Hot Tub Hotel on Hold?
By Dan Schroeder
Once again I’d like to thank the Ogden City Council for its relatively new practice of putting its full agenda packets online for all to see. Here are a couple of items that I found noteworthy in the packet for tonight’s meeting.
1. Contribution Agreement – RDA Tax Increment Bonds. Continuation for consideration of a Contribution Agreement with the Redevelopment Agency for the purpose of issuing Tax Increment Bonds, Series 2010 to facilitate the financing of the acquisition and construction of a hotel at The Junction. (Remove from agenda)
This item, if I’m not mistaken, is the final step in approving the Kevin Garn Hot Tub Hotel. Although it seems clear that a majority of the council supports this project, it hit a snag when the bank refused to accept the financing terms for the proposed parking structure. Now, it would appear, there has been another snag that has forced the council to remove this item from tonight’s agenda. Will this be just a minor delay, or is the whole project in danger of falling through? Perhaps we’ll learn more tonight.
2. RDA Annual Report.
Tonight the council (acting as RDA Board) will formally receive the Redevelopment Agency’s Annual Report for fiscal year 2010. Although the event will be completely routine, this may be the first time that a copy of the Report has been posted on the city’s web site for all to see. For convenience, I’ve extracted the Report from the agenda packet and Rudi has posted it here (pdf, 3.7 MB). The Report is a fascinating document that gives a great overview of what the RDA does. From the map on Page 4 you can see that redevelopment districts cover nearly all of downtown Ogden—and this map doesn’t even show the new district along the east side of Washington Blvd., which was designated after FY 2010 ended last summer. Be sure to bookmark this Report and refer back to it, next time the RDA and tax-increment financing are in the news!
Ed. Note: We'll leave the lower comments section open for anyone who'd like to comment on this topic before, during or after tonight's council meeting.
9 comments:
I know one thing -- Ogden is almost maxed to the limit it's ability to bond. Since Godfrey has several projects ready to go (including the gondola), maybe he is taking a look at which one he wants most.
Or, Dorrene, it could be the gondola plan, which he's about to put back on the table rumor has it, is merely a cat's paw designed to draw fire away from the Velodrome project. And to be part of a "compromise" solution peddled to the Council. Something like "we'll say no, absolutely no, on the gondola, but then to be fair and even handed, give him the velodrome."
Or maybe not.
Mr. Curmudgeon
Maybe you're just too damn wise for Ogden! You seem to have the mayor and his sycophants at the Standard all figured out. Too bad the masses in Ogden aren't as smart, if they were we wouldn't be having this mess to begin with and Godfrey would still be delivering pizzas where his real talents are.
there be a nudder hotel in the works downtown....think highrise...just sayin...
Curm, all I know is that Godfrey has kept money in the budget for the gondola, and now he has brought it back and put it on the CIP list. Remember when the veladrome was placed close to the bottom of the CIP list by the Council? Now it looks like it's going to happen unless the voters change who the mayor is this year.
Gondola money is back on the CIP list? How much and when did this happen? Do you have a link for this?
Curm: According to a reliable source, the mayor's latest CIP request list includes a line item for $58,300 for a "gondola study", specifically for a gondola running between downtown and WSU.
Another study! For the love of Pete, another rigged study!? If had a nickel for every worthless study the city did in the past 20 years I could build a field house...lol....sick and tired of out of towners telling us who we are.
How many studies does the mayor need? Remember the one he had done in 2008 and tried to get UTA to pay the company directly so the item wouldn't be put in the budget and the Council would not know that he had taken the federal transportation funds received by UTA for Ogden for a study that had not been approved? That was what "emailgate" was all about.
Now that the gondola is out in the open again, I wonder how many "emailgate" incidents the city will have? Dan Schroeder was the man of the hour when he did a GRAMA request of the emails between the administration members and UTA.
I don't recall the SE being very vocal about how Godfrey tried to illegally use transportation funds and also tried to get UTA to illegally pay for an unauthorized expenditure of transportation funds.
Only in Ogden could the mayor get away with such shenanigans!
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