It’s been nearing two years since voters approved a $40-million bond issue to stabilize 200 vacant, city-owned residential properties a year.
After a yearlong legal battle over whether Proposition NS actually received enough votes to pass, the court sided with the City of St. Louis in September and now construction can get underway – almost.
Today, an aldermanic committee unanimously passed Board Bill 222, sponsored by Alderman Jeffrey Boyd (D-Ward 22) to authorize the bond process to move forward.
The bill authorizes the sale of up to $6 million in bonds each year to stabilize vacant residential buildings in the city’s Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) “land bank.” The LRA, which is staffed by the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC), will manage the $6 million annual fund. Acting as a general contractor, the LRA will allocate up to $30,000 for a single-family home or $50,000 for a multi-family building to stabilize them and then sell them to individual rehabbers or small developers.
The bond will be repaid through a property-tax increase – that will start with a one-cent annual raise the first year and eventually go up to a seven-cents increase.
While the bill passed out of committee unopposed, it sparked an hour-long debate, led by Aldermen Cara Spencer (D-Ward 20) and John Collins-Muhammad (D-Ward 21.)
“I was a big supporter of Proposition NS,” said Spencer, the vacancy proposition that passed in April 2017. “To remind everyone, Proposition NS was a citizen-led petition process that put together this concept, under the leadership of SLACO (St. Louis Association of Community Organizations) and citizen volunteers who spent countless hours gathering signatures to help this city find a funding mechanism to address vacancy throughout our city.”
Spencer questioned why the bill does not include a process for selecting the properties that will be stabilized, and one that includes the community’s input. She was concerned that the properties would end up going to large developers, and “that is not the intended purpose of Prop NS,” Spencer said.
Boyd said that if he included a selection process in the bill and it didn’t end up working like they wanted, they would have to come back and amend the ordinance.
“We have to be careful that we don’t over legislate,” Boyd said. Collins-Muhammad said that he doesn’t understand why the mayor’s office or bill sponsor hasn’t reached out to him to help establish a selection process – seeing that his North city ward has one of the highest number of vacant properties.
“I’d like to know why the aldermen are being left on the back burner,” Collins-Muhammad said. “I’m disappointed in the mayor’s office.”
Steve Conway, the mayor’s chief of staff, replied that the mayor knows the aldermen need to be included and they will be consulted.
Residents living in neighborhoods plagued by vacant buildings know which homes should be stabilized first, said the Prop NS petitioners.
“What we really are wanting is to have existing neighborhood residents be able to help give input on properties that are selected,” said Sundy Whiteside, a Walnut Park resident and board member of St. Louis Association of Community Organizations. “If we succeed in this, and we are inclusive, transparent and have measurable outcomes, this could have a profound effect on the relations between the public and the politicians.”
Whiteside felt discouraged after a Dec. 12 meeting with Conway, LRA leaders and the petitioners to discuss the rubric they would like to use in selecting buildings. However, Whiteside said she has recently received calls from Conway and Laura Costello, director of real estate with the St. Louis Development Corporation, asking SLACO to submit their suggestions for a fair selection process.
“We want their input,” Conway told the American. “We want them to submit properties. Anyone willing to do the work, we are happy to take those referrals.”
Conway said that they will be using $250,000 from the economic development fund, which comes from the sales tax increase passed in April 2017 largely earmarked for Metrolink expansion, to hire two people to work on these projects.
On April 4, 2017, Prop NS passed with 58.57 percent of the vote. The city filed a lawsuit in September 2017, arguing that the proposition passed under state law, which mandates four-sevenths (57.14 percent) voter approval. The city’s charter requires two-thirds (66.67 percent) voter approval before the city can issue bonds.
On September 13, the judge sided with the city.
The bill will now head to the full Board of Aldermen on Friday.
