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Council hears proposed formal PILOT policies; staff proposes delegation of routine deals to Industrial Development Board
Summary
City staff presented formal Payment-In-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILOT) policies intended to standardize eligibility, create public hearings and reporting, and delegate some routine, lower-value approvals to the Industrial Development Board (IDB). Councilmembers pressed for annual reporting and questioned delegation authority and several matrix criteria.
City and economic-development staff presented a draft policy on Jan. 7 to formalize the City of Chattanooga’s Payment-In-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILOT) practices, standardize eligibility criteria, and clarify how routine requests would be handled.
Why it matters: The PILOT program is one of the city’s main economic incentives. Formal policies would set eligibility thresholds, monitoring procedures, public hearings and reporting, and would change who can approve routine deals — potentially speeding approvals while prompting questions about retention of council oversight.
Senior advisor Sherita Allen (Economic and Workforce Development) told the council staff had spent months meeting with stakeholders and auditors to build a matrix of eligibility and evaluation criteria. Staff proposed codifying common practices: holding school taxes harmless, protecting stormwater fees, requiring an economic-impact analysis and a public hearing, and retaining an economic-development fee that funds small-business support programs. The draft policy…
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