City Council - workshop

Call us to order here.

We do have a floor, but we might be waiting on a few, but we'll come to order, everybody. Welcome to all of our guests, and thank you all for being here with us today. Council, as we get started, could I get a motion on our minutes from our previous meeting? So moved.

Second.

All right. The minutes will stand as published. We do have a couple of discussions today, and as we get ready for those and for our meeting this afternoon at 3.30, which is quite busy since we were off last week, I look forward to having a good discussion and debate of ideas in which we just treat each other with respect and courtesy. and i hope that's something we'll each of us commit ourselves to each time we gather together so in that spirit we will get started here our first topic this afternoon is a discussion of the allocation and reallocation of arpa funds we have weston and kevin here for that i know that over the past few months several of us have had questions about different aspects of ARPA funds and who they went to and how much is left and have they been reallocated and all those sorts of things. So I've asked them to be here today to kind of answer some of those questions and to give an overview of where we are in terms of spending those monies in general.

Absolutely. Well, thank you, Chairman Davis, for the opportunity. What we have prepared to get us going in the conversation is just a high-level presentation that Finance put together. We also have Shelby Glover here with us who can help answer any questions as they come up, but I'll let Weston get us started.

Sure. So just to kind of, like Kevin said, a quick high-level overview of ARPA. So our original ARPA award was $38.6 million. 8.6 of that went to some specific things like the airport inn. some COVID-related health things, some administrative compliance type costs, and some specific nonprofit allocations. But then $30 million was set aside for the one Chattanooga relief and recovery plan. And with that set aside was eight priority areas with a number of different recipients and some internal programs. Those eight areas were homelessness, workforce development, affordable rental, affordable homeownership, entrepreneurship, mental health, public safety, and early learning. And just as a quick aside, if you go to the city's website, there is actually a webpage dedicated to that. So if you want more information on it, you can kind of drill down into each one of those different buckets. And there's some additional resources at the bottom of that too. So if you want more information on that relief and recovery plan, They are on our website. Of all those programs, of the $38.6 million, we have a few things that are still hanging out. Most all of that money has been spent and has been put to work. But these few things are still outstanding. So the $1.5 million, I think we had some questions around this, allocated to the Enterprise Center to expand the Hamilton County Schools EdConnect program. And so the EdConnect program was originally set up to provide connectivity to students during COVID in that digital learning environment that we were in where folks were having to do Zoom school and it was kind of a crazy time. Hamilton County Schools, EPB, set up this program to connect lower income neighborhoods to the internet in order for them to do schooling in the right way. And this $1.5 million is an extension of that that is intended to find connectivity at the west side developments that is underway across town.

Yeah, and point of clarity on this, which the Enterprise Center and APB helped me come to appreciate, is that while this is modeled after HCS EdConnect powered by EPB. It's not the same program. It's digital connectivity for these targeted communities in the west side. And I have some stats here about who is going to be the beneficiary. So it's 566 units in one west side. It's public Wi-Fi access at James A. Henry Hub and in other public locations at one west side. It's in-home access for approximately 876 units in the Emma Wheeler Homes, Dogwood Manor, and Mary Walker Tower, supporting older adults in Chattanooga Housing Authority managed housing. And then it's also expanded public Wi-Fi access in other neighborhoods and bus stops and community-informed locations in Chattanooga. I can get that full list from the Enterprise Center, but I don't have it in that write-up.

So that's what that 1.5 is. We do have an agreement with the Enterprise Center. They're actively working to spend that money right now. So that project is underway. They haven't spent it yet, but they are working on it. The $2.8 million for the low barrier shelter, that is money set aside for that purpose. As far as I'm aware, there is no set plan for what that looks like. I think actually I saw on the agenda today that you guys may be discussing that in a meeting coming up in August. But that was money set aside for the purpose of a low barrier shelter. The Chamber Foundation CHAT 2.0 Chattanooga Future Fund, that $900,000, that's actually on future considerations this week, so you'll see it. I think it was added today or yesterday. It was a late addition, so you should see it if you haven't already. That money is for the savings accounts for kindergarten, first grade, and middle school age students, I believe, through CHAT 2.0 and the CHAT Future Fund. And so that was supposed to be paid out over a number of years. We've decided let's just go ahead and give them this one so that we can kind of clear the books of it and just go ahead and get it out. And then $125,000, that was related to the extended hours at James A. Henry. So that was taken care of in the 2017 budget. So that's where we're at on outstanding items.

There we go.

So again, the original award was $38.6 million. We accrued interest on money that was sitting in savings account and just not spent yet. So $42 million total.

Could we pause here?

Oh, sorry.

