Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 3/6/2018 - P9
Special Bd. of Aldermen — 03/6/2018 Page 9
Alderman Lopez
One of the things in the video that made me a little bit nervous was where they were talking about run down
neighborhoods where all the crime was happening and everything and they were like and we invested, and we
rebuilt things, and like they're totally different houses so yeah they sure invested. | had actually talked to
Director Marchant about the possibility of this inadvertently finding specific neighborhoods. She had pointed
out that the district that we’re talking about doesn’t have neighborhoods per say. It has apartment buildings
like Clocktower, Cottonmill, or those future buildings. |’m pretty confident we’re not going to be bulldozing
neighborhoods or anything. There was in the plan a section where it talks about relocation of businesses and
individuals. So | just wanted to touch upon why that’s in there and what’s meant by that.
Director Cummings
Thank you. So to be compliant with the RSA, we had to make sure we dedicated a section in the plans
speaking to what we’d need to occur if we were ever to go in that direction. It is not our interest or intention to
do anything like that. This again is just creating the governance model so we could have a conversation about
what | believe is the adoption of the Riverfront plan which is really just infrastructure improvements along the
waterway.
Alderman Lopez
There’s a very small section so | just wanted to raise the question because it looked like it was just at an end to
be thorough. | also noticed on that list of different alternative like once you start a project you have to have a
diversified funding source. | just want to repeat my annual complaint that | think CDBG is something we do
really well. It’s listed as a potential funding source for projects. Personally | would be not enthusiastic about
trying to change that model for development purposes when it serves an immediate and existing community
need.
Director Cummings
Thank you. Your point is well taken. Again just to try to be all encompassing, we just wanted to put in all of the
potential programs.
Alderman Lopez
It looks better when you have a lot of bullet points than like two.
Director Cummings
Yeah that could be used. CDBG is one of them. I’m not saying that we will take advantage of that. | will also
want to take this opportunity to point out — and I’m not saying that we would do this — but | know of other
communities who have set aside TIF funds to help current residents in neighborhoods that have the fear of
being dislocate because of gentrification support them with additional assistance. It is none uncommon
practice of creating a revenue stream to help your current clientele so they feel welcomed and they don’t feel
like they’re being pushed out of their community. As one of the great ways in resources to use your TIF funds
for. Again we’re not going to talk about specifics but | wanted to make sure you knew that that was one of the
ways you could use your funds.
Alderman Lopez
Well | appreciate that observation just because this part of the TIF district doesn’t seem to include the other
side of the river but the riverfront development plan does include the area by the library walk and I’m imagining
