34.5 F
Clarksville
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsClarksville City Council votes 8-5 to buy land for Clarksville Family Athletic...

Clarksville City Council votes 8-5 to buy land for Clarksville Family Athletic Complex

Second and final vote expected Friday afternoon at 4:00pm

City of Clarksville - Clarksville, TNClarksville, TN – The Clarksville City Council voted 8-5 Thursday to approve a new ordinance allowing purchase of land off Rossview Road near Interstate 24 Exit 8 for use as an athletic complex.

After the Council voted 7-6 against purchasing a larger 409-acre tract on May 3rd, Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan announced she would continue efforts to win approval of her Clarksville Family Athletic Complex project.

Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan's new ordiance for Clarksville Family Athletic Complex project was approved Thursday by the City Council.
Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan’s new ordiance for Clarksville Family Athletic Complex project was approved Thursday by the City Council.

As a result, she crafted an athletic complex land purchase ordinance for the Council to consider.

The new ordinance reduces the amount of land the City would buy by about 100 acres, leaving those parcels in private ownership for eventual commercial development.

The ordinance was first considered by the City Council’s Finance Committee on Thursday, which gave its approval with a 5-0 vote. Immediately after the finance panel’s meeting, the City Council, in a special called meeting, approved the ordinance 8-5 on first reading.

A second and final reading of the ordinance is expected at another special called meeting at 4:00pm Friday, May 18th.

The Council also approved 7-6 a resolution introduced by Councilman Jeff Burkhart stating: “… it is the sense of the Council to invest equally, to the highest extent practicable, in the both the construction of an athletic complex and roads and infrastructure throughout the City of Clarksville.”

Ordinance 63-2017-18 authorizes the Mayor, acting through the City Attorney, to negotiate and enter into an agreement for the purchase of the property. The roughly 300-acre tract would not exceed $4,083,000, plus reasonable acquisition costs and fees. The purchase price of the larger 409-acre tract considered May 3rd was about $6 million.

Mayor McMillan explained the revised 300-acre purchase would be large enough to accommodate a proposed Tennessee State Soccer Association state soccer park and a baseball stadium complex to attract a Prospect League summer collegiate baseball team, both of which were key components of the deal on the table May 3rd. The TSSA facility is considered an especially lucrative element of the deal, because of the association’s ability to schedule tournaments that would draw thousands of teams and families to Clarksville for overnight stays and related tourism spending.

The new proposal reduces the size of the City-owned athletic complex by 100 acres and reduces the purchase price by nearly $2 million, while preserving the economic development potential of the plan in which increased sports tourism-related tax revenues would offset costs of building the athletic complex. The complex would also provide much-needed new facilities that would be used extensively by Clarksville youth leagues and teams.

RELATED ARTICLES

Latest Articles