Noel] No.

- [Clerk] Councilwoman Coonrod?

- [Councilwoman Coonrod] No.

- [Clerk] Vice Chair Dotley?

- [Vice Chair Dotley] No.

- [Clerk] Chairman Ledford?

- No.

- [Clerk] Eight nos, one yes.

- Resolution is denied.

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