{a view of vacant land (orange) and vacant buildings (red) across a portion of the NorthSide Project area}
The St. Louis City Board of Aldermen’s Housing, Urban Development and Zoning subcommittee is set to vote up or down the NorthSide Redevelopment Plan tomorrow (Thursday, October 22) at 10:00 a.m. To be discussed are the $200M TIF for phases one and two (the 21st Street interchange and the new Mississippi River Bridge landing) and the Redevelopment Agreement itself. TIF money for phases three and four, as well as any possible city-backed TIF will be considered at a future date.
The subcommittee’s consideration happens under the somewhat non-threatening cloud of a lawsuit aiming to stop the NorthSide plan all together. Among other complaints, some argue that TIF and historic tax credits violate the Missouri State Constitution by benefiting a private developer and (presumably) not serving the public good.
For now, I’m going to say that the lawsuit and other efforts will come to nothing and perhaps even prevent any meaningful change in the bill(s) itself. As articulated at Eco-Absence, now is the time to add to or change the bill. So leave your comments at Eco-Absence and help make the bill better.
The full documents being considered are below. Of particular interest may be the Blighted Area Analysis, a document I had not seen until recently.
NorthSide Blighted Area Analysis