I just had a specific question about the digital connectivity. How long will that digital connectivity last with this money?

How long will it last? Do you mean like once it's stood up?

The original plan was a 10-year commitment, so what is this?

That's a great question. I don't know the answer. I'll find out.

Okay, thank you. That's all, Mr. Schroeder.

Are there other questions? And we can take questions as we go along with that. I know we're kind of digesting a lot of information here. Yeah.

This was the reason why we requested this, was to talk about the HCS, which stands for Hamilton County Schools, correct? But you just said that it's not an actually Hamilton County Schools program, is that correct?

So, yeah, I did say that, and I didn't know that, and it has been called in all of the documentation all along HCS EdConnect program, but I was corrected last week when I was following up with Enterprise Center and with EPB that while it is modeled after and came in the context of the broader HCS EdConnect program, it is not actually part of that program because this is going to be providing digital connectivity to non-Hamilton County School students. low-income residents. So the HCS is oriented towards qualifying families with Hamilton County school system, pupils, pupils, school children, there we go, students, thank you. Pupils.

I have a couple of follow-up questions. Sure, go ahead. So this new Version of this program is going to be administered by EPB, but it has a current sister program with HCS I'm assuming that most just my knowledge of the housing authority and who qualifies for some of the houses at the For this project a lot of those homes already have children in them so We talked about I think 800. I think you wrote it out. I didn't I couldn't access my email on the phone, but I It's 876 units. Do we know how many of those? And I think that's just for one site.

That's for, it sounds like those are all of the elderly towers. Mary Walker. Mary Walker, okay.

I'm just curious to know how much overlapping.

There's not going to be any overlap. Okay. And while it is distinct from, it's pursuant to, and it's kind of like, it's an incremental... number of folks who are going to be impacted by the same digital connectivity initiative, just under a different branding because of the funding sources.

And how many of these units, so we've had, they've had this money kind of in a holding sale for, I think, what, five or six years now? Have they implemented any of these units? And I know the One West Side project is under construction, but the other sites are not. Right.

So have they... No, they have not fully implemented because for a number of reasons. One, delay in construction over there. But two, there were some uncertainties related to broader funding for the Enterprise Center and as it related to this, being able to do this, that for a minute were in question in conjunction with a delay in construction that led to just this lag. But we are in ongoing conversations with them. The contract is executed and they... are committed to leveraging and deploying, spending down this money by the end of this year, this calendar year.

So when you say deploying and spending down the money, does that mean that 876 units will have the installation of EPB fiber optics? That is my understanding. Is that their understanding? Well, that's good to know because that's in a short period of time, considering they've had the money for a long period of time. So that's good news. I think our initial question was about utilization. If we need to move it, if they were not going to use it, then surely, I'm sure some of us could come up with better ways to spend $1.5 million. if it's not being used. So but it is being deployed and implemented by this project.

It was delayed but it is it is now on track and it is scheduled to be deployed within the original parameters set forth in the contract. So according to the contract that's executed, it's going to be deployed and implemented by the end of this year.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Any other questions at this point, counsel?

So in FY27, we use some of the interest earned on these monies for these purposes. You guys also have access to the Google sheet that outlines everything. It's got all of it, but these were the 27 items on that list. They showed as proposed, but these obviously haven't been spent yet, so you'll see them as unspent, but we're going to get that taken care of this year. And then again, kind of just funding overview. The original award was $38.6 million. We had earned interest since we received that money at $3.5 million. We have spent a total of almost $42 million of it with the remaining uncommitted interest earned of $200,000. That was as of the end of May. There will be some small amount added to that in June. And that is all I've got.

I think it might be helpful, hopefully it's helpful to explain The following, which going back to the conversation that we had a couple of weeks ago in the chamber. So we can't spend any money without council approval. You guys control the purse string. So when this federal money came down, it was a non-competitive grant. There was some formula allocation. And so we were the recipient of these dollars that we're talking about. And then in the form of the one Chattanooga recovery plan, there was a whole list of things that uh that would be funded through it and so the resolution that adopted the one chattanooga plan you guys authorized that that money be spent according to the plan over the course of time some of those projects did not materialize um and there were some changes so any time that we have since wanted to an alternate use of those funds we've had to bring forward resolutions which is why we've had kind of this ongoing like bank and dunk of all these different resolutions is because we have to seek your permission to go and spend the money in a way that deviates from what you had already passed and authorized um and so as we said during the budget process i'll reiterate now our our intent is to go ahead and get rid of all of this ARPA money so that we no longer have to do these resolutions. And so that is all spoken for. So I hope that was helpful.

