While the Metro Council considers whether or not to rebate millions of sales tax dollars to hotel developers, Councilman John Delgado also wants his colleagues to re-evaluate a $10,300 permit fee waiver it failed to pass last month for the planned Knock Knock Children’s Museum.
At tonight’s meeting, Delgado will ask the council to reconsider waiving the fees.
“We’re talking about permit fees,” Delgado says. “I think the council reached the wrong decision, and I think we need to have a little more discussion.”
The council rejected last month a request from Mayor Kip Holden’s office to waive the permit fees at the behest of the developers of the nonprofit museum, which has been in the works for years. Some council members suggested it wouldn’t be fair to grant a fee waiver to one project if not all. The following day, Mayor Kip Holden personally donated $10,300 to the project, calling out the council for rejecting the request when it routinely grants fee abatements to other projects.
Even though the museum has received the mayor’s donation, the permit fees for the project could still be waived. Delgado will make that case to the council tonight.
“These are the kind of things we want to encourage,” he says. “And permit fee waivers are better than creating TIFs. With permit fee waivers you’re encouraging development from the outset. … We need to show our commitment as a city and as a city council to this project.”
—Stephanie Riegel
