The Metro Council has given initial approval to a new incentives program that would provide cash grants for small businesses that hire new workers and for those that invest in improvements to blighted properties in certain districts. Steven Hale and The City Paper have the story here.

The developers of the proposed East Side Apartments moved one step closer to breaking ground on the project after the Metro Board of Zoning Appeals on Thursday granted a setback variance to accommodate the project’s four-building 23-unit townhome component.

The development (read more here), slated to rise at 909 Main St. in East Nashville, will still need Metro Planning Commission and Metro Council approval.
 

Metro Council members on Tuesday set the stage for a final vote Dec. 4 on the more than $60 million in incentives HCA Holdings is slated to get to relocate the headquarters of two of its divisions to the West End Summit complex. In the process of studying the city's package of goodies, Steven Hale writes, several representatives have begun thinking about how small businesses can be given access to similar incentives.

Citing numbers from the secretary of state, Stites said only 12 out of 9,000 for-profit corporations registered in Davidson County have access to similar Metro offers. He granted that incentives have indeed been given to some of the city’s largest employers, but also argued that the amount of jobs created by such deals represent an exceedingly small portion of the county’s overall workforce.

“It’s not sustainable,” he said. “You can’t continue to do that.”

The Metro Council's Planning, Zoning and Historical Committee on Monday voted 5-3 to approve the planned rezoning to denser uses of more than 450 acres in Midtown. Among those opposing was Councilman Jason Holleman, who is pushing for clear design guidelines to be fleshed out before the rezoning is approved. The plan will get a third hearing before the full Council tonight.

The Tennessee chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business has endorsed Metro Councilman Robert Duvall in the 59th House District race.

Duvall, a Republican who represents District 33 on the council, is facing Democrat Sherry Jones, who has held the state House seat since 1995.

“Robert Duvall is the advocate small business owners in House District 59 sorely need because he understands bigger government dampens free enterprise and job creation,” Jim Brown, state director of NFIB/Tennessee, said in a release.

NFIB/Tennessee SAFE (Save America’s Free Enterprise) Trust, which is comprised exclusively of NFIB members, made the endorsement.

In addition, NFIB has endorsed Republican Steve Dickerson in the race for the 20th Senate District. Dickerson will face Democrat Phillip L. North.

Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 6.

Metro Council members on Tuesday deferred action on a massive zoning update for much of Midtown. In doing so, writes Joey Garrison, they have put a big kink in the chances that Metro will land $75 million in federal cash to help fund a planned bus rapid transit line along the Broadway-West End corridor.

“I’m not saying that the federal grant won’t get approved now without that, but that would have given us additional points on our application, showing that we were creating a more dense environment around the BRT route,” Sloan said.

Which raises the question: Are many Nashvillians truly prepared for that "more dense environment?"

The Metro Council on Tuesday approved a novel plan to finance more than $18 million in infrastructure improvements that will help prepare more than 1,000 Bellevue acres for development. A Texas firm's plan for Biltmore Ridges calls for more than $300 million of investment over time, but Metro Public Works has said various infrastructure projects need to be completed along the way. They will be funded by developments in the Biltmore Ridges footprint.