Okay. Council, are there any other questions about the ARPA presentation this afternoon before we move on? Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kevin and Weston. So our next presentation this afternoon will be On the historic preservation process, I will turn things over to Councilman Clark and Cassie Klein. Yeah.

I'm going to let Cassie introduce her crew, but thank you, Council, and thank you, Chairman Davis, for letting us discuss this on strategic planning. As you all remember, we had a very successful town hall that was co-hosted by myself, Vice Chairman Elliott, and Cody Harvey, who's upstairs, by the way. He's working on another project in preparation for our council meeting at 3.30. Very successful. We had representations from several council districts, and we have a desire, as you know, that we did fund Preserve Chattanooga to the tune of about $30,000 to conduct studies, to utilize consultants. regarding how do we preserve Chattanooga's more precious historic landmarks and we have a staff person who's amazing who works with the Historic Zoning Commission which we have not I think the last time we deferred something for historic zoning was in the 90s. So the council, I believe, has work to do as our city is aging. America is 250 years old. So we've got a lot of things that we want to make sure that's preserved for the next generations to come. I joined in strategic planning today and thank y'all so much for coming. Of course, we have former councilman Russell Gilbert who A dear friend of mine who actually spoke at the preservation town hall meeting and told me something I didn't know, which is the purpose, right? Town hall meetings is to learn and be informed and then to act accordingly. And that was the information about Turkey Foot Hollow, which was an African-American unincorporated municipality in the county. And I had the pleasure of being with his daughter, Skyree, which I'm wearing my glasses today so I cannot see. Skyree and Councilman Gilbert are chairing the efforts with the descendants of the, who are all here today. If y'all could just stand so we can recognize you and clap for you, please. And as I introduce them, their families are all represented today, but in Turkey Foot Hollow, there's a cemetery called Johnson Cemetery, which is a historic African-American cemetery of indigenous people. You can be seated. Thank you so much. I just wanted to be recognized. Of indigenous people, African people, after we won the war, I think the World War II,

The Civil War. The Civil War, excuse me. World War II.

We still were not able to live in portions of the city, and so we were put in places, including where our cemeteries are, but they have not been preserved or protected. There is a, and Cassie's going to talk about this, there is a Misnomer that when you register a site that that protects it and it does not. We have a legal process through the state, which Cassie is going to discuss that as a council, we must act to actually protect this site from any future development or any encroachment. any type that would interfere with the historic integrity of the property. In this case, this is Johnson Cemetery. And then afterwards, after Cassie's presentation, I'll also prepare the council for a piece of resolution that we hope to introduce, introducing some of the sites, including Turkey Foot Hollow and Johnson Cemetery. So I just wanted to give you guys that quick overview. And Cassie, I will turn it over to you.

