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Council approves $610,000 local contribution for Blue Fort Harrison tax-credit application amid developer dispute
Summary
The council approved a $610,000 local-government commitment to support Blue Fort Harrison LLC's application for a state low-income housing tax-credit basis boost. A competing developer raised procedural concerns about the city's scoring process during public comment.
The Clearwater City Council voted unanimously July 10 to approve a $610,000 local-government contribution to Blue Fort Harrison LLC to support the project's application for a basis boost under Florida's low-income housing tax credit program.
Dylan May, acting housing manager, told the council the contribution was the requested amount identified in the city's recent notice of funding availability and that the developer was present. After the motion to approve, council members voted in favor without recorded opposition.
During the public-comment portion, Stacy Badcock, representing a competing proposal called Bellevue Manor, urged the council to delay the decision and rescore applications. Badcock said the city’s technical review committee (TRC) had not provided a clear list of required application documents in the RFA, which led to inconsistent submissions. “If the city is relying solely on the current TRC scoring for these projects, we would like to request that the city pull this item from the city council agenda tonight and the city rescore the applications based on the information we provided,” Badcock said.
Badcock also argued that permit-readiness (sometimes called “shovel-ready”) affects competitiveness at the state level and that Bellevue Manor had advanced flexible-standard site-plan steps while Blue Fort Harrison had not. She noted differences in documentation between the two applications and raised concerns that Blue Fort Harrison’s submission included an LOI that describes a different, workforce-oriented project. May responded that the city had left the RFA intentionally open to allow different application approaches and that last year’s process required permitting different materials; he said staff had discussed the process with both developers during the application period.
Council members said they recognized the need for more housing and expressed support for both projects where possible. Several council members encouraged staff to work with developers that were not selected to help them pursue alternative funding.
Action: motion to approve the $610,000 local-government contribution to Blue Fort Harrison LLC passed unanimously.
