Tuesday, July 14, 2009

About That Proposed Hotel Across From Bass Pro Shop....

A former neighbor of Bass Pro, who lived in the area of the proposed hotel, writes the Bus: The lands in issue are in the Enterprise Zone, and specific uses are spelled out about what can and cannot be put in. A hotel and any other purely profit-making enterprise was not allowed, councilman John Wilson argued back in the 1990s. Whether rezoning hearings include usage discussions, as in Enterprise Zone rules, is unknown, members of the neighborhood watch group need to find out.

Morris had tax incentives that made non-proceeding more beneficial than forcing through the building of a hotel back in 1994, so after he came in and destroyed the neighborhood's neighborhoodliness, the development plan was dropped and adjacent property owners were not notified of the change in plans.

A private/public deal was struck in 1994 between the city and Target (TIF Financing)--setting a precedent. Will that precedent now be used for replacement of the original tax incentives Morris had?

Morris's original tax incentives had a 25-year lifespan that expire in 2009.

Somewhere there is documentation that the lands in issue are in the Enterprise Zone, and specific uses are spelled out about what can and cannot be put in.

I wondered why, in this economy, would anyone be wanting to build a big hotel..especially since Becky Spence, John Q and the guy developing the Heer's building are not proceeding very fast with their projects. Knowing that, according to the information I received, the original tax incentives had a 25-year lifespan and will will expire in this year--well that may be a reason why the zoning change is being proposed at this time by Bass Pro Shop.

There is a report, a 50 Q&A report, titled "Fungus Amungus" prepared, complete with illustrations, that was given to the city and the neighborhood association in 2006 regarding this area. I am trying to track down a copy.

I know that the city routinely destroys documents after a certain length of time. (Jason Wert wrote an excellent blog post on this subject. When I went to reference it, it seems he has not only quit writing LifeOfJason, but he deleted the entire blog. That is a shame because his city council live blogging gave us information that we got from no other source.) I don't know if the information about this subject is still in city files somewhere or not.

4 comments:

d5thouta5 said...

Not sure about the planning board's objective in the allowance of Bass Pro Shop to construct a hotel in their immediate vacinity, but I would dare to suggest that the people responsible for the Heers project and their like, have no way neat the experience and success ratio of Johnny Morris...
what has this man failed at recently....20-25 years past....if he has agreed to..or solicited the city for the right to expand with the inclusion of a hotel within walking distance of the local Bass Pro Shop..by all means encourage him....he seems the only individual able to grow a local economy.....besides...rednecks sleep every so often anyway....might as well have them sleep close to where their money is....

shak el said...

Wanda Sue parrot (not sure of the last name spelling) is the author of the fungus amongues. She lives on Washita and South street next to an empty lot which was point zero for flooding (city bought the house and tore it down)

Link here said...

The city bought Parrott's house and she moved to California.

shak el said...

She was always wanting the city to buy her house (it was severely damaged by flooding) but could not get them to do so. Looks like she moved two months ago. At least she is finally happy. She was the author of that fungus amongust report (amongst other texts she used to slip under my door).