Okay, great. Thank you so much, Councilman Clark. Thank you, everyone, for having me today. Good afternoon. We're going to discuss local historic designation processes with you all this afternoon. So we're going to look at an overview of historic zoning and historic designation. We're going to look at who can make an application, and then we're going to look at the public process, and then I'll leave some time for questions. If you want to ask questions as I'm going through it, just let me know. So an overview of historic zoning and designation. You all might remember this from the guidelines presentation that we did, but just to kind of bring everyone back up to speed, there's two different types of historic designation in the city of Chattanooga, local and national, which Councilman Clark talked about as well. So we have historic zoning, which is our local historic landmarks and our local historic districts. And then we have the National Register of Historic Places. Local historic districts and landmark overlays protect historic properties from demolition and inappropriate alterations. The city currently has four local historic districts and we have one local landmark. So Fort Wood, St. Elmo, Ferger Place, Battery Place, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Shaven House on Missionary Ridge. And then the National Register is a national designation that mostly functions as an honorary distinction. The National Register does not protect historically significant properties from demolition or inappropriate alterations. There are Some benefits that you can get from being listed on the National Register, if it is an income-producing property, you can apply through the State Historic Preservation Office for federal rehabilitation tax credits. But again, it doesn't have that additional layer of protection that we see with the local historic zoning designation. So looking a little more closely at our local landmarks and districts, you can see there are five criteria that a property or a district must meet to qualify. You only have to meet one of these criteria in order to be eligible for local historic designation. These are essentially the same, they're worded slightly differently, but we have the local historic landmark on the left and the local historic district on the right. Basically those five criteria are, is it associated, the site or the district, associated with a historic or significant event? Is it associated with significant people? Does it embody? distinctive characteristics of an architectural style, a work of a specific designer or an architect like R.H. Hunt is one that we see frequently in Chattanooga, does it have archaeological significance, and or is it already listed on the National Register of Historic Places? So that one's there because someone has already done that vetting process all the way to the national level, and we can say, okay, this has local significance as well, so we'd like to designate it. so thinking about who can make an application to make a property locally designated as a landmark or a historic district four types of eligible applicants for local historic landmarks or districts these include city council so you all by resolution could make an application for a landmark or a district neighborhood associations can apply property owners within a district or an individual landmark can apply or a historic civic or professional group. This could include organizations obviously like Preserve Chattanooga is our local preservation nonprofit, maybe the American Institute of Architects or another organization focused on architecture or history or preservation. And then next I'm gonna go over the public process. So once an application has been submitted for local designation, that is when we get into the weeds of getting it through, the wheels that are local government. So once a complete application has been submitted, the proceedings are as follows. And if you have questions about what a complete application looks like, we can definitely discuss that, but staff's going to coordinate a public meeting with the applicant. And that's going to allow public to come in and do comment on the proposal, including seeing the maps of the boundaries, other materials, ask questions of the applicants and of the commission. This meeting is separate from our regular historic zoning commission meeting where they're going to review and vote, um, On the proposal, so this is truly just an informational public meeting public gathering. This meeting shall be held per the ordinance at the development resource center or city hall for local landmarks. And then for historic districts, the meeting would occur in the proposed district where they're asking to become a local district. The application will then be added to a historic zoning commission agenda. So this is where we get into the kind of formal process. And the commission will review the application for completeness and ensure that it meets the applicable criteria. And it's going to look at the boundary and the proposed historic guidelines that the applicants have come up with for the district or landmark as well. the commission is then going to make a recommendation to city council via resolution to either approve or deny the proposed district or landmark based on the criteria that we have in this historic zoning ordinance so this is going to function similarly to the way planning commission makes a recommendation to you all but it's just coming from a different body so from that historic zoning commission upon receipt of that recommendation historic zoning commission From the Historic Zoning Commission, excuse me, City Council will review the request using that same procedure as rezoning. So we would do a presentation and then it would have two readings. And then City Council, you guys ultimately make the final determination to approve or deny the request. If it's approved, you would adopt the district or the landmark, the boundary that's applicable, and the historic guidelines. And then at that point, the subject property or properties would then be required to follow the certificate of appropriateness procedures laid out in Chapter 10, Article 2, which is our historic zoning ordinance. So when we're thinking about Fort Wood or St. Elmo, those folks have additional permit requirements that they have to go through before they get a building permit or a land disturbing permit to ensure that they are in compliance with the historic guidelines. So adopting a new one would then put those procedures in place. And then the other big item, um, another important component of the local landmark or district application process is the moratorium status that's put into place. Once an application has been made to designate a property or a district, the moratorium begins upon application for a local historic district, um, or a landmark. And it stays in place until a decision is rendered by city council for approval or denial. And this moratorium is for all permitting, including demolition repairs, new construction grading. So once you all make a decision, whether that is to approve or deny, that moratorium would then be lifted, and either the certificate of appropriateness process would go into place, or if it didn't pass, we would just go back to kind of business as usual. So it is a temporary moratorium, but it's part of that process. And that's everything I have on the process for you all today. So just let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to answer them.

Okay, I see. That was great. I do have, and if it's okay, Chairman Davis, I'd like Councilman Gilbert speaking for the group. Is it okay to take a question from the floor?

Sure. I don't see any council questions.

Okay. Councilman Gilbert, do you have any questions from the floor? back before Tennessee was Tennessee in this particular area.

The application, he will give her the information and she will help work with him to make sure the application is complete.

Okay. Yeah. And so when we're thinking about what makes an application complete, you know, we would get a map of whatever the area it is that you want to propose to be that local district or landmark if it's the individual cemetery. Uh, we would do a write up a narrative of the history, and then we would look at the guidelines that you would want to impose on the local landmark or the district. So you would come together and I could work with you all and councilman Clark on this to see what makes the most sense for what kind of redevelopment may be allowed. What kind of preservation techniques you do want to happen to ensure that demolition doesn't occur certain kinds of plantings, maybe, or landscaping, like retaining walls, that kind of thing. So we would look at all of that as part of the application, but I would be there to kind of guide

So our point of contact, as far as what the actual physical application is, would now be, because we are now, now that we are discussing this publicly with the council, we'll take questions from the council, we will start that resolution process, if that is a desire from council, to do that, because I'm sure there will be some recommendations from them as well. I have not, I have seen the physical application itself, and I can get a copy So that you all, but it does include some mapping.

Yeah. And if it's 1 of those things where we're ready to move forward, we're doing it via resolution. You're doing it as a property owner. How are you all want to move forward with it? We could set up like a Pre application meeting. We can look at everything that's required so that we can help gather all the materials that we have a complete packet to move forward whenever you're ready.

