(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Council could be new party in River District agreement [1] ['Josie Abugov', 'More Josie Abugov', 'Verite News', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Date: 2024-05-14 Months after the city of New Orleans was cut out of an operating agreement for the $1 billion River District project, developers are playing nice with a new proposal that gives the City Council oversight of sales and hotel occupancy taxes in the planned neighborhood. The council is expected on Thursday (May 16) to vote on whether to enter into an existing, 35-year agreement governing the River District, the 39-acre residential and commercial development that aims to transform a stretch of mostly empty riverfront land by the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center into a thriving neighborhood. The expected vote follows a dispute between councilmembers and River District officials and developers, who had cut the council out of the plan entirely late last year. The proposed contract sets the terms for operations and public subsidies in the development, and authorizes the council to raise sales and hotel taxes within the new neighborhood as a local governing board. The agreement would also increase the amount of sales tax revenue directed toward affordable housing. “These are transformational projects, things that we can look back on as the council and say that we supported – creating a neighborhood out of whole cloth,” said Councilmember Lesli Harris, who represents the area that includes the River District, at a committee meeting Monday (May 14). In December, River District and Convention Center officials quietly removed the city from the agreement after council members questioned aspects of the deal. The removal occurred just after the council voted to approve a property tax abatement deal for a new office building — leased to Shell Oil for its regional headquarters — being planned for the River District. After learning of the move in January, some council members critiqued the massive project over a lack of transparency. River District developers then said they hoped to bring the city back into the agreement. Jeffrey Schwartz, the city’s director of economic development, and Mike Busada, a lawyer for the developers, presented the amended agreement to the governmental affairs committee Monday. “What we have in front of us is an improved cooperative endeavor agreement and one that I think, at the end of the day, not only helps the city gets to its aspirations and goals that we want to see in this transformative project, but also provides the structure for governance and transparency and accountability,” Schwartz said. The proposed agreement creates a new municipal district governed by the council, which would levy and collect an additional 2% in sales and hotel occupancy taxes within the development. The deal approved in December did not specify the party responsible for levying or collecting the sales taxes. Under the amended deal, the council – acting as the Municipal RDNI District – would levy and collect the additional taxes. The move to give city officials oversight of the tax collection would help ensure transparency and accountability for the River District development, Schwartz said. The amended contract proposal also raises the minimum percentage of taxes set aside for affordable housing from 10% to 50%. The master development agreement for the River District requires that 450 units out of approximately 900 planned for the new neighborhood be set aside for affordable or workforce housing, a figure that exceeds the city’s normal zoning requirements. River District proponents have touted affordable housing as a top priority of the neighborhood, which will also include the Shell Oil building and a Topgolf complex. However, some housing advocates have critiqued the “trickle-down economics” method of relying on commercial projects to fund affordable housing and have asked for penalties if the developers don’t follow through on housing promises. The amended agreement requires that the initial phase of affordable housing be completed within four years of the passage of the contract. The updated contract does not specify any penalties for failure to meet that timeline. Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/05/14/council-could-be-new-party-in-river-district-agreement/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/