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Councilor Hugh Taylor made the initial motion to deny the requests and Ian Smith seconded it. Councilors Melissa Berke and Gary Beach joined Taylor and Smith in voting against giving the developers the money.
Many of the current councilors shared their thoughts on what the fund money, about $1.5 million, should be used for.
But during Tuesday’s nearly hour-long meeting, the discussion involved how much Libby Lofts and The Friends of Historic Hotel Libby should receive as well as revising a policy set in 2017.
The Friends of Historic Hotel Libby’s Gail Burger, who is renovating the Hotel Libby on California Avenue, and the partnership of Libby Lofts, including Zach and Tracy McNew, who hope to renovate the old high school, were seeking money for their respective projects.
The tour, attended by nearly four dozen invitees on Jan. 31, was put on by some of the developers who are seeking to turn the brick structure into an apartment building in the heart of town.