The future of Jamestown Mall remains in limbo after weeks of haggling, dueling legal opinions, and even a robo call to Jamestown-area residents from St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger.
Late last week, District 5 St. Louis County Councilman Patrick Dolan – who does not represent the North County district where Jamestown is located – “put a communication in to ask for [a blighting bill] to be written, but dropped it last night” before the council’s Tuesday, February 7 session, according to Patrick Mulcahy, Dolan’s executive assistant.
This came after the St. Louis County Council voted down a measure by 4th District Councilwoman Rochelle Walton Gray – who does represent the district where the mall is located – on January 31.
Her bill would have given blighting authority to the council rather than the LCRA, the Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority of St. Louis County. The vote against her measure was 5 to 2. Council Vice Chair Hazel Irby of University City cast the only other vote in support.
“I’ve tried to meet with the county executive’s office, and when I tried to meet with them, they point-blank told me, ‘We are not going to discuss it – we’ve got the opinion from the attorney, and that’s that,’” Walton Gray told The American.
Walton Gray said she never had a problem with blighting the mall. She simply wanted an opportunity to be engaged in the redevelopment process. That’s why she filed a substitute bill. The original bill was introduced late last year by Mike O’Mara, a Stenger ally whom Walton Gray defeated in the August primary. She took office in January. The outside legal opinion she received came from attorney Elbert Walton, her father.
“The original bill provides that the LCRA shall both acquire the land and buildings, clear the land to ready it for development, and that it will then contract with a developer to redevelop the land, under whatever redevelopment plan the LCRA develops, on its own,” Walton’s opinion letter reads.
“Under Mr. Krane’s opinion, you are mandated by Chapter 99, RSMo, to grant such powers to the LCRA. Well if you have the power to grant powers to an entity, then certainly you have the power to set the limitations on those powers.” (Mr. Krane is attorney Peter Krane, County counsel.)
The LCRA has the authority by law to handle blighting and redevelopment, County Executive Steve Stenger said, and under Missouri law the council does not have the power or authority to appropriate monies in these matters. Additionally, he said, having a separate entity to handle blighting and redevelopment removes the County from liability.
“The County Council itself, just by structure of our charter, does not have the ability to initiate an appropriation process that would result in money, and it does not have the other powers that the LCRA has,” Stenger said.
“I think they should have voted for the bill,” Walton Gray said. “They just assumed that someone was going to sue.”
Stenger said the zoning process and final planning for Jamestown are opportunities for “great weight and opinion” from council members and from the public as well.
“There is lots of opportunity for the council’s input, and really, her authority to be exerted in the final outcome of what this property will be for her community, for our community, for everyone,” Stenger said of Walton Gray.
Walton Gray also wants to make sure minority contractors have significant inclusion in Jamestown’s redevelopment. Stenger said minority inclusion will come, but later in the process. He said the blight study plan does contemplate minority inclusion. “And as we move further on down the line,” Stenger said, “that will be something we inject at every point in this process.”
