Nashville council majority seeks community benefits agreement for MLS stadium

Joey Garrison | The Tennessean

Three-fourths of the Metro Council signed and submitted a letter Tuesday seeking a "strong, inclusive, equitable" community benefits agreement for Nashville's proposed Major League Soccer stadium at the city's fairgrounds.

It's an indication that the agreement is likely to be a major factor on whether Nashville's MLS stadium is approved in the coming weeks.

Organizers of the union-aligned Stand Up Nashville, which for weeks has been negotiating the agreement with Nashville's MLS ownership group led by John Ingram, held a news conference ahead of Tuesday's council meeting to rally support for the benefits agreement.

The letter, signed by 30 council members, was sent to the Ingram-led ownership group.

Related: Nashville seeks approval of 6 MLS stadium agreements this summer: What’s at stake

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Supporters want the agreement to ensure things like affordable housing on a future mixed-use development next to the stadium and living wages for stadium workers — but a deal still isn't in place.

Councilman Colby Sledge, whose district includes the project, said he wants an agreement finalized before final approval of four pieces of legislation related to the $275 million project. Those votes are tentatively set for Sept. 4.

"A community benefits agreement is not unusual around the country," said Sledge, pointing to Cincinnati, another city recently awarded an MLS team, which he said has approved such an agreement. "From cities from Milwaukee to L.A., all over the country they have signed community benefits agreements when it comes to new sports facilities.

"While this would be new to Tennessee and Nashville, it's not new to the U.S. Quite frankly, it needs to set a new standard for the kinds of projects that we do."

MLS stadium bills clear first vote

With the meeting stretching past midnight, the council voted unanimously early Wednesday morning, without discussion, to procedurally advance three separate ordinances related to the stadium project. One would rezone 10 acres of fairgrounds property for a mixed-use development next to the stadium. Another would demolish existing buildings on the site. A third would approve a ground lease for the team's private development.

Each will come up for a second of three votes on Aug. 21, marking the true test for the project.

Separately, the council voted to defer a resolution that would issue $50 million in general obligation bonds so it will track with the three ordinances.

For now, there's been little evidence of progress on the community benefits agreement.

Odessa Kelly, who leads Stand Up Nashville, said the team's ownership has not agreed to any of most their demands, including that 25 percent of housing units on a mixed-use portion of the project be price as affordable. The team has committed to 10 percent.

"We call the working class the fabric of the American dream but where do they get to live in Nashville?" Kelly said.

"They've objected to everything," Kelly said. "The only thing they've agreed to is a daycare. Yes, a daycare is nice. We know we can't solve all of Nashville's problems, but we can start setting standards on how we do development."

She added that many of the promises they're seeking are common in other cities.

In a statement, Clint Brewer, Nashville MLS spokesman, said, "We continue to negotiate in good faith and hope to come to an agreement soon."

The council voted 31-6 in November to issue $225 million in revenue bonds for the stadium project, but it was contingent on the proposals now before the council passing. Nashville was awarded an MLS franchise in December.

Councilman forces deferral of resolution seeking MLS stadium suspension

Dozens of Supporters and critics of the project came to Tuesday's council meeting, but they slowly disappeared as the council meeting, which last more than seven hours because of several unrelated public hearings, went deep into the night.

Councilman Steve Glover, a critic of the project, had hoped to have a vote on a resolution that would have put the council on record supporting the suspension of any agreement related to the MLS stadium project.

But Sledge forced a deferral by invoking the council's Rule 8, which allows a council member to trigger an automatic deferral of a resolution when its subject matters deals directly with just one council district.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236, jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter @joeygarrison.