“Reset, not reject.”

That was the catchphrase of the night at Thursday’s Board of Aldermen meeting. All board members confirmed that they did, indeed, reject the financing proposal for a new Arts & Innovation Center downtown.

Alderperson Jacquie Gist explained why she would not support putting the town into $4.5 million of debt to help build the CAIC near Armadillo Grill.

“Even though I have a lot of problems with the project as a whole, as proposed,” said Gist, “for me, it comes down to my feeling of fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers of Carrboro.

“And I just overwhelmingly heard from the citizens of Carrboro that they did not want us to put them in that position.”

The CAIC would house non-profit businesses Kidzu Children’s Museum and ArtsCenter. The latter would offer the site of its current building for a second hotel to be built at 300 East Main.

Thursday night’s work session followed a series of public forums and hearings on the proposal. Alderperson Michelle Johnson said she shared Gist’s concern about Carrboro taking on the CAIC debt, as the largest amount in its Capital Improvements Program.

She said she was also skeptical that development partners can raise $7.5 million for the project in 16 months, as promised. The quick timeline of the project was another concern raised by board members.

“And then there’s another $3 million,” said Johnson. “And it’s been implied that the county should be involved, and perhaps they will give that $3 million. But, no discussions have happened with the county about that.”

Alderpersons Sammy Slade and Damon Seils both said they ran the numbers on assumptions that revenue from the hotel would prevent the Arts & Innovation Center from creating a new tax burden for citizens.

Both said those numbers come up short — by around $400,000 a year, according to Slade.

Alderperson Bethany Chaney said she’d like to see the ArtsCenter proposal decoupled from the hotel.

“I think there may be merit in pushing the reset button and not the eject button on this proposal,” said Chaney, before “eject” got changed to “reject” in later comments from the board. “There are other ways to finance something like this. There are other places to put something like this. There is a whole lot more private money out there than was included in this particular proposal.”

She later presented a “Proposed Path for a New Proposal.” She suggested “taking everything off the table,” so that a new proposal with “a generous timeline” and “time-bound benchmarks” can be crafted by the partners and the public sector.

Chaney also suggested that an outside consultant be hired to help ArtsCenter conduct a business planning process.

Mayor Lydia Lavelle said she agreed with points made by other board members, and added that she’s not opposed to the idea of a second hotel in Carrboro. She called the existing Hampton Inn hotel a “hallmark.”

“We don’t have a huge commercial tax base,” said Lavelle. “But one of the things we do have is, we have a really cool town that people like to come and visit… And that 67 percent occupancy rate at our hotel, within a year-and-a-half of opening, is really pretty incredible.”

The board voted unanimously for Lavelle and Town Manager David Andrews to discuss next steps with the development partners.

There was also unanimous approval to direct Andrews to get an update from Orange County government, regarding a branch library proposed for 300 East Main.

And by unanimous consent, the board voted to ask county government about resources for helping local businesses, such as the Cat’s Cradle. Working to keep the iconic music club in Carrboro, while it’s seemingly outgrown its current space at 300 East Main, remains an important issue in public discussions about the CAIC proposal.