Chattanooga city officials want to ensure that the neighbors of a proposed $79.5 million multiuse stadium in the South Broad District experience revitalization alongside the long-blighted property where the facility could soon rise.
"We want that revitalization to be something that happens with the neighborhood - not something that happens to the neighborhood," Ellis Smith, director of special projects for Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, said in a phone interview Friday.
To that end, Smith said Kelly has directed staff to develop a community benefits agreement that would outline expectations above and beyond those already included in the project. Smith believes that could include three general components: Ensuring that local workers profit from the growth in that area, that existing residents aren't priced out of their homes and that money goes towards improving infrastructure.
But there are still some steps that must occur before officials can finalize a document. Although it has secured an OK from the Hamilton County Commission, the project itself still needs approval from Chattanooga City Council, which will take up that proposal during its meeting Tuesday. The action will include deciding whether to form a new sports authority that would issue bonds for construction of the stadium and whether to draw a 470-acre special tax district to fund the project.
Using a tool called tax increment financing, a portion of the new property tax revenue generated by development in the district would be used to pay down bonds that fund the building of the stadium - which would sit on roughly eight acres on the larger 141-acre former U.S. Pipe/Wheland Foundry site.
Smith said that the new sports authority could play a role in coordinating a community benefits agreement. The master developer of the project, Jim Irwin, and the primary user of the facility, the Chattanooga Lookouts, could also be party to that agreement, but it's vital for the deal to include input from the public, Smith said, which would occur through a series of community meetings.
City leaders have already held a few, Smith said, and if the council approves the project on Tuesday, staff would increase the frequency of those meetings. Smith said Irwin has also completed similar revitalization efforts in blighted parts of other cities and prioritizes engaging with nearby residents to help shape the vision for the site.
One organization lobbying for an agreement is the nonprofit group Chattanooga in Action for Love, Equality and Benevolence.
Michael Gilliland, CALEB's organizing director, said there are already clear public benefits to the project, citing the $40 million that city officials have said would go to Hamilton County Schools over 30 years if development in the district reaches a conservative estimate of $350 million worth of investment.
What isn't necessarily guaranteed is that communities most affected by a project like this enjoy the same positive outcomes.
"How do working class people benefit from the type of development that's coming in?" Gilliland said by phone on Friday. "We want to make sure this is the best project possible and it reaches deep into the community to help lift the community as a whole up."
Gilliland sees the potential for two specific agreements: One for the stadium site itself that would be tied to the lease with the Chattanooga Lookouts and another with the master developer that could outline commitments for affordable housing, ethical contracting, living wages and partnerships with the Howard School's Future Ready Institutes.
The advantage of a community benefits agreement, Gilliland said, is that it details expectations in a written contract between a developer and a community coalition and includes transparency, monitoring and review to help ensure those promises come to fruition.
On the affordable housing front, Gilliland said it could be possible for officials to set aside a certain number of acres or units for people of various income levels.
He added that the mayor's office has made it clear that the administration places a high priority on ensuring affordable housing is part of this project, which Gilliland said could be done by reinvesting excess tax increment financing funds or developing a community land trust for the broader district.
Irwin and Lookouts managing owner Jason Freier did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Smith said there are already innate benefits to the project. The multiuse stadium will be a publicly owned facility that will provide regular recreational opportunities whether there's a ballgame occuring there or not.
The special tax district developed to fund the project would also support the completion of the Alton Park Connector, which will provide a walkable greenway stretching from Southside Community Park to the Wheland Foundry trailhead of the Tennessee Riverwalk.
"This stadium will be a jewel in Chattanooga's crown," Smith said. "People coming around the bend will no longer have to look at an apocalyptic wasteland."
Instead, Smith said, they will be able to watch baseball, relax at a beer garden, enjoy the Riverwalk or stroll on the Alton Park Connector.
"All those things are benefits," Smith said, "but the community benefits agreement will spell out specific benefits for that community that go above and beyond that."
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6249. Follow him on Twitter @flavid_doyd.