Planners delay decision on riverfront development
The Chattanooga/Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission on Monday deferred until July making a recommendation on a requested zoning change to convert 59 acres near and along the Tennessee River from a manufacturing zone to a mixed-use commercial and residential C-3 zoning.
Bean. Bowl LLC, a development arm of Fletcher Bright Co., is proposing to use the former Central Soya property at 1200 Judd Road primarily for riverfront homes with waterfront access. Planners said the C-3 zone was designed for the downtown area and is being revised as part of Mayor Tim Kelly’s efforts to update city zoning regulations.
To help the planning staff assess the proposed zoning restrictions and provisions sought by the developer of the former Central Soya site, the advisory planning board voted Monday to defer any decision until their July 11 meeting.
The Chattanooga City Council will ultimately decide on the zoning change, which the developers are seeking as part of a $400 million plan to reactivate the former manufacturing brownfield site.
Buffett luncheon raises $3 million for charity
Bidding for a final, private lunch with Warren Buffett, an event that has raised tens of millions for a California charity, has already topped $3 million.
It will be the first private lunch offered with the billionaire since a record-setting bid in 2019. The past two auctions were called off due to the pandemic and Buffett has said this will be the last.
The online auction that raises money to support the Glide Foundation’s work to help the homeless in San Francisco began Sunday and continues through Friday night.
So far only four bidders have participated and driven the price up to $3,000,100, but the biggest bids don’t usually come until closer to the end of the eBay auction. Bidding during the last event reached an unprecedented $4,567,888.
Buffett has raised has raised nearly $34.5 million for Glide since the auction began in 2000. Many of the past winners paid high prices for the chance to pick Buffett’s brain about investing and talk about life lessons with the 91-year-old.
Microsoft eases way for union at Activision
Microsoft and the Communications Workers of America union announced an agreement Monday that would make it easier for employees to unionize at video game-maker Activision Blizzard, which Microsoft is acquiring for $70 billion.
Under the deal, which appears to be the first of its kind in the technology industry, Microsoft agreed to remain neutral if any of Activision’s eligible U.S. employees want to unionize, and employees would no longer have to petition the National Labor Relations Board for an election. The company has almost 7,000 employees in the United States, most of whom will be eligible to unionize under the arrangement.
A group of nearly 30 employees at one of Activision’s studios voted to unionize through an NLRB election in May despite Activision’s opposition to holding the election. But completing such a process can be time-consuming, with unions and employers sometimes spending months or even years litigating the results.
Through the agreement, workers will have access to an expedited process for unionizing, overseen by a neutral third party, in which they will indicate their support for a union either by signing cards or confidentially through an electronic platform.