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.