Politics & Government

Olive/170 Project Raises Hopes And Fears In University City

"Olive Boulevard is not as bad as people try to make it out to be," Mukulu said. "...It's a place that we wanted to grow with."

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UNIVERSITY CITY, MO — A marathon University City public hearing on a contentious Olive Boulevard development devolved into name calling and ended with a councilmember fleeing questions Wednesday night.

Though it was a bit cooler in the room at the second of at least three hearings on the publicly-funded project, passions still flared, with one speaker even calling other audience members "prostitutes." Don't worry if you missed it, though, because it's not over yet. Though the city gave up on its plan to limit the hearing's attendance, the meeting will continue in a little over two weeks.

Despite concerns over public access (or perhaps because of them) no one was turned away at the door or prevented from speaking, and an overflow room with a live television feed was set up for the crowd. Speakers who had voiced their concerns at the previous meeting were asked to wait until the end, and were limited to two minutes rather than the usual three.

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Altogether, more than a hundred U. City residents and concerned citizens from elsewhere in St. Louis have now spoken publicly about the proposed $200 million development, about $70.5 million of which will be paid for with tax increment financing (read: sales taxes).

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Third ward councilmembers Bwayne Smotherson and Stacy Clay led off the hearing, testifying in favor of the proposed development.

"I have lived in University City more than 50 years," Smotherson said. "Our neighborhoods have faced growing challenges that have gone unaddressed for too long, whether it be our neglected streets or the influx of absentee landlords or vacant houses, increased crime or the decline of our property values over the last 10 years."

Smotherson said redeveloping Olive Boulevard would address those challenges, promising to hold a series of town hall meetings to shape the plan's community benefits program — after the TIF is approved.

Clay told a personal story about about attempting to refinance his house to fund some home improvements earlier this year.

"While I don't live in the Taj Mahal, I think I have a pretty decent home," he said. "And I thought what the value might come back at would give me the resources I need to do the things I desired in my home. Well, my jaw about hit the floor when the appraisal indeed did come back."

Clay said the appraiser told him something that he wouldn't forget. "He said, 'Sir, if your house were just a couple of blocks south, you would get the value that you were seeking..."

Clay explained that the inability of African-American families to draw value from their homes has negative effects on the entire community. "Where you have home values that are stagnant or depreciating, you have a degenerative process. Home values decline, you can't get money out to make improvements, they decline further, then you have to sell the home to home investors, they buy ugly homes, they buy them for a song, they rent them out, they don't maintain them, that further degenerates the neighborhood."

Smotherson and Clay both said the redevelopment would increase home values in the area, but many residents — some on fixed incomes — fear the rising property taxes and insurance costs that often go hand in hand could lead to gentrification of the third ward.

One of those residents was Sonya Pointer, who spoke on her mother's behalf. "Gentrification," she said. "The longterm impact on the third ward community would be just that."

Pointer argued that increased property values could price existing residents out of their homes and communities, and she called on the commission to delay its vote until such details could be worked out with community members directly. She also challenged the school board's proposed sale of the Ronald E. McNair Administration building to Novus for the relocation of the Torah Prep School.

"You're taking McNair away from public students to satisfy a private property owner," Pointer said. "That is not right. This community is better than that."

Rosalind Williams, U. City's acting community development director, attempted to explain some of the community benefits that may come from the proposed development. While the developer would receive more than $70 million in public money, community members can expect about $10 million in home improvement grants and loans, and another $5 million for improvement projects on Olive Boulevard.

"The idea behind this whole plan, with the commercial development and the corridor and the third ward, is to reinvest and make the projected rate of decline reversed, so that all of the city can benefit," Williams said. "The city has been losing revenue. The school district has been losing revenue. Our schools are affected, and we need to do something."

Williams praised the technique of using a commercial development to provide revenue for a residential area.

"I've been preaching this forever, but nobody wants to listen," she said. This is a very good mechanism."

Williams previously served as director of planning and development for the city of Kirkwood where she oversaw the Meacham Park development project.

Williams addressed criticism over the lack of specifics on community benefits, comparing the process to a prospective home-buyer getting pre-approval from a bank. "We don't want to have a very well-defined plan yet," she said. "We get a lot of comments about why we haven't done this, or why we don't have that...I want to use the analogy that, if you are going to buy a house, you can buy it in different ways. You can go and find the house, and then get financing. This way, we are going to get the financing so that we can get pre-approved for money. And then we go out and buy the house and find the decorations and the furniture and everything that we put in."

Many in the crowd weren't buying it. Some — like Sonya Pointer — challenged Williams' analogy, saying that as taxpayers, residents are the bank. Others demanded a legally-binding Community Benefits Agreement or CBA in lieu of what they see as empty promises.

"A Community Benefits Agreement is a contract between community representatives and a real estate developer requiring the developer to provide specific benefits or protections to the affected community," Margaux Sanchez wrote last month in the online magazine Dear St. Louis. "It can address topics such as fair employment, affordable housing, youth resources, racial equity, and historic preservation."

