Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
This executive session of the Clarksville City Council covered a housing authority update, multiple zoning and planning items, a contentious resolution on school funding, and a major discussion on reforming downtown parking. No final votes were taken on first-reading ordinances; most items will return for second reading or public hearing.
Welcome to the July 30th, 2026 executive session of the Clarksville City Council. Before we get to the Planning Commission reporting, we have a presentation by Wanda Allen, the executive director of the Clarksville Housing Authority to give us an update on the exciting things going on there. So, Ms. Allen, if you would please come forward, you know the drill, and before you tee it up, today is Justin Crosby's birthday, so um he'll be accepting gifts on the way out tonight. Were you telling me to sing? Um, the meeting will be a very brief one. All right, you're recognized. Hello, everybody. As you all know, my name is Wanda Allen. I am used to be on the city council, but now I am the executive director of the Clarksville Housing Authority. Very first thing I want to do is say thank you all for your support while I have been making this transition. You guys have been so supportive, encouraging, and everything like that, not just the city council, but the city departments and everybody else that you know I had worked with during my time as a city council person. So I would like to get started by just telling you guys before we get into redevelopment by just simply telling you guys some of the things that are happening right here on the ground at Clarksville Housing Authority. Um I don't know if you guys got a copy of it, but I plan on doing a 90-day community impact report every 90 days, so you guys should have got a copy of that. I'm gonna talk about some of that, some of the things that we've done. So one of the main things we've done is we have gotten 44 units ready for our families to relocate when it comes to our redevelopment. At that point, we have to move only 51. So in the last three months, we've gotten 44 units ready to go, ready to be positioned so we can move our families into those. Another thing that we've done is we have completed our financing plan, and all we're waiting on is some final documentation from our community partners, and that will be completely finished. Uh we completed all the conditions of the city council requirements for our the resolution that you all did for our abandonment. So that is moving forward. We're waiting on one more document from the city, and then that can go to our lenders to get our money together for our redevelopment project. Um we submitted everything that we need to do for our pick removal and pick. So 107 units will be going off of our actual housing stock, and then it'll come back in as 107 new units. We are excited about that because as you know, a lot of our units are in disrepair, and at this point, um all we can do is start to rebuild those in in a different way in a different fashion. And I hope eventually our city um our city will start to or not our city like government, but our community will start to invest back into itself. We have completed all of our permitting requirements, so that is moving forward. We have actually made sure that we have met all HUD local government umficials, lenders, all of those requirements. So the very last thing we're waiting on, and you'll hear about this a little bit later. The very last thing we're waiting on is final HUD approval, so that we can go ahead on and start breaking ground. Um when it comes to compliance, um we have eliminated anything that's um outstanding 100% of all HUD backlogs. We have eliminated 2,006 work orders, backlog work orders when it comes to maintenance. Now, what I will tell you is like I've said before, our units are in disrepair. However, we can do what we can do to make sure that our families live in safe sanitary and affordable housing, and that is our goal. Our biggest mission, besides our, you know, not counting our redevelopment. Our biggest mission right now is for our tenants to live just like you and I live every day, safe and affordable housing. Within our workforce, my workforce came with me today. Stand up and say