Topic: redevelopment

‘Blight’ ordinance should be repealed

January 11, 2008 |

The Clarksville City Council should rescind the “blight” ordinance. Start over. Make it right for the city and its residents.

Mayor Johnny Piper made the right decision in opting to cancel the public meeting on Ordinance 73-20050-06, acting on suspicion and subsequently on information that the the Downtown District Partnership and the City Council did not practice “due diligence” or follow state law in preparing, submitting and approving this plan. Over the past six weeks, Piper fired salvos toward former DDP members, stating there “may have been instances that they [DDP] did not follow state law.”

That was one of the questions raised by members of the grassroots citizen group comprised of property owners and taxpayers, Clarksville Property Rights Coalition, who challenged the legality and the morality of the ordinance and have been proved right.

We had the opportunity to listen to residents from the affected area in a meeting last month. After reading the bill in depth and listening to everyone involved, We are fully convinced that this ordinance needs to be abjectly rejected by the County Commission and immediately repealed by the City Council. It’s a rotten piece of legislation that has the danger of being precedent setting. If it sticks, then it will be even more dangerous. Hundreds of people have been attended various meetings in the last two months regarding the ordinance. Even more have been outspoken against it, including City Mayor Johnny Piper.

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Who’s minding the store? Citizen demands oversight, not “a blind eye”

By Shirley Berardo | January 10, 2008 |

This letter was written prior to the cancellation of the DDP redevelopment meeting. However, it’s message is one that deserves an airing, so Clarksville Online has opted to run it with the caveat that, for now, the controversial blight ordinance is on hold.

The Clarksville Center Redevelopment Plan (CCRP) was approved recently by the City Council. On Thursday, January 10, 6:00PM, at Austin Peay State University’s Clement Auditorium, a meeting is scheduled at which the DDP (Downtown Business Partnership) and City officials will answer questions about the Plan.

The Plan is being challenged by concerned residents of Clarksville’s historic districts and downtown areas, the Tennessee State Historic Commission, the Tennessee Preservation Trust, and others because it contains unclear language. The document uses the term “Blighted” in describing the entire Clarksville downtown area, (with the exception of property owned by APSU), which allows for homes to be taken via eminent domain by private developers. Public meetings prior to the approval of the document were limited. No letters were sent; many in the Plan area were not even aware such a document existed prior to the Council vote this past September. «Read the rest of this article»

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DDP redevelopment meeting canceled; Piper to recommend amendment

By Christine Anne Piesyk | January 9, 2008 |

Failure to use due diligence, failure to follow state law cited…tumbles “blight” ordinance…

Coalition group to meet 6 p.m. today in APSU’s Clement Auditorium, in lieu of the previously planned city meeting…City Council members invited to attend…

Clarksville Mayor Johnny Piper, has taken a bold step and reversed direction on the “blight” ordinance. He has decided to cancel a community meeting that was scheduled for Thursday evening at Austin Peay State University, where members of the Downtown District Partnership were to review the Clarksville Center Redevelopment Plan. The meeting was planned to allow the DDP the opportunity to inform property owners in the redevelopment area about the plan that they developed and recommended to the City Council.

“I have great concerns about how this was handled and presented to the City Council by the DDP,” Mayor Piper

The Mayor’s office has received many phone calls and comments from concerned residents over the past few weeks on this issue. In addition, the formation of the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition (CPRC), fueled by angry residents of the downtown area, and two standing room-only grassroots public meetings, provided a highly visible evidence of public discontent with the ordinance and the way it was developed and presented. «Read the rest of this article»

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Piper denies Property Rights group “air time” in “blight” hearing at APSU

By Christine Anne Piesyk | January 9, 2008 |

The issue is redevelopment, but the word that triggers the wrath of downtown property owners is “blight.” To shed light on this controversial issue the city will hold a public meeting and present its take on the redevelopment plan on Thursday.

However, Mayor Johnny Piper has denied a request by the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition for equal time to air their view of the “blight bill” during a hearing to be held at Austin Peay State University’s Clement Auditorium Thursday at 6 p.m.

Atty. John Summers requested a time equal to the that of the city’s presenters to offer the concerns of the affected residents. Since the Downtown District Partnership is presenting a 15-minute program, that would have given property owners their own 15-minute voice on the issue before the question and answer session begins.