"Without a CBA," she said, "the playing field is not level, and community benefits are not guaranteed."

Novus President Jonathan Browne said he has not used a CBA before and isn't really familiar with what one is, adding that he only heard of the existence of such agreements at the prior public hearing.

"At the moment, I don't see that it's anything different than what is already [in the development agreement]," Browne said.

University City Mayor Terry Crow said aspects of a Community Benefits Agreement make a lot of sense, as would a CBA for Washington University. However, he doesn't have a timeline and hasn't reached out to community members about negotiating one. "I want to work on this TIF vote first," he said.

When asked why he wouldn't support negotiating a CBA first, as many community members have called for, Crow said simply, "Because I would like to have the TIF vote first."

Second-ward Councilmember Paulette Carr, declined to say whether she would support a Community Benefits Agreement, offering a terse "no comment" before rushing out of the meeting. In addition to having a vote on the council, Carr sits on the TIF commission and was responsible for early negotiations that brought Novus to University City.

During the meeting, Carr interrupted speaker Caroline Fan, executive director of Missouri Immigrant and Refugee Advocates, demanding her address several times. Carr did not interrupt supporters who failed to give their addresses. Fan is not a University City resident, but has spoken on behalf of several minority residents and business owners in the redevelopment area.

"I don't live in U. City," Fan said. "I'm here because U. City doesn't really talk to the immigrant residents or businesses. And, I'm sorry to say, and it might come as a shock to many of you, but they're really afraid of government retribution. And you guys don't talk to them. What some of them have said to me, in multiple languages — many languages that I don't speak — is that they feel like U. City is like the regimes that they escaped in that you guys don't tell them anything, you just do things to them."

"These are not my words," Fan added. "They are the words of the residents and the businesses that you don't actually outreach to in languages other than English. And, clearly from tonight, you don't do outreach to some of your own residents in English."

Several audience members said they had no notice of the public hearing and only came because a neighbor thought to inform them at the last minute. When one speaker asked for a show of hands of all who had received a notice, no one in the audience raised a hand.

But city manager Gregory Rose seemed to take some criticism voiced at the last public hearing to heart, turning to face the audience directly to answer previously-submitted questions and explain details of the proposal in more straightforward language — referring to the "yellow area" instead of RPA 1, for example.

Rose reiterated the city's position that eminent domain would not be used on any "owner-occupied" homes, but said in other cases, "when all negotiations fail," eminent domain would be considered. That includes against businesses in the redevelopment area, including rental homes and apartments, which Rose said previously he considers businesses.

Rose said the city would ask the developer to provide some portion of the $15 million slated for third-ward improvement projects in advance. "We don't have a good sense of what that number is going to look like at this point. We would like to start that reinvestment into the third ward as soon as possible. But, that's a negotiated item that's still yet to be determined. What I can tell you is that no later than the selling of bonds, there will be at a minimum $10 million available for reinvestment in the third ward, and an additional $5 million that will be available for reinvestment in the Olive Boulevard corridor."

"If any construction occurs on this project, the third ward and Olive Boulevard will receive those funds," Rose added.

By and large, homeowners in the redevelopment area said they were happy with the prices Novus has offered for their houses, though one woman said she was disappointed she hadn't been offered enough to move to Clayton, and some holdouts remain.

Almost every homeowner that spoke said they were frustrated the process was taking so long, and are waiting to see if they should replace roofs, fix air-conditioning systems, or just start packing up to move.

While most homeowners seem happy with their offers, the project has a few clear winners and losers. Among the losers are dozens of small businesses and restaurants (many of them minority-owned) that will be razed to make room for a rumored Costco and other retailers.

At least one business, All-Star Tattoo, has already planned its move to Maplewood, where its zoning permit just cleared that city's plan and zoning commission.

Ed Beyers, who owns Beyers Lumber and Hardware, said he has been part of the third ward for the long haul — 72 years. "I hear a lot about homeowners, but businesses have also made this their home," he said. "I started working there when I was 11. When you take somebody's business, you take their livelihood, you take everything. You take the employees — they don't know if they're going to have jobs or they're not going to have jobs."

"It's hard enough running a business, but when you try to run a business and keep the wolves away from the door at the same time. And they never say anything about not using [eminent domain] for businesses," Beyers said. "That seems to be okay."

Majesty Mukulu from Simba Ugandan Restaurant also said he is concerned that the city is not taking renters into consideration. His business, which opened in February, now rents a space directly across from Jeffery Plaza.

"Olive Boulevard is not as bad as people try to make it out to be," Mukulu said. "It's a place that attracts our customers. It's a place that people who live in it seem to be happy. And it's a place that we wanted to grow with."

The next public hearing will be held June 22 at 6 p.m. at the University City High School, located at 7401 Balson Avenue.

A map of the proposed development:

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    Photo by J. Ryne Danielson/Patch

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