You got a time frame.

From start to finish, or so, so we have a filing deadline every month. It's the 3rd, Friday of every month. You would make a filing deadline and then you would be heard at the following month's meeting. So it's a ever going throughout the year timeline whenever you guys get the materials together. Once we start the process, it's going to take probably about 60 to 90 days in total just to get from the 1st, public meeting historic and then through city council. There might be a little more time on the front end, too, as we're gathering the historic resources and getting the map together and that kind of thing. So it can take a little bit of time, but the more complete the application is on the front end, the quicker we can move through the actual process because we'll have certain dates that we can do once it's made.

And my last question for Cassie is that if the property is owned by the state, are there any regulatory state laws that supersede our historic zoning process, and can you speak to that just a little bit?

Yeah, and I might defer to Phil Nauglett on this one as well, but this may be similar to what we saw with the School of Arts and Sciences was the Hamilton County is the owner, and they said that we could not impose restrictions on them. So I don't know if it would be a similar situation with the state, but we could definitely confer with the State Historic Preservation Office as well as legal, but I don't know if you have any other...

I think we do need to confer I do have a question from Councilwoman Dotley. Thank you so much Mr.

Chair.

And thank you, Councilman Clark, for bringing this. Anytime we can preserve the history of all Chattanoogans, that's what's most important. So I had a question about, I had never heard this. And I was like, okay. So can you tell us exactly where, roughly where Turkey Foot Hollow is and where the cemetery is?

So Turkey Foot Hollow is off of Champion Road. And if you guys... Portions of it is in the city and portions of it is in the county. It was property that was owned by the Johnson family at some point. It was sold to the state of Tennessee that is now being managed by Booker T. State Washington Park. So there are people currently being buried in the site. Like currently, like now? 2026? 2026. There are descendants who have probably buried families as late as last year or this year. Wow.

Possibly.

I thought there was maybe like two to three years since the last, I can't remember, in the circle where the new, is it the McKenzie family? I can't remember.

It's been a few years. Okay, but a few years.

But it is still an active cemetery. And by state law, they are allowed to go and visit the cemetery at any time. We actually went on a hiking excursion about three weeks ago. A lot of it is overgrown. A lot of the sites, the grave sites, are caved in. And a part of this historic preservation process is actually to do a cleanup and to work with the state about restoration of the site. We had a town hall meeting in Washington Hills last week about some of the technology that we use to survey the site. But the first step is to have a conversation with the state to preserve it. But this portions of Turkey Foot Hollow is in my district. And thanks to Councilman Gilbert, we were notified about it during our town hall preservation meeting.

Thank you so much, Councilman Clark.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair. Yes, so Cassie, an organization can apply, can they just do the whole application themselves and then submit it to you? You offer your support if needed, but it's okay for them. And where do they find the application?

Yeah, absolutely. So you can do the application on your own, especially if you're coming from an organization like Preserve Chattanooga that maybe has the staff and the knowledge to get that application prepared. So you can find the instructions for that on our City of Chattanooga Historic Zoning website. Okay. And then the actual application itself is on our permit portal, the same place that you would go get a building permit or a land disturbing permit. If someone is interested or someone in one of your districts is interested, I highly recommend they reach out, do a pre-application meeting. I have recently been working with folks in Lupton City, and I think we've had five meetings where we went out, we did survey work together, we've had multiple public meetings, and they haven't even submitted yet. So we've been doing kind of that front-end work.

That prep work, yeah.

Okay. It's going to obviously depend, right? A district versus a landmark. We're going to have to get a lot more people together versus maybe only a couple of owners or one person. So it can be site specific. But if you are even a little bit interested, definitely reach out to staff and we can kind of get you pointed in the right direction. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And last, Vice Chairman Elliott, you were at the town hall meeting. Would you like to comment or I'm about to close out this portion. I didn't know if you wanted to.

The Shaman House is for sale. Oh, that's right.

1.6 million.

1.6 million dollars.

