The St. Louis Board of Aldermen's Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow on the two board bills -- 218 and 219 -- that would enact a redevelopment agreement for the McEagle NorthSide project and allocate Tax increment financing to the project's first two phases.
The meeting will take place at 10:00 a.m. in the Kennedy Room, formerly the City Council chamber when the city had a bicameral legislature (Room 208).
Word is buzzing about lawsuits against the project and a recall effort against Alderwoman April Ford-Griffin (D-5th), but the legislation that will give McEagle development power marches along. Does the haste to pass the bill and the fervor to kill it create a situation where smart changes will have little political support? No doubt that McEagle has the votes it needs to pass these ordinances as they have been introduced. The only part of the deal that would probably fail at the Board is public guarantee of the TIF, and that proposal has not been introduced as a bill. Many aldermen have stated total opposition to public guarantee but support for the project itself with the TIF currently proposed.
Thus, there is only a small amount of time in which real changes to these bills can be crafted and proposed. Let's get those changes on the table quickly. What should they be? Post them here and bring them tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
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2 comments:
the most obvious is to include language requiring McEagle to document the "legacy properties" as a condition to receive the first penny of TIF money. This hand must be forced as it'a apparent that it will stall otherwise. It's really a rather simple process.
Gloria B from ONSL did a great job of highlighting concerns with the treatment of historic districts such as Mullanphy and St Cyril-Methodius. She even brought maps! The aldermen showed interest in revisiting those concerns in the redevelopment agreements for the 4 individual areas. The agreements will come up for review sometime next year.
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