Ordinance 73-2005-06, passed in November, 2007, designates two square miles and 1800 homes and businesses in downtown Clarksville as “blighted” and potentially subject to eminent domain as the Downtown District Partnership’s Clarksville Redevelopment Plan and Land Use Master Plan are implemented over the next several years. «Read the rest of this article»

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Property Rights Coalition seeks equal time to air information at “blight” hearing

By Christine Anne Piesyk | January 8, 2008 |

The Steering Committee of the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition has requested that the CPRC, and the groups who are working with us, the Tennessee Preservation Trust and the Clarksville NAACP, be afforded the same opportunity as the Downtown District Partnership to make a presentation to the City Council at the June 10th Informational Meeting on the Clarksville Center Redevelopment Plan.

That meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at Clement Auditorium as Austin Peay State University, which is the only downtown property not affected by the redevelopment plan’s “blight” designation.

In November, 2007, the City Council passed an ordinance declared two square miles of downtown Clarksville as “blighted” for purposes of redevelopment. Homeowners caught unaware by the ordinance and its implications in terms of eminent domain and “blight” form a quick and fast protest and have called for the rescinding of that ordinance.

The CPRC, the TPT, and the NAACP requested a minimum of 30 minutes to address the Council on June 10th, time to be allocated among our three organizations, or an equal amount of time as provided to the DDP (Downtown Development Partnership), if they are given more than 30 minutes. «Read the rest of this article»

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Community meeting to explain method behind the madness of “blight”

By Christine Anne Piesyk | January 4, 2008 |

Officials for the City of Clarksville will hold a community meeting to discuss the Clarksville Center Redevelopment Plan on Thursday, January 10th at 6p.m. in the Clement Auditorium at Austin Peay State University. Missy Graham, Communications Director for the City of Clarksville, said that the meeting location was selected because APSU is located in the Clarksville Center Redevelopment District. APSU is the only property to be exempt from in the newly designated “blight” area.

According to Graham, “several details of the plan have been misrepresented in recent weeks and the Mayor and City Council are hosting this event to help residents understand the objectives of the plan. The Downtown District Partnership worked on the plan for several years before presenting it to the City Council in the fall of 2007. The City Council voted on the plan on two separate occasions and did not receive any opposition from the public.”

Clarksville Property Rights Coalition members maintain they were unaware of the details and language of the ordinance that has lumped all of the downtown area (except APSU) into a “blighted” category for purposes of redevelopment. Participants in these meetings felt “blindsided ” by the blight designation and were quick to line up and sign postcards addressed to their legislators protesting the the ordinance. The anger crossed boundaries of race, gender and income, unifying residents who were seeking answers and explanations. «Read the rest of this article»

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Another look at the “blight” debate: videotape of Property Rights Coalition Forum at the train station

By Christine Anne Piesyk | December 27, 2007 |

Last week Clarksville Online offered you, our readers, the complete content of the Dec. 14 HOPE-sponsored meeting to review the “blight” designation applied to downtown Clarksville via Ordinance 73-2005-06.

That first meeting was called in response to a City Council voted that placed two square miles, and 1800 homes and business under a “blighted property” designation to facilitate a Downtown Redevelopment Plan. It is the largest “blanket blighting” in the country and has raised the ire of virtually all the homeowners and many of the businesspeople who reside in or own property in that area. In addition to the start of a postcard and petition drive, the Coalition called for a repeal of the new ordinance, which many property owners say “blindsided” them, signs have also been popping up as a show of protest. The City Council is planning a forum to respond to citizen concerns but have not yet announced a date, time, place, or list of speakers.

Today we present a second tape, this one of the Dec. 17 Clarksville Property Rights Coalition meeting held at the historic L&N Train Station in the heart of what is quickly becoming referred to as “Blightsville” USA.

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City Council plans public forum to address citizen concerns on redevelopment, blight

By Christine Anne Piesyk | December 23, 2007 |

As details of the recent City Council action in approving Ordinance 73-2005-06 unfold, residents of the two-square mile downtown district now deemed “blighted” awakened to what is perceived as a potential threat to their homes and neighborhoods in form of “redevelopment” and eminent domain. The Council quietly whispered through the new ordinance and the people roared back their displeasure in the form of grassroots meetings and the beginnings of a sign campaign that touts the area as “Blightville.”

The City Council, which had considered the plan a done deal, is now facing the need to justify the Downtown Redevelopment Plan. They will respond to an angry constituency with a meeting of their own, a public forum to be held in January on a yet to be determined date and time and location. The Council hearing will be led by an as yet unnamed attorney. They’ll need a big room, since the opposition is growing steadily, as noted with the three hundred people who showed up for the December 17 petition drive at the Historic Train Station on Tenth Street. «Read the rest of this article»

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