Topic: Economic Development

HUD finds flaws in Redevelopment Plan

By Terry McMoore | June 4, 2008 |

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in response to a complaint filed by the Clarksville NAACP found numerous flaws in the Clarksville Center Redevelopment and Urban Renewal Plan voted into law by the City Council with full support of Mayor Johnny Piper.

HUD authorities could not find any proposed objectives that would provide protection for low to moderate income residents and their property mentioned in the voted on ordinance.

The Clarksville NAACP first bought these issues to the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice and HUD after feeling that the civil rights and the federally protected rights of the Majority Minority Voting Ward was in jeopardy of being dismantled under this voted on redevelopment plan.

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‘Serious discord’ on ‘flawed’ development plan could jeopardize future HUD funds

By Jimmie Garland, Sr. | June 2, 2008 |

Jimmie M. Garland, President, NAACP #5582, responds to correspondence from HUD regarding the Downtown Redevelopment and Urban Renewal Plan. Mr. Garland directed numerous questions about the plan to both HUD and the Justice Department in May.

In response to correspondence received from the Nashville, Tennessee Office of Housing and Urban Development dated May 20, 2008, the Clarksville Tennessee Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) would like to thank the Nashville HUD office for its prompt response.

Although several of our concerns were addressed in their response, we feel there is still serious discord between the intent of the Ordinance as approved by the City Council and the understanding the residents have concerning the impact the redevelopment plan will have on their communities.

It is factual that Section 13 of the Tennessee Code Annotated clearly states that certain and deliberate steps must be taken to establish a redevelopment district. In developing the local development plan, the Clarksville City Council has apparently ignored the code, cherry picking areas that meet their objectives. It is troubling to know that the redevelopment plan, as written, does not meet all the objectives of the City of Clarksville five-year consolidated plan. «Read the rest of this article»

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Clarksville to host “Fair Housing” workshop

June 2, 2008 |

The City of Clarksville Office of Housing and Community Development will host a workshop on Fair Housing at the Customs House Museum on June 23, 2008 from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm.

The workshops are offered in partnership with Legal Aid of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, The Housing Fund, Inc., Greater Nashville Regional Council, The United Way of the Greater Clarksville Region, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Nashville Field Office and the Tennessee Housing Development Agency.

2008 marks the 40th Anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act. But how much do you know about the Act and its impact on your life, your business or your community? What are your rights as a citizen? What are your responsibilities as a landlord? What is the process to file a Fair Housing complaint? What’s the difference between reasonable modification and reasonable accommodations? «Read the rest of this article»

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Think Clarksville! Shop Clarksville!

May 29, 2008 |

Lately, the national economic news is rather bleak—there’s even been the reluctant mention of the “R” word, but how does it apply to our area? Further, what can we do about it?

According to a new U.S. Census report, the Clarksville TN-KY Metropolitan Statistical Area is now the 10th-fastest growing MSA in the nation. Even though the national news may be depressing, our local economy is in good shape. Jimmy Settle, business editor for The Leaf Chronicle, says of the recent slow down in the residential market, “It’s a temporary condition, and should be perceived as more of a correction in the market, than a troubling decline. The truth is, the economy in northern Middle Tennessee is currently one of the nation’s best.”

The other truth is the residents in Clarksville are doing more than their share when it comes to helping the economic growth for surrounding cities and counties. The numbers are quite staggering! (More on those numbers later . . .)

The entire nation is feeling the pain at the gas pump. Gas prices are at an all time high and climbing higher. We’re all thinking about how to save gas, which will then make more money available for the necessary expenses and the extras; extras like dining out, shopping for clothes and home goods, entertainment, and more. Where will we be dropping those shopping and dining dollars? «Read the rest of this article»

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Location! Location! Location! Fuel storage on the Cumberland!

By Turner McCullough Jr. | May 22, 2008 |

In real estate, they say location is everything. In placement of fuel storage terminals, no truer words were ever spoken!

TEPPCO Partners, LP announced plans to construct a new refined product terminal in Clarksville along the Cumberland River. Two local businessmen apparently are engaged in this development. Normally one is inclined to celebrate such high dollar economic investment in the community.

This project is part of a three terminal initiative which will cost approximately $75 million. However, it must be noted that the given location is just several brief miles above the city’s water intake facility, our only water intake point on the Cumberland. As such, it poses a serious potential hazard to our drinking water supply.

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Property Rights group slapped with $500k libel suit; CPRC vows “vigorous” defense

By Christine Anne Piesyk | May 12, 2008 |

• Property Rights group faces $500,000 libel suit
• Controversial development plan under fire
• Councilor Richard Swift, DDP member Wayne Wilkinson claim harm to public image and integrity
• Is this a SLAPP suit?
• CPRC will “vigorously defend” against “frivolous” suit

Another punch has been thrown in the ongoing battle between the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition and both city officials and the Downtown District Partnership: the CPRC has been slapped with a lawsuit over a dissenting advertisement on the issue of redevelopment.

The suit was filed by Wilkinson and Swift on Friday in the 19th Judicial District, Circuit Court of Montgomery County against the CPRC as an organization and, Pam Vandeveer, individually as CPRC treasurer. You can read the complete text of the lawsuit here at Clarksville Online.

CCRP member Joyce Vanderbilt with the CPRC ad

At issue is the veracity of an ad which ran in the Leaf Chronicle on May 3, prior to the May 8 City Council special session at which the final reading and approval of the highly controversial Downtown Redevelopment and Urban Renewal Plan occurred. The ad stated that Clarksville Mayor Johnny Piper, Councilman Richard Swift and DDP member Wayne Wilkinson as developers who worked for passage of the comprehensive redevelopment plan that would cover roughly two square miles of down town Clarksville and which designated the area as blighted.

The lawsuit charges that the CPRC ad made “libelous” statements against plaintiffs Wilkinson and Swift when the CPRC ad implied that [the plaintiffs] placed their “development interests” above the wishes of the community and their constituency. «Read the rest of this article»

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Property Rights group: This is not over!

By Christine Anne Piesyk | May 10, 2008 |

Blatantly disregarding public input and dissent, the City Council voted to approve the controversial Downtown Redevelopment and Urban Renewal ordinance, nicknamed the “blight bill,” even as disgruntled homeowners and small business owners, all members of the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition, dressed in the blood-red color of protest, looked on.

In a May 8 letter written on behalf of the CPRC, Becky McMahan first thanked “those members of the City Council who have given us the courtesy of meeting with us to discuss the Redevelopment Plan,” then presented a number of points for the council to consider the all but pre-ordained vote. «Read the rest of this article»

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City fields 14 ‘representatives’ to Vegas for shopping center convention

By Christine Anne Piesyk | May 1, 2008 |

Clarksvegas. Clarksville to Vegas. Fourteen people traveling on the city’s dime. Make that dollars. Just how many people does it take to represent Clarksville as Tennessee’s Top Spot? And whose money is it anyway? Oh yes, taxpayer money.

A 14-member city delegation headed by Mayor Johny Piper is heading to Las Vegas May 18-21 to represent the city at RECon, a real estate trade fair (read “convention”) sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers that attracts an estimated 50,000 visitors each year. According to the RECon website, the convention “has been renamed and branded as ReCon, emphasizing the R-E-tail, R-eal E-state, Con-gress, Con-vention, Con-ference, aspects of the program.”

The last convention attended by Clarksville officials was in Atlanta, Georgia, which saw the Clarksville delegation ill-prepared (or rather, not prepared at all) to professionally market itself. Things have changed, have run the gamut from no kill to overkill. «Read the rest of this article»

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