North St. Louis city residents can agree on many things.
They want stores nearby, so they don’t have to drive out of the community to go grocery shopping. They want quality schools and well-constructed streets that are safe. They want to develop the boarded-up buildings they’ve been living next to for decades.
Yet it comes down when talking about how to make it happen – it’s tooth and nail.
On July 2, Circuit Court Judge Robert Dierker put a stop to the $390 million in tax increment financing for developer Paul McKee Jr.’s $8 billion Northside Redevelopment plan, ruling that the TIF was arbitrary.
“The question before the Court, fundamentally, is whether the City’s Board of Aldermen had the discretion to say … ‘Let’s try it.’ The Court concludes that the answer must be, ‘No,’” Dierker writes in a fascinating 51-page judgment.
McKee said he has 30 days to respond and plans to do so.
Dierker’s decision put an abrupt halt to project that has been in the works for about seven years.
The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, three North St. Louis residents: Isaiah Hair, Cheryl Nelson and Bonzella Smith.
The legal team behind them was W. Bevis Schock, an attorney who sits on the board of Rex Sinquefield’s Show-Me Institute research center; Dorian Amon, who originally filed the Oct. 8 lawsuit; attorney and activist Eric E. Vickers; and Hugh Eastwood, who worked with Schock previously.
Hair declined an interview with the American unless it was in his neighborhood. The American was not able to get in touch with other plaintiffs before press time.
Fifth Ward Alderwoman April Ford-Griffin and various nonprofits and residents are also voicing their opinions that they want to see the development plan come to fruition and are disappointed in the court’s ruling.
Long-time resident Deanetta James, who lives on Sheridan Avenue, has served on the JeffVanderLou board. At 74, she has seen downtown St. Louis go through many phases of redevelopment, she said.
“Yet no one has ever came in to help clean up the 5th Ward,” James said. “I was happy to have someone come in to talk to us.”
James is a volunteer with the Community Renewal Development Inc., a non-profit that has been working in the 5th Ward for six years. The group, led by Sal Martinez, has been active in working with neighborhood development plans, including the Northside Redevelopment Plan.
“We certainly hope as a community that we are given an opportunity to implement the plan,” Martinez said.
“We hope that the judge and other interested parties would see fit to allow us to pursue this. North City deserves to look like South City and the central corridor. And it does not.”
Martinez said he has spoken to community members who are opponents of the plan and hopes the community can unite their efforts. Yet, he said the opponents are “unwilling to embrace the possibility of what could be because of their fears of certain things.”
Martinez said the development planning process has sparked a unique partnership among non-profits for workforce development. Meeting weekly, this workforce committee includes the City’s SLATE, Better Family Life, St. Patrick Center, Vashon-Jeff Vanderlou and the St. Louis Job Corps.
Many of the meetings are attended by CEOs of these agencies, he said.
The coalition has begun training workers for all phases of construction and environmental work that the development plan is projected to bring.
“We were disappointed with the judge’s ruling,” Martinez said. “We are an aggressive committee. Never been a committee of workforce like this to come together to create jobs.”
Sheila Rendon, president of the Northside Community Benefits Alliance, said Dierker’s ruling was just and honest. The alliance feels the residents and business owners within the redevelopment area need a “community benefits agreement” to protect their interests.
However, she said, this is something that would be best administrated by a nonprofit, community-oriented organization, one not based in St. Louis, such as the Partnership for Working Families.
Rendon said these agreements ensure such things as appropriate architectural standards, jobs for local residents, park space, environmentally sound construction practices and access to mass transit.
Rendon said that she doubts that the City and McKee will stick to its commitment to prohibit using eminent domain, which is stated in the redevelopment plan. McKee’s team openly pursued limited right to eminent domain, but gave up on acquiring it to reach an agreement.
Ford-Griffin said that the agreements Rendon asks for are included in the redevelopment plan and more. She also said that the TIF proposal states that McKee cannot access the TIF bonds until he presents the Board of Aldermen with a more detailed plan. He said he would present such a plan this year.
The TIF agreement ties McKee to these agreements far more than “having a piece of paper,” Ford-Griffin said.
“Therefore in different times, you have the ability to not give him the incentive or to find him in default,” she said.
She said the aldermen came out with a solid agreement, committing McKee to minority participation and recruiting residents into job training.