Mostly White TIF Commission Weighs Fate Of Minority Community

UNIVERSITY CITY, MO — University City held the first meeting of its Tax Increment Financing commission Wednesday night to discuss new development on Olive Blvd. near Interstate 170. The project, which is being proposed by a company called Novus, would demolish existing homes and businesses in the area to make way for new commercial and residential buildings, including luxury apartments and big box retailers.

In part, the development would be paid for by Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, a method of using public money — usually property or sales taxes — to subsidize private development.

The development's anchor store, which is being kept secret for now, is hinted to be a Costco, Wal-Mart or another big retailer. Novus President Jonathan Browne said that retailer had already signed a letter of intent for when the project gets the green light from the city council.

But getting that green light would entail using eminent domain to seize property from businesses already there, including a public storage facility whose owner has said he does not intend to leave willingly. Browne said he had the city's assurance that eminent domain would be used in that case, but had not discussed using the power to take property from other residents or business owners, including home owners living on Elmore, Richard or Orchard Courts north of Olive.

Novus presented the commission with two proposals. The first, Option A, would include full development on both sides of Olive from I-170 to Woodson and McKnight roads, about 50 acres in total. The second, Option B, would exclude some residential parcels on Elmore, Richard and Orchard Courts. Browne said he had talked to many of the residents living there, and about 50 percent were under contract to sell should the development go forward. A few, however, have been unwilling to leave. Option B would total about 46 acres of new development.

Browne said the area north of Olive would include the anchor store plus three or four sub-anchors and would be the "economic engine" for the entire development. The area south of Olive would include luxury apartments and space for smaller retail stores. He estimated the confidential anchor store would bring about $100 million in revenue by itself, about two-thirds of the total revenue expected from the development.

Novus has worked with other city governments on similar projects, including a Sam's Club at Interstate 44 and Big Bend in Crestwood, Market at McKnight on Manchester in Rock Hill, The Shoppes at Old Webster in Webster Groves and others.

Browne also said he has known acting community development director Rosalind Williams for many years. Williams oversaw the Meacham Park development project in Kirkwood in the early 1990s. In that case, the city of Kirkwood used eminent domain to take residents' property in a historically African-American neighborhood, building a Wal-Mart and other commercial developments where family homes once stood. Many residents felt in the long run they benefited from the Meacham Park development, but many were also displaced and unable to return to the neighborhood.

Like Meacham Park, the area of Olive Blvd. to be developed is heavily African-American and hosts many Asian and other minority-owned small businesses.

The commission deciding those residents' and business owners' fates is almost entirely white.

Williams said that's just how it worked out.

"There is a woman who is African-American [on the commission]," Williams said. "The TIF law does not allow people who own property in the redevelopment area to be on the TIF commission. The other thing is, we only have three appointees — six come from the county, and we have three, and the school district has two and the library board has one — so these are people who are coming from official positions and that's how it kind of worked out."

Read Third Ward Councilmember Bwayne Smotherson's response to this article here.

The TIF commission will meet again April 18 at 6:30 in council chambers. The meeting is open to the public. A public hearing is also scheduled for May 23 at 7 p.m. at the Mandarin House on Olive Blvd.

Video by J. Ryne Danielson/Patch