EBRIS East Baton Rouge Infrastructure Solutions

Thursday, Oct 1, 2026 5:30 PM
Broadmoor United Methodist Church
10230 Mollylea Dr , LA

"In addition to Amazon representatives, stakeholders expected to participate include:
- Kim Brooks — Senior Special Assistant Parish Attorney, Attorney’s Office.
- Ryan L. Holcomb, AICP Planning Director, CityParish Planning Commission.
- John McLindon — Parish Attorney, Baton Rouge/Parish of EBR
- Thomas “T.J.” Morse, Jr. — Chief of Police,
- Rachael Y. Lambert, P.E., CFM Director, Dept of Development (awaiting confirmation).
- A representative from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)."

Metro Council meeting 9-23-2026. Agenda Item Item 92, authorizing Mayor-President Sid Edwards to execute an amended & restated CEA between the City of , , the Capital House Economic Development District, Capital House Taxing Authority & North Shore Resorts BRLLC & with City Parish EDD Taxing Authority collectively...

Charles Landry: Good afternoon. I'm very pleased to be here today on this very important project to get one step closer to the kind of recasting, rebranding of Hilton as a sports illustrated resort. I have provided a great deal of information to YOU about this project. I want to put into the record an actual email benefit for Dr. Richardson. I also want to thank our Parish Attorney John McLindon, Lisa, Ashley & Angie for working so closely to take something that was enormously complicated. To give you a little history, back in 2004, the legislature created a taxing authority called the Capital House that levied taxes on occupancy. Nothing we're doing here today changes any of that, so all that remains in place. Your predecessors as a council, the next year created an Economic Development District where 2 cents of your 4 cents of dedicated tax went to the Capital House.

So what we're doing is we're putting a massive number of documents & CONFLICTING information together into 1 CEA, because it's the same project, it's the same dollar amount that was in the original projects. If this developer spends a minimum of $24M what they're asking is, right now we started with $61M back in 2004. Roughly it's down to 40 & there's 16 years left on the term.

So if the developers of the Capital House spend $24M they want to go from $40M to $55M. They merely want to add $15M & they want to have 32 YEARS to pay the $55M back only from the activities from the Capital House. To be very clear, we're not doing anything that changes the occupancy tax. We want to make sure that's clear to you. Nothing changes than what's in place now as it relates to the occupancy tax that Rouge is involved with.

But not only are they committing to do this work, but they want to put an additional 2 cents sales & occupancy tax, which will retire that $55M even sooner. So I'm happy to answer any questions that you have."

Brandon Noel, Mayor Pro Temp: Thank you, Mr. Landry. Anyone else wishing to speak on this item?

Citizen, Public Comment: "Hi. I told Mr. Landry hello & he said if I spoke out against him, then he was going to attack me too. He said, "I'm a troublemaker." I'm not here to make trouble. I'm here to speak on behalf of the citizens, as a citizen advocate. This resolution reads, "Acknowledge the intention of the ED District to levy new sales use & hotel motel occupancy taxes in the future." I would like to have the Metro Council consider amending that, to take that out. Because if it stays in, the termination date is 2058. That will give this EDD the ability to raise new taxes until 2058. I am against the term of this. I am appalled by the way I was treated by Mr. Landry.

I would like you to consider leaving things open like this to entities other than those that have shown in the past to make a lot of money from CEAs & the things that they bring forth under the guise of it's what's best for the citizens. To allow this CEA to have the opportunity to raise taxes, for y'all to give them that until 2058. I'd like y'all to consider amending this & bringing it back once it's amended.
Thank you."

"A special grand jury that indicted several members of city-parish government, including now- Superintendent LaMont Cole & Councilman Cleve Dunn Jr. on CORRUPTION charges will continue to convene for at least six more months as Office of the Louisiana Attorney General investigation continues, District Attorney Hillar Moore told WBRZ. The grand jury was initially convened in 2025 and was initially planned to run for one year. However, earlier this month, Moore's office's request for an extension of the grand jury was granted.