We'd love to have you in Chattanooga's Retro Pieces of History. Glad to have you in District 9.

can buy it right i heard it you know according to your neighbors they buy it so speaking of money i do have a question along those lines so if if property is designated as a local historic landmark or a local historic district does that unlock some grant funding or other sources of funding if property needs to be renovated i'm thinking in district three we have an auditorium on the side of our community center um that's rh hunt designed auditorium back in the depression area i believe um and so i'd be interested if there's funding available to redevelop that space or any other space yeah so we currently have the city we don't have a specific grant program for historic preservation or historic rehabilitation

If the property is also listed on the National Register, like I mentioned, they could apply for the federal tax credits for rehabilitation and that would just go through the State Historic Preservation Office. Tennessee, unfortunately, is one of the states that does not also have an additional state tax credit for historic preservation, but you can apply for that. I think it's a 20% tax credit if it's an income producing property. So basically anything but like a single family residence. There are other cities, I think Knoxville, I don't know that they're still doing it, but I know I've heard Todd at Preserve Chattanooga talk about it before, have provided grant opportunities for folks that are in historic districts, but we don't currently have that tool in place.

So to close this out, I do want to put into the public record is, as Cassie mentioned, there are two types of designations. There are landmarks and there are districts. And for us, speaking of Arih Hunt, who is an international acclaimed architect right here in Chattanooga, including the Medical Arts Building, several churches, both African-American, you know, traditional churches. I will be moving forward with the support and the discussion of the council and any of you, as you, anybody could do a resolution. I would prefer us to do a joint resolution or if there's an organization, which is why I wanted to discuss this with you all to see if what the desire was to add. I do would like to hear from the attorney regarding the the rules or the laws that prohibit us from imposing historic designation of state and county property that's within the city. I would like some clarity on that. But I do like to go ahead and read into the record that the first, I think there should be two phases of this. The first phase should be landmarks. The second phase should be districts. I know Missionary Ridge has had several conversations about adding districts. I think that's a little bit more, are you saying no? Oh, I thought you were disagreeing with what I was saying. They have had several discussions about their districts, their neighborhood. I would prefer to reserve that for like a phase two of this, and I think Cassie would agree. We are currently working with Preserve Chattanooga and their consultants from Nashville about what that process should look like, but there are some low-hanging fruits that we, I think we should move it expeditiously on, and that include civil war historic sites, maybe some in Orchana, sacred indigenous African-American and Jewish cemeteries that are not currently protected, tourist landmarks, which you'd be surprised, such as the Tivoli and the Chuchu are not preserved, meaning those owners could do what they please to the interior and exterior of the buildings. I would like to report that Tivoli independently hired historians and did the historic preservation beyond probably our own design guidelines.

They use the tax credits.

They use the tax credits. And I mentioned the sacred indigenous African-American cemeteries, Jewish cemeteries, along with Johnson Cemetery. And last but not least, all R.H. Hunt designed architectural buildings, which does include the medical arts building. As you know, it could be very controversial. There are some buildings that currently have demolition orders on them. And if this, through the application process, this creates an immediate moratorium on those demolition permit requests. So I just wanted to put that into the record for the council to kind of think about over the next two to three weeks as we prepare a resolution to add specific historic sites and to begin the application process with Cassie.

We do have a few more questions or comments. I saw Councilwoman Dotley first, and then we have Vice Chair Elliott and Councilwoman Burrs.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you again, Councilman Clark. This is really good. I do support this. This is a really, I think, good piece of legislation. I appreciate you bringing it so we can all discuss it as well. So I guess the question, my question is, when we talk about putting them into the, you know, making all these kind of local landmarks, Would they be able to, would a property be able to be exempt from it? Let's say like the ones that already have demolition orders or things like that. Would they be able to decline being a part of the local historic landmark?

If I'm not mistaken, once we make an application, because the resolution, all it does is activate the application process, which then goes to the historic, if you could... And so to answer your question, it will go before a public meeting, which that property owner would participate in. But that's kind of the con. I'll be honest and just be frank with you is that when we and Cassie shaking our head and this is where the controversy comes in. And this is a great question is that we do preserve some of their private property rights in history and history. in preserving that property similar to the shaven house like the shaven house is a private privately owned home and the only landmark in the city of chattanooga and as private property owners they are not allowed to make interior and exterior changes without without going to the chattanooga historic zoning commission for permission to make those changes so uh we want to clarify it's

For the city, for our local designations, it is exterior only. Okay. Exterior. Folks like Preserve Chattanooga could have interior easements, so that could exist. But just for our sake, the city does not go inside the four walls. Gotcha.

So the exterior for the local landmarks. Yeah.

And for the district.

So that is a controversial aspect of this, Councilwoman Dotley, is that... It would be helpful if there was owner buy-in, and we should consider that as we do with any zoning, right? Because this is a zoning change or designation, so to speak. But at the pleasure of the council, if we decide to add a private property to the historic landmark registry, then they would have to fall within those guidelines. monitored by your office as far as what they're allowed to do to the exterior of their home.

Okay, but they would have to apply. It wouldn't just be, is it an automatic? He's saying we're doing it. We're doing it. We'll make it automatic.

