University Beach Development Takes Center Stage At Northport Town Hall Event

NORTHPORT, AL — Tempers flared at times and many left feeling their questions weren't answered with anything of substance during a Town Hall event at Northport Intermediate School Wednesday night hosted by District 5 Councilman Anwar Aiken.

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Aiken, who was appointed in April to fill the seat vacated by former Council President Jeff Hogg, voiced his opposition to the location of the contentious University Beach development that developers from Texas insist will attract up to $350 million in capital investment once all of the phases are complete.

Still, he stopped short of condemning the entire project and said he still thought the concept was a "good idea" for the city when asked by an attendee at the meeting.

"Legally, I don't know what else I can do to stop it," Aiken told the crowd, explaining the city's view of the binding public-private partnership agreement with the developer that was approved by the Council earlier this year, setting off a firestorm of public backlash due to lack of advanced notice or opportunities for citizens to voice concerns before the agreement was signed.

City leaders have cited pending litigation over a public records request as barring them from commenting, with Aiken as the only elected official or city staffer in attendance Wednesday night — despite the apparent informal gag order for others in City Hall directly involved with the project.

As Patch previously reported, the City of Northport has committed to investing no more than $20 million for up to 75% of the cost of city-owned infrastructure, along with a massive tax abatement package that is one of the largest of its kind in the entire metropolitan area's history.

The Texas-based developer is contractually bound to make an initial private investment of $63 million but as was on display Wednesday night, little is known about the status or ability of the developer to secure such a large sum.

ALSO READ: COLUMN | Unanswered Questions Piling Up About Northport's University Beach Development

Aiken said he has spoken with developer Kent Donahue seven or eight times since taking office and told those in attendance that Donahue intends to move forward on the project as approved, declining to entertain any other hypothetical scenarios that would see the project change from its current iteration. This included Aiken purportedly asking Donahue if he would be willing to sell the land back to the city, to which the developer also said no.

This prompted one woman in attendance to suggest to Aiken that Donahue was "playing hard ball" with the councilman because he knew he had the majority support on the Council to move forward on the project.

Aiken went on to say that Donahue initially agreed to attend the town hall and speak with the public but was advised by his attorneys not to do so after the lawsuit over public records was filed in June by Northport resident Tuffy Holland — records that the city insisted it had already honored when filing its response to the lawsuit last week

Indeed, Aiken said when considering a potential breach of contract lawsuit from the developer along with legal fees, he speculated pulling out of such a deal would cost the city, at a minimum, $5 million — a figure most in the crowd seemed to prefer when considering the much larger financial commitment set out in the initial agreement.

Aiken insisted this approach would simply be "stacking one bad decision on top of another" and said he would discuss potential strategies with his fellow elected colleagues following the Town Hall.

This approach is likely to yield little in the way of swaying the minds of his more-senior elected counterparts who voted 4-1 to enter the agreement, with Aiken saying only he and District 4 Councilwoman Jamie Dykes were publicly opposed to the project.

Dykes was the lone vote in opposition to entering the partnership agreement.

Issues over the city's legal department and its involvement were also a consistent talking point as Aiken said City Attorney Ron Davis, to the best of his knowledge, was the current point person for the city's role in the project due to the ongoing lawsuit.

But one of the more illuminating moments of the night came when Aiken was asked who the point person for the city would be if the lawsuit had never been filed, to which he speculated that it was probably City Engineer Tera Tubbs.

The issue over Davis, though, raised the ire of many in the crowd, including former Northport Councilman Bart Harper, who lives on the periphery of the proposed site of University Beach and has been a publicly vocal critic of the development since the news first broke.

Harper cited his own time in office and controversies regarding Northport's past city administrator, going on to say that the council opted to get outside legal representation on the matter instead of Davis due to how close he was to the situation. He then proposed that maybe the City Council should go with a similar tactic so leaders can consider all possible options for terminating the deal with the least amount of financial or legal blowback.

While Aiken was asked, it also remains unclear how much, if anything, city leaders knew about Donahue's seemingly failed Sapphire Bay development in Rowlett, Texas, which is presently the subject of a federal investigation after a massive apartment building was all but destroyed by a fire before any tenants moved in.

Still, much more locally relevant questions began to be asked in different ways by multiple attendees who seemed unsatisfied with the answers they were given.

First among these concerns was the explicit lack of credible studies relating to traffic, environmental and economic impacts conducted for the $350 million version of the project.

It should be pointed out here that certain impact studies were indeed commissioned when the concept was first pitched to the public as a $20 million, 11- or 12-acre water park similar to the one in neighboring Fayette County.

However, the entire concept ballooned seemingly overnight into a supposed $350 million development and with very little prior notice given to the public.

At this point in the meeting, one impassioned attendee made a comment about something the former council president said about the studies having been commissioned.

Aiken replied that if Hogg says anything, he is likely to take it "with a grain of salt" — a response that stood out as a far cry from the visibly muzzled support on the council wielded by Hogg before his abrupt resignation in the wake of the decision to enter the partnership agreement he'd fought so hard for.

ALSO READ: COLUMN | The True And Terrible Saga Of The Northport 'Water Park'

Hogg remains a prime focus of public anger after leading the charge to enter into the highly questionable partnership agreement and credible sources have also told Patch that, following his untimely resignation as public pressure reached a fever pitch, Hogg is supposedly working for the developers to recruit members to the Board of Directors for the special cooperative tax district that will govern the flow of funds moving between the city and University Beach.

Hogg flatly denied these accusations when speaking with Patch last week, as did City Administrator Glenda Webb.

After somewhat endearing himself to the restless crowd with his previous comment about Hogg, the earned affection soon shifted back to shouts of distrust when Aiken said such a large development built around a massive artificial lagoon would have little to no impact on water and sewer rates for city taxpayers.

With no credible feasibility studies provided to the public by the developer, whom Aiken said was now responsible for conducting after the city entered the agreement, such impacts remain one of the larger gray areas for University Beach.

Aiken was measured in his responses for the entire town hall and did tell those in attendance that he intends to discuss the concerns raised with his other elected colleagues in the hopes of working toward a resolution that will not leave the city in even worse financial shape.

The next regular Northport City Council meeting is set for Monday, Aug. 5 at 5:30 p.m. at Northport City Hall.

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