University City Set To Introduce Olive/170 TIF Legislation: Watch

UNIVERSITY CITY, MO — When the University City Council meets Monday night, it will introduce four bills related to a controversial TIF-funded development at Olive Boulevard and Interstate 170.

Watch the livestream here.

Bills 9370, 9371, 9372 and 9373 will designate the city's third ward a redevelopment area and approve various aspects of the development project and its tax-based funding mechanism.

Webster Groves-based Novus Development is set to reap about $70 million in tax breaks for its planned shopping center, likely anchored by a Costco, which will displace about 60 homeowners and dozens of small, minority-owned businesses. Big box retail stores, offices, luxury apartments and more than 2,000 parking spaces will take their place.

Meanwhile, taxpayers will contribute more than a third of the development's costs, mostly in the form of new sales taxes, as well as fund about $15 million of reinvestment into the Third Ward. Officials say the money will be used to improve infrastructure and boost home values, but many of the people who live in that ward say they are distrustful of the city after years of neglect.

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Find the agenda here:

Photo by J. Ryne Danielson/Patch