So the property, so we would be applying as a historic site on behalf of those property owners. Oh, okay. Property owners, there are four ways. We could do it. Property owners can do it. Associations could do it.

If you as a council did it, if you didn't have the owner buy in, that may be part of the problem. which is just part of the process, and that's for you all to decide, right? And as far as the moratorium piece goes, say you do move forward, we get through the whole process, then it gets back to you at city council, so it starts with you and ends with you.

That's right.

It gets denied, the moratorium's lifted, they don't have those extra regulations. But if it gets approved, that moratorium would be lifted, and they could get permits, but they would be subject to more design review criteria related to making sure that we're retaining historic materials and architectural features and that kind of thing. And demolition as well.

Okay. And then it would be more like when St. Elmo comes and wants to do something. The part that's in the historical part when they have to come and get windows and things like that. So it would be applied to all the entities that Councilman Clark mentioned. If it was approved, yeah.

If it was approved, yeah.

Okay, all right.

Part of that process is the community input, which includes the property owners. If property owners own property, or a vertical or physical, in this case a cemetery, you know, there's not any verticals, right? But for buildings that could be controversial like CSAS, I would like to add CSAS back to it. Clearly, that is going to be a legal battle. And we know that. But it's okay. We're putting them on notice. And that's the beauty about the legislative process, right? To have that conversation. But to invite them into the public domain, because part of this process, which is required, is to talk to the public. If you own a historic building, we would like to know what your desire is for it and to have that conversation with the community. And so that's what I like about this process is that it allows us, we, to vote and to determine, but to actually have the conversation first before we just come in and say, hey, we're going to reserve a piece of your private property rights. Because I know we, as a council, we do not like to encroach on people's private property because we want it happening to our private property. But in this case, because I believe that it is historic, if you own a historic piece of property, such as the shaving house, I think you should be subjected to a public meeting to discuss what that preservation looked like. And if there's pushback, then, you know, we won't move forward with it. So, and I'm okay with that.

Thank you so much. Thank you for bringing me.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Cassie, I have a question. So On Missionary Ridge, I have parts of the old battlefield up there with the Department of Interior. What type of historical preservations does that create for some of the homes? I have some of my constituents who have old cannons and landmarks in their backyard. Does that impact what they can do with their property?

currently or if it were locally designated it was currently oh yeah that would be a question for the national park service folks and i'm not sure if they retain any sort of easement on those like cannons and statues and that kind of thing i can definitely follow up and see because i really am not sure how they kind of manage that um but it would go back to them yeah i'm just curious yeah me too honestly that's a good question i was yeah the same thing on my end we the part that goes of glass street and i'm sorry i just went out of order no i just raised my hand i'm so sorry

That's a good question, again, about the overlapping authority because, again, that Sherman Reservation is part of my district as well. When you go up Glass Street, Campbell, it's on the backside of Tower Way of Tower 4's neighborhood. You know, what does preservation look like for that? Because it's also within the city limits. So I'd just be curious, Phil, if we could have like a really good one pager about what our rights are as a council to actually impose these types of things on county and federal, I guess, federal property. Yeah. That would be a really good homework assignment that I would put in.

I'll get with the SHPO, and then I can get with Villanueva as well, and we can get you guys some answers on that, because those are really good questions, because we have so many.

Yeah, so many.

I'm not sure you can regulate what the feds have got. Right. And it depends on what types of easements they have on the property.

And they may already have some protections in place outside of the National Register because it's... You know, it's different. I don't know. But I can definitely find out.

And then specifically for cemeteries as well. I don't... Cemeteries have a different regulatory what you can and how you can access it based off who owns it. Sorry.

Councilwoman Burrs and then Councilwoman... Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilman Clark, I have a question about the resolution. Tell me what you have in mind for the resolution because you mentioned You kind of hinted towards grouping. I can't remember if you used the word grouping or something. Tell me what that's going to look like. Basically.

Or what you'd like it to look like. Yeah, so one of the, of course, one of the processes is that council can do it, which we don't have to. I just, I think it's to work in solidarity to have a conversation like through strategic planning or through council because every district, I believe, I know you've mentioned some historic sites. Oh, I've made a list, yeah. I just thought it would be more efficient and easier for us to do one application with those historic landmarks. It's just efficiency. And again, I listed, there's five that I'm interested in just in groups as far as the Civil War historic sites, the African American Jewish cemeteries, which are next to each other, and some are local tourist landmarks that are not protected, which I think is wild. And of course, the R.H. Hunt buildings, which I cannot remember how many we have currently in the city of Chattanooga. But I do know there are areas that are looking into local historic districts, which I am not touching at this time because it's more of a labor process. Designating a landmark, I think, is a little bit easier to send through city council as a resolution to start the applications. That was that was the only intent.

