After two hours of debate on October 11, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen voted in favor of moving forward with developer Paul McKee Jr.’s NorthSide redevelopment plan and $391 million TIF agreement.
The two bills – one to update the redevelopment plan and another to activate two areas in the TIF agreement – will go before the aldermen again on Friday for a final vote.
The board and Mayor Francis G. Slay previously approved the NorthSide redevelopment plan and TIF agreement in 2009. However, several residents sued the City of St. Louis and McKee, challenging the NorthSide TIF and redevelopment plan.
Because the lawsuit, which was settled in favor of McKee on appeal, delayed the project for more than three years, the legislation had to be updated and reconsidered by the board.
This time, aldermen added a few more guidelines for McKee. Last week in committee, aldermen passed amendments to create a one-time $250,000 fund for home repairs for residents in the redevelopment area and a potential $1 million fund for other neighborhood projects, as part of the TIF agreement.
Ward 21 Alderman Antonio French said the aldermen also passed an “excellent amendment” on the redevelopment plan by obligating McKee to follow the First Source Jobs policy.
This policy says developers who receive city incentives must hire low-income city residents for all the projects’ entry-level jobs. It sets a goal for 100 percent of entry-level jobs to be hired from a list of low-income city workers that the city compiles.
“That is some of the largest numbers I’ve ever seen on any project,” French said, “and it’s only fitting that since this is the largest TIF in the City of St. Louis that it should have some of the largest goals for employing low-income, unemployed people in the city.”
The policy also has teeth, French said, allowing aldermen to take back some of the TIF if the policy is not followed.
However, aldermen rejected two new amendments to the TIF bill French proposed. The amendments would have given McKee a deadline to identify the buildings he plans to rehab and to secure those structures.
“His buildings should already be secured because they are vacant buildings,” French said. “If you drive through this area, you see building after building owned by the developer unsecured. They’ve been like that for years, and they continue to fall into disrepair.”
First, French proposed to add a July 31, 2014 deadline to identify and secure the potential rehab buildings. When that failed, he proposed another amendment with a deadline of December 2014.
French’s proposals incited two hours of bantering among the aldermen. Ward 28 Alderman Lyda Krewson questioned why he did not propose the amendments while the bills were in committee or contact aldermen who sponsored the bills.
“We have been talking about this development on the Board of Aldermen for years,” Krewson said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily unreasonable to place a date anywhere, but did you ask any of the sponsors or the developer prior to springing this on us this morning?”
Ward 13 Alderman Fred Wessels said that the amendments must be posted among city public records for 10 days before the aldermen could vote on them. And he was not willing to hold the project back that much longer.
“This developer has already litigated for three and a half years,” Wessels said.
In an interview, French said the amendments would not have slowed down the voting process, and he never heard of a time when they had to wait 10 days to vote due to an amendment.
“I proposed the simplest of things that had been recommended,” French said. “I don’t think that it was a fair criticism at all.”
Ward 19 Alderman Marlene Davis also opposed the rehab amendments and took personal offense to them.
“What is taking place is ridiculous,” she said, “I know what needs to be boarded up in my ward, and I have good service providers. Now you are saying I’m not doing my job?”
Krewson asked the aldermen representing the project area why they don’t already have a list of these buildings. If it were her ward, she said, she would already have the list in hand and the buildings would be secured.
Ward 8 Alderman Stephen Conway said the board’s overall handling of the project has been embarrassing, and he accused aldermen of manipulating the project for their own interests.
“This is the third time we’ve put this guy through the ringer,” Conway said of McKee. “What person in their right mind would want to come down here and put their time and money into the City of St. Louis?”
However, Ward 24 Alderman Scott Ogilvie defended French.
“Our role is not to represent developers,” he said. “Our role is to be representative of our residents. This is a big incentive. I object to the suggestion that all we think about is our own personal interests. These are amendments so that people living here gain a little piece of this large incentive package.”
The TIF bill passed, 24-3, with Ward 1 Alderman Sharon Tyus, Ward 11 Alderman Tom Villa and French voting against it. The redevelopment plan bill passed, 24-2, with Tyus and Villa voting against it.