Chattanooga's housing bond board shouldn't have any more problems gathering a quorum.
The City Council voted Tuesday to fill five seats on the seven-person Health, Education and Housing Facilities Board. Board member T. Hicks Armor was reappointed to his post, but four others are brand-new.
Joining the board will be two attorneys, Dana Perry and Nicole Osborne, nonprofit executive BettyeLynn Smith and Cowart Place Neighborhood Association Vice President Lloyd Longnion.
The board is responsible for facilitating tax incentives for affordable housing developments in the city. Some of those projects, including renovations at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, have stalled recently, because the crippled board couldn't gather enough members to meet.
Before Tuesday, the board had three vacancies, Armor's term was expired and the board's former chairman resigned after officials questioned whether he lived in the city.
During the vote Tuesday, Councilman Chris Anderson called the five appointees "high-caliber people" and said they were the best fit from a pool of 14 applicants.
In another vote related to the newly restocked housing bond board, council members voted to defer an item that would allow the housing board to approve a payment-in-lieu-of-tax agreement for a 64-unit apartment development at 500 Lindsay St.
River City Company President and CEO Kim White told the Council the development will have 16 efficiency apartments that will rent for $750 a month, and will be open to residents who make $31,000 a year or less -- 80 percent of Hamilton County's median salary.
Councilwoman Carol Berz expressed concern over voting on the item Tuesday, because she had just received the paperwork. And ultimately the vote was put off a week.
The council also took a step to keep new payday lending businesses from flooding Chattanooga before officials consider new zoning rules next week.
In a split vote, the council voted to put a moratorium on city permits for so-called "alternative financing" businesses.
The resolution, which passed 5-4, prevents the city's Land Development Office from issuing permits to new payday lenders, check-cashers, title loan businesses or other such lenders until the council votes on a separate ordinance next week that keeps new alternative financing businesses from clustering in an area.
The ordinance next week would bar alternative financing businesses from opening within 500 feet of residential areas or within a quarter-mile of other similar lenders.
Council members Anderson, Berz, Moses Freeman, Russell Gilbert and Yusuf Hakeem supported the moratorium resolution Tuesday. Chairman Chip Henderson, Larry Grohn, Jerry Mitchell and Ken Smith did not.
Jabo Covert, senior vice president of government affairs for Check Into Cash, the largest alternative finance company in the state, told council members he supports both the resolution and ordinance but still had some questions.
He was happy to see the actions, he said, because they make business easier for his company.
"We do support it, because it will limit our competition. We are the largest provider in Tennessee, so to some extent it prevents our customers from going to our competition," Covert said.
But he said the ordinance singles out some businesses and not others.
He also said the city attempted a similar ordinance in 2005, citing the same studies from George Washington University and California State University, and that effort failed.
Councilman Anderson reminded Covert that many on the past council "failed to get re-elected."
The council will vote on first reading of the ordinance to set distance limits between loan businesses next week.
Contact staff writer Louie Brogdon at lbrogdon@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6481. Follow him on Twitter @glbrogdoniv.