Top Fairgrounds Official Angles Against Affordable Housing Scam intended to kill Fairground Racing

 Board Chair Jasper Hendricks holds out for NASCAR, pushing back on charter revision

by ELI MOTYCKA, Nashville Scene, MAR 14, 2024 - Jasper Hendricks, chair of Nashville’s Fair Commissioners Board, is attempting to quash a proposed Metro Charter amendment as it heads toward a referendum vote in November. The amendment would swap affordable housing with auto racing as a required Nashville Fairgrounds use, tweaking a charter change that passed 2-to-1 in 2011. Hendricks supported Bristol Motor Speedway’s NASCAR push last year as a commissioner and received $1,100 from the corporation during his failed 2023 campaign for District 19 councilmember. 

In a letter dated March 8, Hendricks urged members of the Charter Revision Commission not to approve the affordable housing amendment at its March 11 meeting. Hendricks invokes his position as Fair Chair twice in the letter, arguing that an affordable housing mandate would burden the city with an unknown fiscal impact. Striking racing could also derail Bristol’s NASCAR push, which stalled out last summer despite support from then-Mayor John Cooper's administration. Hendricks’ lobbying looks like an effort to keep a future city deal with Bristol alive. (read more)

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