The probe found alleged corruption that spanned 2021 to 2024. The result was several indictments, including the aforementioned Dunn & Cole."

Source: WBRZ

9-23-2026. Board approved steps to implement NEW district tax covering tangible personal property, sales of services & 2% hotel-occupancy tax within district boundaries. An amended & restated CEA among the district, City of , Capitol House Taxing District & North Shore Resorts BR LLC was authorized. Scheduling next district meeting deferred pending completion of advertisement materials

New tax proposal: Board discussed & moved forward with package described as a NEW district tax applying to tangible personal property, sales of services & 2% hotel occupancy tax inside the district. The tax scope was limited to activities "within the boundaries of the district" as read into the record.

The commission approved motion to proceed. The resolution authorized providing the required notices of intent to levy & collect the new tax in accordance with state law. Written notices were required to be sent to EBR Metro Council, Congressman Cleo Fields within the window of not more than 60 nor less than 20 days before the district meeting that will authorize the tax.

Newspaper publication requirements: publish in the Advocate once weekly for 2 consecutive weeks, with the first publication at least 14 days before the authorizing meeting.

Statutory references cited during the read: Louisiana Revised Statute 42.191 & Revised Statutes 33.9038.39.
The board approved the notice & publication plan (motion made & seconded; motion carries). Motion by Commissioner Laurie Adams, second by Commissioner Carolyn Coleman. Motion carries.

CEA: The district was authorized to enter into an amended & restated cooperative endeavor agreement involving district, City of Baton Rouge, Parish of EBR, Capitol House Taxing District & North Shore Resorts BR LLC. Approval enables formalization of roles & responsibilities among listed entities ahead of tax implementation.

Next meeting scheduling: Item to call & schedule next district meeting was discussed but deferred until advertisement tasks are completed.

Charles Landry stated the TEAM must finalize the advertisements & Ashley Beck will set the meeting date once publications are ready; scheduling will accommodate commissioners' availability. "We just have to go through the advertisement, and then we'll go through Ashley setting it once we get the advertisements done. To accommodate y'all's schedule. So that one can be deferred. No action on that one." Charles Landry

RePost: Citizen commented: "If they build it, they'll come" That isn't happening with hotels, as hotel occupancy rate DROPPED from 70% in 2016 to 57% in 2024"

RePost: Baton Rouge From My View commented: " Taxpayers pay $640,000 for a City-Brooks park plan that will not even really be used. could have developed a plan. Besides who asked that anything be done at that park anyway? This looks like a deal that was originally setup so a local nonprofit (Civic Collaborative Foundation) could set up a new conservancy or use an existing conservancy to take over control of the University Lakes & City-Brooks Community Park! Hopefully that deal will never be made!
Who are Civic Collaborative Foundation officers? (leaders of ) Louisiana Lakes Conservancy was created in 2014. How long has a plan for a conservancy been in the works? Note the officers & the address!"

Citizens: Thoughts???

HISTORY

"Why it matters: The idea could settle some of the simmering arguments over the course in the master planning process. One side wants the nine-hole course left untouched, while others want to open the land to different uses. It also could make room for runners, walkers, KITE FLYERS & children who want to spin until they get dizzy & fall down.

The details: At Commission meeting Thurs 9-24-2026 Mayor Wade Evans, who serves as a BREC commissioner, said he introduced the idea of sharing the course with other users to the golf committee. The panel wanted to discuss it further.

Evans sees an opportunity to make the land available to more people while reducing golf-related losses through revenue generating programs such as movie nights & FOOD TRUCK roundups. Commissioners encouraged Evans to keep digging into the idea, including how BREC could balance time reserved for golf with time set aside for other activities.

Meanwhile: BREC accepted the master plan for City-Brooks Community Park through a resolution that also made clear the commission was not approving the implementation of any part of it.

Commissioner Carl Stages offered a separate resolution that would have stopped any work stemming from the plan for 12 months.

