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HomeNewsNew Clarksville Family Athletic Complex project ordinance offered

New Clarksville Family Athletic Complex project ordinance offered

Clarksville City Council asked to consider smaller Exit 8 tract

City of Clarksville - Clarksville, TNClarksville, TN – Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan notified City Council members on Wednesday that special called meetings have been scheduled to consider a new ordinance pertaining to 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, 2018 Mayor McMillan announced she would continue efforts to win approval of her Clarksville Family Athletic Complex project.

Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan
Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan

As a result, she has crafted an athletic complex land purchase ordinance for the Council to consider that reduces the amount of land the City would buy by about 100 acres, leaving those parcels in private ownership for eventual commercial development.

The measure first must be considered by the City Council’s Finance Committee, which will meet at 4:30pm Thursday, May 17th in the Council Chambers. The finance panel’s meeting will be followed by a special called meeting of the City Council.

The agenda says the Council will be asked to consider on first reading Ordinance 63-2017-18, which would authorize 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.

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 more than $1 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.

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