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Brookpark council discusses stadium-related ordinance, hears estimates on inspections and tax impacts
Summary
At a special April 14 meeting Brookpark council held a second-reading discussion of Ordinance 11528-2026, which would let the city participate in a public-project predevelopment agreement and pursue sales-and-use tax exemptions tied to a proposed stadium. Mayor Orcutt gave high-level estimates and councilmembers urged community benefits safeguards.
Brookpark’s council met in a special session April 14 to discuss Ordinance 11528-2026, which would authorize the city to participate in a public project, accept ownership of the project on completion, execute a predevelopment agreement and issue sales-and-use tax exemption certificates for building and construction materials.
Councilman Defoeur raised a drafting question about section numbering and asked for the city’s estimate of the permit fees it would waive and the likely sales-tax impact of the project. “What’s the actual estimated value of the permit fees that we’re waiving and what’s the estimated amount of sales tax that’ll be handled by this vehicle?” he asked.
Mayor Orcutt said exact figures are difficult to calculate now and that the city is using a comparator — Erie County’s inspection estimate from the new Buffalo Bills stadium — to frame the work. He said the project would require “approximately 18,000 inspections” and described the city’s approach as assuming those inspection obligations under an estimated "$24,800,000" figure rather than attempting to bill numerous individual inspection fees. Speaking more broadly about the overall scope, Mayor Orcutt referenced what he described as a “$2,600,000,000 project” and said “about 600 million dollars will be within labor,” characterizing those numbers as estimates.
Defoeur urged council leadership and counsel to consider community benefits commitments — for example a project labor agreement or labor peace agreement — and to coordinate with outside municipal counsel on the agreements’ details for a project of this size. “We’re a working class community, and at the end of the day, this project needs to work for working people,” he said.
Mayor Orcutt responded that the city must follow its ordinances when working with private investors and that some parcels may be privately owned, limiting municipal authority. He said the city’s existing PLA framework applies on public property and that the intentions are to “work towards a new community authority” for parts of the development. He also stated, “It will be built by union labor.”
No final vote on Ordinance 11528-2026 occurred at the special meeting; the ordinance remains at second reading and no further action was recorded during the session. The council adjourned at 7:17 p.m.
