Politics & Government

U. City Will Meet With Stakeholders Ahead Of Next Public Hearing

"Keep U City diverse," says Aarthi Arunachalam. She was one of almost 50 speakers at Friday's public hearing on the Olive/170 development.

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UNIVERSITY CITY, MO — University City held the third of at least four public hearings on tax increment financing (TIF) for the proposed $200 million development at Olive Boulevard and Interstate 170 Friday night. If the TIF is approved, taxpayers would foot about $70.5 million of that bill, mostly through sales taxes from the new shopping center, which is heavily rumored to include a Costco wholesale club.

Of the almost 50 speakers, about two-thirds spoke against the proposal, citing concerns over gentrification, eminent domain, and past projects by the same developer that failed to live up to expectations. Proponents, on the other hand, believe the TIF will bring badly-needed cash into the city's coffers. The development will be an "economic engine," they say, to revitalize a neglected third ward.

(Watch the entire public hearing here.)

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Third-ward resident Sonya Pointer said she's afraid rising property taxes and rental costs could price low-income residents out of their communities and change the character of the neighborhoods they call home.

"[Supporters] aren't thinking about the unintended consequences of this development," she said.

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Later in the hearing, U. City resident Yvette Joy Liebesman seemed to dismiss those concerns. "...Home values are going up, therefore it's gentrification," she said, drawing out the word "gentrification" in a mocking tone. "Is it any time home values go up, it's gentrification? Guess what, everybody in the first and second ward, we've been gentrified. Yay."

In fact, there is a dramatic racial divide between the city's wards. Often called "The Delmar Divide" across the greater St. Louis area, in University City, it would be more accurate to call it the Olive Divide.

Despite a reputation as a "liberal and progressive community," University City has "deep roots in the practice of de jure and de facto segregation," says Carlos Javier Diaz-Grandos in his doctoral dissertation for the University of Missouri, St. Louis.

Due to unfair banking and insurance practices, often called redlining, African-Americans were routinely shut out of the city's first and second wards, and city policy actively sought to stem "white flight" through occupancy permits, rigid building codes, and calls for "racial balance" to guard the city's "white spaces," according to Diaz-Grandos.

"Where white space could not be guarded, it was created," he writes. Some fear that's what is about to happen in the third ward.

Karen Yang, public program manager at a prominent arts foundation, said University City's restaurants and small businesses helped her feel at home in St. Louis after moving here from a predominately Asian-American community in Silicon Valley in 2012.

"What I love most about St. Louis are local, small businesses like the ones on Olive where people make food from the heart, sell items that connect us to our roots," she said, adding that she believes the TIF will end in lost jobs, lost revenue and lost community for people like the owners of Tai Ke Taiwanese restaurant.

"When I was hosting internationally-renowned dancers from France and Czechoslovakia, and they said their favorite place to eat was a hole in the wall in Tokyo, I said, 'I know just the place: Tai Ke.'"

Tai Ke sits in the heart of RPA 1, in the path of the proposed development, likely near the future site of a luxury apartment building.

"If anyone deserves tax incentives, it is the current residents and local, small-business owners who have put their lives on the line to make this region better," Yang said. "Is it any surprise that one of the owners of Tai Ke said 'Over my dead body?''

But U. City-resident Nicole Angieri says: "We need more than comfort food. We need more than trinkets."

"How many of you are wearing something right now from a big box store?" she asked. "How many of you have cabinets full of groceries and toiletries from big box stores? How much of U. City money leaves U. City every day to go to Brentwood Promenade? How much money from U. City is given to the schools of Brentwood and Maplewood and Kirkwood? It is time to move beyond the buzzwords of 'gentrification' and 'racism' and 'big box stores' and be a part of your community. Have conversations with your community. Because my community says 'I need to my kids to go to school here.' My community says, 'I don't need to be at the pool and have it shot up at 4:30 in the afternoon on Father's Day because there aren't jobs, because there aren't things for our students to do in the summer.'"

"We need a plan for development that moves beyond the fears of Facebook posts and actually hears the voice of your community," Angieri continued, adding: "It's not enough to have Asian restaurants. It's not enough to have smoke shops popping up every other corner down Olive. We need development. We need you to be honest with yourself and ask how many Costcos and Sam's Clubs and Walmarts you visit every weekend that aren't in U. City."

Still other residents, like Aren Ginsberg, say the city is facing a false choice between diversity and economic development. "It bothers me to hear the people who are supporting our multi-ethnic businesses frame this as an either/or," she said, highlighting the many vacant storefronts along Olive Boulevard where those businesses could possibly relocate. "I think we can have diverse, multi-ethnic businesses serving a welcoming and inclusive community and an economic engine that will attract people from across the region to spend their dollars in U. City... I think we can have it all."

After the meeting's public comment portion, City Manager Gregory Rose answered some previously-submitted questions, including on the city's potential use of eminent domain — the government's power to take homes and businesses from private property owners. "We will not use eminent domain on owner-occupied houses," Rose said, reiterating the city's long-held position. "That is completely off the table."

In situations "where certain businesses refuse to act in a reasonable way," however, the city would consider seizing property as a last resort, he said.

"Any restaurant that wants to relocate in University City, we should make every reasonable effort to relocate them here," Rose added, saying he would be recommending relocation assistance "much higher" than the city has previously stated.

"I don't want to say how much," Rose said. "But it will be much higher."

Rose, who is African-American, also touched on the issue of race, saying that while he has B.S. and MPA degrees, "In the experience of an African American living in America, I have a Ph.D."

"To say that this is somehow a race issue — people throw out race because it's an explosive issue for people. I can assure you, I have no interest in gentrification. But I can also assure you that I have no interest in allowing any of our residents to live in an unsafe area."

Rose recommended — and University City Mayor Terry Crow formally requested — that the commission extend the public hearing to a fourth session to give the council and city staff time to meet with residents and business owners who have concerns about the project, including those who have called for a legally-binding Community Benefits Agreement.

"There is still a lot of work to do," Rose said. "And because there are so many of you who have expressed concerns that we still either are not effectively communicating the merits of this project or we simply don't understand, from your perspective, the challenges that you see with it, I will recommend to the TIF commission to continue the public hearing to give us an opportunity to meet with those stakeholders. Whether it's the ones who are interested in making sure we have a CBA. Whether it's the restaurant business owners that want to ensure we have a place for you in University City. Give us that opportunity to meet with you and then let us come back and report to the TIF commission on what our findings are and what our plan is."

The mayor previously told Patch he was not interested in discussing a Community Benefits Agreement before the TIF commission voted. That seems to have changed. Based on several off-the-record conversations with multiple sources, it seems likely that one or more county-appointed TIF commissioners is ready to vote against the plan, with the commission possibly deadlocked 6-6. If the vote is a tie, the TIF would fail.

The next hearing is scheduled for August 23 at 6 p.m. at the University City High School (7401 Balson Avenue).

Photo: "Keep U City diverse," says recent Washington University graduate and University City resident Aarthi Arunachalam. She was one of almost 50 speakers at last night's public hearing in University City on a proposed $200 million dollar development that could displace dozens of minority-owned businesses. Taxpayers will foot about $70 million of that bill. (J. Ryne Danielson/Patch)

A map of the proposed development:

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