Charter Amendment: The Fairgrounds

There is but one amendment to the Metro Charter on the ballot this Thursday. Known as the "Fairgrounds Amendment," this change to the charter would require two things.

1) The Metro Board of Fair Commissioners will be required to continue to conduct all activities held at the Fairgrounds as of December 31, 2010. Those activities shall include but not be limited to the Tennessee State Fair, the expo activities (lawn and garden show, Christmas Village, etc.) flea market and auto racing; and

2) The Fairgrounds property will not be demolished unless it is approved by 27 votes of the Metro Council.

Some have raised the rather specious argument that the question of the Fairgrounds does not rise to a level of importance necessary for inclusion in the Metro Charter. They are, of course, ignoring the fact that the reason we have a State Fair in the first place is because we are directed to do so by the Metro Charter.

Way back in 1909, the State of Tennessee determined that each county in the state should have a divisional fair. The state set about obtaining locations and sponsoring fairs. After a few years in the fair business the State realized that sponsoring a fair in each county was a load of work and they decided to shift the burden to the counties themselves. So, through Chapter 515 of the Private Acts of 1923, all the counties were enabled to obtain control of their fairgrounds from the state, hold a fair and, if necessary, levy a small property tax to pay for it. This last feature, more than the other, expresses the State's strong support of fairs that exhibit the agriculture and industry of the great State of Tennessee. The only other entity that can levy property taxes in Davidson County is the Metro Council.

When Metro was formed in 1963, Chapter 515 of the Private Acts of 1923 along with the earlier Chapter 490 of the Acts of Tennessee for 1909 were incorporated by reference along with additional language about how Fair Commissioners would be selected and provisions on payment of personnel. The Charter further states that the Metro Council can adopt any ordinance providing for additional duties of the Fair Board. So, it is both proper and appropriate that an amendment to the Charter pertaining to the duties of the Fair Board be brought to you for consideration at the ballot.

The first part of the amendment requires that the activities held at the Fairgrounds as of December 31, 2010 be continued. Unfortunately, the language does not make clear that these activities are to be conducted on the property we know as the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. So, if you ignored the rowdy debate last winter or just moved here from Cleveland, you might not fully understand the intent which is to continue the operation of the Fairgrounds in south Nashville as they are today.

The second part of the amendment prohibits demolition of the Fairgrounds structures unless there are 27 votes. The purpose of this section is in direct response to an effort, which ultimately failed, to demolish the historic auto short track at the Fairgrounds.

So, how you vote on this charter amendment will really come down to how you feel about fairs and the Fairgrounds. There is little doubt that the Tennessee State Fair and the Fairgrounds are not living up to their potential. The place has been plagued by bad politics, bureaucratic indifference and poor management for many years. On a more macro level, the last 50 years or so have seen Nashville, and to a lesser extent, the State of Tennessee put some distance between its urban/suburban present and its agrarian past.

I think it is the latter trend that prompted some folks to view the Fairgrounds as a place to realize their real estate development ambitions. It is the promise of "mixed use" (which most real estate development experts find unlikely) that motivates them. There has also been some chatter about unspecified jobs and economic impact that makes them think we should dispense with the legacy that is the State Fair and the Fairgrounds.

Its checkered past does not mean the future for the State Fair cannot be a bright one. Appreciation for local agriculture is once again on the rise. A few weeks ago, I went to a "cheese" dinner at a Hillsboro Village restaurant. The dinner featured cheeses made in Tennessee. CSA's like Bells Bend and Avalon Acres are becoming more and more popular for people who don't like to speculate on how far their food travels. Tennessee's contributions to industry continue to increase. The Smyrna-built Nissan Leaf is just one example of the innovation that could be put on display at a Tennessee State Fair.

The motto of the State of Tennessee is "Agriculture and Commerce." As Senator Douglas Henry likes to point out, "Agriculture" comes first. Like it or not, we are the capital of the State of Tennessee and with that honor comes some responsibilities and activities that are pressed upon us by our unique status - like the Tennessee State Fair.

Remembering the Flood

Landslide in West Meade

Carport in Warner Parks Community

Warner Parks Community

Belle Meade Terrace Condominiums

Leake Avenue near Parmer Park

More Helpful Links

I have uploaded to Google Doc's reports, spreadsheets and other information you may find helpful like the West Precinct Crime Reports. Look under Helpful Links to the left and below, you will see what I mean. Uploading this info saves me room on the hard drive and makes it available to you whenever you may get a notion to look at it. I am taking requests for additional catagories so just email me if you have anything in mind.