OK, so you would be looking to compile a. a first round list, first phase list of those, like you said, your low-hanging fruit.

That's right.

Of landmarks. Which any council person can amend.

That's right. Any council person, just so you know, you could do your own resolution.

Yeah, thanks for this. Because I know we've talked often about some of the things along Brainerd Road. That's right, on Brainerd. That's absolutely right. Anyway, thank you for bringing this forward.

Thank you, Mr. Jackson. Okay, for sure. Councilwoman Hill.

Thank you. I think it's interesting to consider how to start building energy toward historic preservation in our community, so thank you very much, Councilman Clark. I'd like to understand, Cassie, when something receives a local historic designation, That does not come with any responsibilities on the part of the city of Chattanooga for maintenance, correct? Correct. Okay. I ask that in particular because we have a really historically rich, it's the first African-American cemetery in Chattanooga, Beck Knob and District 2, and we're a first official. And preservation has been a question for, Historic designation would help, but it doesn't actually provide any sort of funding to preserve. And we as a city have had some challenges because it's private property. We're not actually allowed on private property. How far can we go? So I... As you asked some questions about grouping council members, I think my head went in a similar direction and also when Councilwoman Dotley's little radar went up about private property rights, I would encourage you to consider in the resolution starting with not only very clearly historically relevant landmarks, but also those that might not cause real consternation within the ownership, so as to get some wins under our belt. Also, my understanding just from what Lupton City has done with their application is it's very place-specific, and so I would expect that if we put a resolution that had 15 different things, that then becomes a pretty major scope of work for our staff to produce all at once. And so we might start feeling a little bit bogged down. So just something to consider, you know, what are the three or four heavy hitters that you want to get that are not going to be controversial and let the staff work through those and bring them through. Because And I've encouraged my folks in Lefton City. They've had five meetings. Cassie's been really helpful. They're really getting their heads around it. They're thinking through what's the next good step for this application. And I've advised them, as we have all experienced, we can open things up for public input. And until it gets to the point that it's about to be ready to vote on, a lot of people don't pay any attention. And then they say, well, beyond to me, you didn't tell us anything about this plan, Hamilton. Yeah. Plain Chattanooga, you know, been in the works for how many years? So I think if we can avoid some of that as a council and help the community see this can be a really positive thing, set us up for wins.

That's right, because we don't want to traumatize people.

No, we want care at non-step.

Right, exactly. And, you know, again, part of this process, which I really enjoy, is that it allows for the public conversation, even if it's controversial.

That's a good point.

It is, as you mentioned, African-American landmarks, which have often been left out of the story in the history. We know that. Beck Knob, Johnson Cemetery. I think those are some things that they're really good. needed, but feel good, less controversial things. I don't have a laundry list. I do know there is a lot of talk about the RH Hunt architectural buildings, which I'm very interested in. But for me, I will probably, and I will send this out to the council, there's five sites that I'm particularly interested in, which includes Turkey Foot Hollow, Lincoln Park, Beck Knob, and some of the historic African American landmarks that we have not preserved. as a starter. I do believe that some of the R.H. Hunt buildings will bring us controversy, but I think it's worth the conversation in the public domain. But that doesn't mean we have to move forward with that.

Thank you. Council, any other questions or comments? Thank you, Councilman. Thank you all for being with us.

Thanks for having us.

Is that it?

That is our agenda for today, Council. Before we leave, just please note the upcoming strategic planning presentations. In particular, on August 18th, that's a day that I've kind of set out to do much of what we've done at the end here with Councilman Clark's presentation. Just any... Council members who have policy ideas, legislative ideas, just for us to discuss those openly. I might have one or two of my own related to traffic in District 3 and our deer population. And so if you have any ideas, please get them to me. Let me know about them so I can get them on the agenda. I'd like that to be a time where we just discuss each other's ideas and work on moving them forward. So for anyone who's interested in that. Also, we have several Lunch and Learns upcoming that you should have received. Or Council Field Trips, however you want to... think of them you should have received calendar invitations for those the first one is coming up next tuesday we're going to go out to the wilcox bridge and hear from public works about what the plans are for fixing that bridge if you've been over it at any point you're aware of the issues so hopefully we'll we'll learn and hopefully it'll be helpful to be out there and see um kind of put our our boots on the ground to understand a little bit better about the issues that we're addressing there so thank you all right any other comments or announcements council before we adjourn our strategic planning meeting okay well thank you all and we'll be adjourned until our 3 30 meeting