New bill will come to vote this week
By American staff
The St. Louis Board of Aldermen will meet on Thursday and Friday of this week and are expected to give their final approval to a revised version of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital lease proposal regarding an isolated 9.4 acres of Forest Park.
A new vote by the board became mandatory because of amendments added to a proposed lease deal between the city and BJH during the February 23 Board of Estimate and Apportionment meeting. The additions had been negotiated by the Aldermanic Black Caucus, BJH and Comptroller Darlene Green.
“The amendments to the (lease proposal) formalize Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s commitment to workforce development, 25 percent MBE and 5 percent WBE in conjunction with the development of the leased site and our commitment to work with members of the Aldermanic Black Caucus and others to help facilitate development of a 24-hour medical emergency center on the north side of the city,” said June Fowler, vice president of Corporate and Public Communications for BJC HealthCare.
Green said the revised legislation was necessitated by a need to protect green space.
“After discussions with my legal counsel and some aldermen, we believe a different route than the proposed bill approved by E&A is necessary to achieve my intent of protecting park green space,” Green said in a statement in response to questions from the American.
“In order to move the legislation to protect and preserve green space forward, Alderman (Terry) Kennedy and Alderman (William) Waterhouse have agreed to help create a better piece of legislation during the next session.”
Fowler said research into options and opportunities for proceedings with the development will begin as soon as possible, and the goal is to develop a plan no later than December 2008.
“Once we are close to having architectural and other plans for the site, we will convene community members (including representatives from Citizens to Protect Forest Park) to serve in an advisory role to the process,” Fowler said.
With the slogan “Our park is not for sale,” Citizens to Protect Forest Park is an activist group that has worked actively to defeat the lease extension, because the land leased is part of Forest Park.
As supporters of the deal frequently have pointed out, this land is an isolated fragment, separated from the park proper by Kingshighway and from the neighboring Forest Park Southeast neighborhood by Highway 40.
Fowler said BJH also has committed to supporting and participating in updating
the Forest Park Master Plan, including identifying other sources of
funding for the park.
Other amendments tacked on during the Feb. 23 E&A meeting include:
— $1.2 million in funds (part of the city’s previous allocation to Forest Park) to be divided equally among the parks located north of Delmar and those located south of Delmar.
— A special prohibition that would require a vote of the public prior to the sale,
lease or disposal of parkland. This resembles the language of Proposition P that Citizens to Protect Forest Park successfully petitioned to have placed on the April 3 ballot.
“The city wins with BJC expansion that will improve health care and create and retain jobs; Forest Park wins with $3.8 million in dedicated funding and all other parks getting $1.2 million in equitable funding; and the people win with legislation that protects park green space,” Green said in a statement.
Green, who had refused to second a motion to vote on the original lease deal during an E&A meeting three weeks ago, briefly argued with Mayor Francis G. Slay at the Feb. 23 meeting. Slay had problems with the new wording concerning “parks north of Delmar.”
Slay said he and the Aldermanic Black Caucus wanted to designate individual wards, but Green said she would not vote for that wording because ward boundaries can be changed during mandatory redistricting because of changes in population.
Green said, “With the help of the citizens and the aldermen we can still have a win, win, win solution to this issue.”