The Two Nashvilles

The legitimate and pressing question of the future of the Tennessee State Fairgrounds has absorbed the attention of the Mayor, the Council, the media and the city for the last several months. While our eyes were diverted, the Tennessee Department of Education released the annual "No Child Left Behind" report card.

Davidson Co schools got a "D" on their report card. Only 27% of kids K-8 tested proficient or advanced in math. Just 41% of the same group tested proficient or advanced in reading and language. For high school kids, 39% tested proficient or advanced in math and 60% in reading and language. Only 66 of our 133 schools were listed as being in "good standing."

Most troubling are the test scores for economically disadvantaged kids. A dismal 19% of economically disadvantaged kids K-8 tested proficient or advanced. The number for reading and language was 32%. For high school students the percentages was 32% and 50%.

Here in the 23rd District the numbers break down this way:

West Meade Elem: 44% of all students proficient or advanced in math; economically disadvantaged 33%. 45% of all students proficient or advanced in reading/language; economically disadvantaged 37%.

HG Hill Middle: 31% of all students proficient or advanced in math; economically disadvantaged 23%. 43% of all students proficient or advanced in reading/language; economically disadvantaged 36%.

Hillwood HS: 37% of all students proficient or advanced in math; economically disadvantaged 26%; 63% of all students proficient or advanced in reading/language; economically disadvantaged 53%.

I have highlighted the numbers for economically disadvantaged kids because 72% of the Davidson Co System is economically disadvantaged. It is our failure as a city to demand more for these kids that returns weak results system-wide. The middle class of all colors have left the system for private schools, magnets, home school and the border counties.

While proponents for development of the Tennessee State Fairgrounds have spoken in hushed and panicked tones about the critical need for land on which to build office buildings for corporate re-locations (a thesis that does not hold up in Michael Cass' careful reporting this morning) they seem to ignore the one thing fundamental to our City's economic future - an educated workforce.

So, when we cast our eyes southward to gaze enviously at the reflective glass office buildings that line I-65, let's try to emulate something more meaningful long term:

Williamson Co had 59% of all students K-8 test proficient or advanced in math; economically disadvantaged 42%. Better than 3/4 of kids K-8 tested proficient or advanced in reading and language; economically disadvantaged kids came in at 59%. For high school kids 72% tested proficient or advanced in math; economically disadvantaged 44%. The high school group tested 88% in reading/language for all students and 66% for economically disadvantaged. All but one Williamson Co school is listed in "good standing."

Public Meeting on Music City Bike Path!

There will be a community meeting on December 15th from 6 to 8pm at the Hillwood HS auditorium to get an update on the proposed Music City Bike Path. This Bikeway will meet a longstanding goal for District 23 resident to better connect the West Meade/Hillwood areas to the Warner Park. Joining CM Holleman and me at the meeting will be representatives from the Mayor's Office, Public Works and the Greenways Commission.

Go to this link for for a map.

If you have any questions. Or would like to discuss further, please give me a call.

The Omni Convention Center Hotel - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

On Thursday the Convention Center Authority approved the Development and Funding Agreement with OMNI Hotels for the construction of a 800 room convention center "headquarters" hotel. The deal actually involves 5 agreements and I presume all were approved at the same time. The most important of those agreements are the Development and Funding Agreement and the Room Block Agreement. The hotel will consist of a minimum of 800 rooms, about 60,000 square feet of meeting space including a ballroom and junior ballroom, business center, spa and pool. Here is a not so quick run-down on the financial and operational aspects of the deal:

The Good: Our brand spanking new convention center will have a "headquarters" hotel. No one believed the malarkey from our somewhat controversial feasibility consultant, Tom Hazinski of HVS in Chicago and endorsed by the Dean administration, that the convention center would prosper without a hotel. Most of us have favored the conventional wisdom (pardon the pun) which said that since even unsuccessful convention centers in America have hotels attached to them it might be difficult to compete if ours did not not. Proving the point to some degree is the fact that bookings have been ominously below even Mr. Hazinski's "no-hotel" scenario projections.

