Developer Paul McKee got the $392 million tax increment finance backing he needed to redevelop the northside last night (Wed., Sept. 23).
The TIF Commission said “yes” to the developers’ proposal to use tax-increment funds to kickstart a $8 billion redevelopment vision, including job centers, more than 1,000 residential units, extensive office space and environmentally-friendly infrastructure.
A TIF is a tool for developing blighted areas, which involves capturing a certain amount of revenue from taxes when property value and sales goes up — rather than actually raising property or sales taxes.
About 100 people – including construction workers, church pastors, union leaders and residents – crowded into the City Hall room with limited seating. A hundred more lingered nerviously, and angrily, outside the closed doors.
In a presentation, Barbara Geisman, director of development for the City of St. Louis, said the developers have no right to eminent domain, which is a law that give the state the right to take private property for public use.
The law will not be used to fufill the redevelopment plan, she said.
However, she earned a series of gasps and yells in the room when she explained the relocation benefits for those who volunteer to sell their homes to the developer.
“Purchased property owners will receive benefits for relocating – whether voluntarily or whatever,” Geisman said.
The nonchalant “whatever” made the crowd unsettled for the remainder of her presentation.
Loud banging on the doors interrupted her presentation several times, which came from the enraged people in the hallway who were unable to get to the meeting in time to obtain a seat.
Claude Norman, a resident in the 5th Ward, was the first person to step up to microphone, saying “Why can’t the people use the money to fix their own homes?”
This argument was a common question brought up by North St. Louis residents. And it was countered by those who hoped for jobs and an end to the deteriorated conditions of North St. Louis.
“The northside has long been a neglected part of the city,” said Cheryl Walker. “Have we been separated so long that we are afraid to be part of the city? I stand proudly as a voice of equity and unwaivering support for the proposal.”
Walker was one of about 25 attendents who wore flourescent green PARIC T-shirts with “Jobs, jobs, jobs” printed on the backs. The group dominated the room early, leaving many other stakeholders outside the room.
Geisman also explained that the redevelopment agreement – to be finalized in October – will include a plan to unfreeze funds for schools, police and firefighters. In most TIF deals, 100 percent of the property tax increments goes to the developer for 23 years. An important revision to the McKee proposal, that Geisman pointed out, was that “a portion of the growth” earned from the TIF would go to the city.