Several commissioners, including Lon Vicknair & Chairman Mike Polito PUSHED BACK. They said the board’s role is to set policy & let BREC’s staff especially with a new superintendent do its job. Stages’ resolution was soundly defeated. He represents the mayor on the commission.

The bigger picture: The master plan would be carried out in phases, with the first few years focused on improving the broader City-Brooks park area. That means the golf course is unlikely to be reduced in size anytime soon.

That timeline to reduce the course size also could delay projects that might otherwise move quickly, including adding a CAROUSEL & creating natural areas along Dalrymple Drive.

The bottom line: The commission is moving toward opening the golf course to other uses while tiptoeing around the contentious master plan, but nudging it forward in the process.

The next big thing: Can supporters get a conservancy to oversee the park & University Lakes moving? That would be the primary way to raise the private donations needed to build and maintain the public spaces more quickly."

Source: RedEye

Golf Committee Report 9-24-2026. Commission Meeting. Report by committee member Wade Evans, Mayor of .

"I presented a PLAN to the golf committee for consideration trying to marry all sides together. The hope is, look, we can never make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time, but if we can somehow accommodate those that want to use the facility as a park for recreation as well as golf & look at condensing down some TEE TIMES maybe later tee times in the morning to allow joggers early morning access a couple days a week; to allow programming in the park in activities that are not golf-related. It's something I would like to look into, I would ask the commission to consider, try to see what we can come up with, working with Mike to look at tee times, average rounds per day & what does it look like where we don't impede on the golfers, but we adjust some times to not spread it out so much and to hopefully include some additional uses at the park without touching the golf course per se to change it. I brought that to the golf committee, asked them to consider it, & now I would like for the commission to consider that. There are multiple golf courses in the country that do this, & it's a way to utilize square footage for more than 1 thing for the community. I think it's a great idea if we can figure out a way to make it work. It's just a discussion item. I'm not talking about approving it tonight.

Chair Mike Polito: Awesome. Thanks. Is there any comment from the commission on that?

Commissioner: What was the feedback?

Wade Evans: Well, it was well received. We didn't harp on it. I introduced it to the committee because I wanted them to ponder it. I think it's something we should have a meeting about & discuss & get the stakeholders at the table to say, I understand that you have different desires & how do we make it all work to where we can come together & try to make as many people feel part of this as we can. So that's the goal here.

I think it's time to turn the temperature down. I think the best way to do it is to bring the stakeholders to the table. Not everybody's going to be happy, but if everybody walks away knowing they were heard and knowing that we're trying to do what we can to accommodate as many people as we can, then I think that's a win for them and for BREC.

Commissioner: So there would be a fiscal impact that would be looked at, as well as how it would be programed?

Wade Evans: I think we would need to establish a fiscal impact. The golf committee often looks at fiscal impact. Golf is one of the sports at BREC that is not quite revenue-neutral. We would like to see it as revenue-neutral as possible. We discussed some things at the committee.

We discussed changing the senior age from 55 & bringing it up in line across all parks. We discussed looking at cart FEES & bringing it in line with traditional golf courses to a dollar a hole. If you take a dollar a hole for a golf cart, that's 18 bucks for the cart, which would raise a couple dollars more than what we're charging now & bring us closer to revenue-neutral where we could spend a little more money in those facilities that would improve them and help us to not have to subsidize that. As the taxpayers are subsidizing the golf right now & I'm not opposed to that, again it's about looking at every option to try to enhance use, enhance opportunities per square foot of property.

You know, I jokingly talk about cranking the bulldozer up, but that's simply a joke. I do it mainly to stir up fear & stink. I'm a golfer. I think we need more golf. I think we need more golf holes. I'm going to stand on that. In light of everything that's going on, I think our job as commissioners is to bring the temperature down & come together & try to work out something where we can accommodate as many people as we can and minimize discomfort. And that's what this item would do, it kind of meets in the middle, if you will. I think it's a good opportunity to bring our friends together & our parks groups together, as well as our joggers & our other interests & say, hey, this is what we're thinking. Shoot holes in it so that we can try to craft the best solution for everybody involved." Wade Evans