The hotel will be privately financed (albeit with healthy public subsidies), owned and operated. OMNI will bear the operating and construction risk. Before we pat ourselves on the back remember that it is unlikely we could have publicly financed any hotel since virtually all tourist related taxes and revenues have previously been pledged to the convention center itself. The only other option was a general government or "moral obligation" pledge. After all the controversy that surrounded the approval of the convention center itself, putting Nashville in the hotel business was an idea about as politically viable as asking the Mayor of Grand Isle, LA if Tony Hayworth can lead the Mardi Gras parade this year.

The Bad: In exchange for building a hotel for our convention center, OMNI gets an annual payment from Nashville. These payments will total $245.5 million over 20 years. Using an interest rate of 8.75%, these payments represent $103 million in today's money. Nashville will also provide a 62.5% decrease in property tax payment which would work out to about $3 million a year and total $60 million over 20 years.

Nashville will also commit to a room block agreement with OMNI. That agreement says that OMNI will make 80% of its hotel rooms available for "City-wide Events" that are booked at least 36 months ahead of time. A "City-wide Event" is one that uses the OMNI plus one other hotel and requires a minimum of 1,000 hotel rooms. For events scheduled 24 to 35 months ahead of time, the OMNI will make 50% of its rooms available for "City-Wide Events."

The hotel room rate will be established at the sole discretion of OMNI. This provision may be in conflict with the events tentatively booked for the new convention center. A number of the of those events were sold with the stipulation that the headquarters hotel would be no more than 10% above the next four star property. If the Renaissance is booking rooms at about $189 per night then the OMNI can charge no more than $207. Also, many of these pre-booked events do not have food and beverage minimums. The OMNI contract allows the hotel to charge food and beverage minimums commensurate with the event. These sorts of conflicts for events booked before OMNI was on the scene will need to be worked out.

The Ugly: We have been told since this project was first discussed that a convention center needs a 1,000 room hotel so that 800 hotel rooms can be available for booking conventions. The OMNI will only have 640 rooms available for conventions that book 3 years in advance, 400 for those that book 2 years in advance. With meeting attendance getting smaller, I am not sure I agree with this claim but I mention it only to say that we need to be certain that this hotel is adequate to make our convention center successful.

For what it is worth, our not very credible hotel feasibility consultant, HVS, seems to be saying that the hotel won't matter much to our tourism industry. I reviewed Mr. Hazinski's original report, made a few adjustments for his math errors, and compared it to his most recent study dated September 1, 2010. Mr. Hazinski concludes that the difference in hotel and sales tax collections with a hotel and without a hotel is almost precisely what we will pay OMNI in annual subsidies. In other words, the much ballyhooed "surplus" in tax revenues created by the construction of the hotel will be OMNI's surplus, not Metro's. One year, 2013 looks like it will go into the red about $3 million.

Also, much of the additional tax revenue derived from the hotel will not be hotel occupancy taxes but rather sales taxes. Of the $9.9 million extra we are supposed to collect in 2015 as a result of building this hotel only about $750,000 will be a result of more heads in hotel beds. The rest, according to Mr. Hazinski, will come from sales taxes at the OMNI hotel and the convention center or in the downtown Tourist Development Zone. In fact, Mr. Hazinski thinks that the convention center and the hotel will generate about $80 million in taxable sales in 2015. The convention center, also according to Mr. Hazinski, should generate about $25 million in that year. That leaves the hotel to do about $55 million in business. Since he isn't predicting a whole lot more overnight guests, we have to conclude that the OMNI will instead do a booming business in weddings, proms, bar mitzvah and pay parties for people who already live here. And that, of course, is bad news for every other hotel in town that does not have the luxury of fat government subsidies...unless of course Mr, Hazinski is wrong.

Harding Academy/Humane Property Rezone

On Thursday next week the Metro Planning Commission will hear a request to rezone the approximately .80 acres at 112 Harding Place. This lot, commonly known as the Humane Association Property, is currently zoned for a 5 story luxury condo. Harding proposes to rezone it to SP (Specific Plan) to accomodate about 60 parking spaces. Planning staff has recommended approval with conditions. You can read the staff report on page 36 here.

If the MPC approves the rezoning request, then I will file a bill to rezone the property and cancel the exiting PUD. We have scheduled a community meeting for November 11th to discuss. Please mark your calendars for 7pm. We will gather at Harding Academy's Tennessee conference room at 170 Windsor Drive.

In the meantime, please do not hesitate to call if you have any questions.