U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay took the top-ranking Democrat on a congressional intelligence committee on a tour of the proposed North St. Louis site for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) West facility.
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), a ranking member of the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee, said that if there is tie among the four potential sites for the new $1.6 billion NGA West facility, it should go to an area with a Promise Zone designation.
The North St. Louis site is the only one with that classification, which means it is an area that should get federal preference for redevelopment opportunities.
The other locations in the running are the old Chrysler plant in Fenton, the Met Life facility in South St. Louis County and an area adjacent to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.
The NGA West facility is currently located near the Anheuser-Busch InBev Brewery and has been there since 1943.
The potential North St. Louis site borders the area where former federal housing complex Pruitt-Igoe once stood, and Clay told Schiff it was “a federal disaster.”
“Bringing NGA will help right that wrong,” Clay said.
Schiff said that the NGA director ultimately has the authority to select the site of the new NGA facility.
“It will be up to him to decide how much our influence will be a factor,” Schiff said of the congressional committee. “We’ll have some influence.”
The 100-acre proposed site is just north of Pruitt-Igoe and west of St. Louis Place Park. Much of the area is open land, but several homes still stand in the site.
As the tour came to a stop at Jefferson and Cass avenues, the bus was met by a group of about 20 protestors – including some homeowners.
Homeowner Gustavo Rendon and protestor Larry Chapman said they have been arrested just hours before the tour for putting up a sign that said, “No eminent domain, no NGA.” The sign was in the empty lot across from Rendon’s house, which Northside Regeneration owns.
Chapman said that he overheard Paul McKee Jr. – principal of Northside Regeneration, which controls much of the land in the proposed North City site – tell police earlier that day that they should be arrested.
McKee disputed this account.
“At the city’s direction, I was told to have the signs removed from our site for they did not have authorization,” McKee told The American. “We then sent folks to remove the signs, and the police needed to hear me say they were not authorized, which I did. Never did I tell anyone they should be arrested.”
In the event, Rendon and Chapman were charged with trespassing and released immediately.
Rendon said that Pruitt-Igoe was another example of a federal project where eminent domain was used to push out homeowners. The site had 33 11-story buildings, and it stood only 30 years before it was demolished due to high crime and impoverished living conditions.
“Before Pruitt-Igoe, there was community there,” Rendon said. “And look at it now. It’s all torn down.”
Rendon said their community has been threatened with eminent domain several other times, including when former mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. wanted to build a golf course on the near North Side.
“They have been trying to get rid of us for a long time,” Rendon said. “Let us be part of the progress. Let us be part of the development. We want to stay.”
He said the city is currently offering homeowners’ money for their properties, but eminent domain is like a weapon.
“They come to you and say, ‘Do you want to sell your house?’ and eminent domain is pointing at your head,” he said. “If you say ‘no,’ they are going to throw the book at you.”
NGA leaders are expected to make their selection in March. If they chose to move the agency’s facility out of St. Louis city, the city would lose $2.3 million in earnings tax revenue from the loss of those 3,100 jobs.
Schiff said with the city’s economic impact by losing that revenue, “There is a powerful case here.”
