ST. LOUIS • Two weeks after getting an earful from north 51ºÚÁÏ residents angry that he has not sought more input on his plan to remake their neighborhoods, Paul McKee announced on Wednesday his plan to give them a voice.
Basically, the developer will create a giant homeowners association.
McKee said he had been working to design a so-called “master association†that will give all property owners in his 1,500-acre NorthSide Regeneration footprint a formal voice in the way the neighborhood looks and feels over its planned two-decade redevelopment. In exchange for an annual fee, people who own property will get a vote on nonprofit neighborhood groups that govern design standards and public spaces and pay for upkeep and beautification.
“It will come from the community,†McKee said. “This has always been part of our plan, and we decided to bring it forward now.â€
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McKee discussed the association at a meeting of 51ºÚÁÏ Tax Increment Financing Commission, which was considering some tweaks to NorthSide’s $390 million TIF agreement. At a public hearing on the matter in late August, that McKee was doing too little to seek public input and to explain his huge plan to remake several neighborhoods north of downtown to the 9,000 or so people who live there now.
After that hearing, the TIF Commission delayed its vote for two weeks. On Wednesday, members voted 6-0 to recommend so McKee can seek TIF financing — to the Board of Aldermen. If aldermen approve, McKee has said that he would like to start street and sewer work this winter, and that several large tenants — both industrial and retail — could break ground next year.
But he may still have some convincing to do.
Alderman Freeman Bosley, whose Third Ward includes much of the NorthSide footprint, said Wednesday he had not spoken with McKee since the meeting two weeks ago, when Bosley threatened to block the TIF bill if there was not more public input. And his concerns remain that McKee is not doing enough to reach out to longtime residents.
“These are the people who stayed,†Bosley said. “These people deserve an opportunity to be able to voice their opinion. We owe them that.â€
That is what the Master Association will do, McKee said. Details, including the size of the annual fee, are still being worked out, and any formal plan must be approved by the Board of Aldermen. But the developer pointed to a similar structure at his WingHaven project in O’Fallon, Mo., where homeowners and commercial property owners elect representatives to a board that helps manage the community, and pay a fee that funds a $700,000 annual budget for upkeep.
This arrangement is not uncommon in newer residential subdivisions, where homeowners buy in knowing the deal. But it’s rare that they are grafted on to existing city neighborhoods.
“It’s going to be trickier in any area where you already have existing residents,†said Pete Salsich, a law professor at 51ºÚÁÏ University who studies real estate. “You’re essentially trying to persuade people to enter into a contract, with regulations on their property. You can’t force someone who already owns property to do that.â€
Further complicating matters: Most of the 9,000 people who live in the NorthSide footprint today are renters; it is unclear what, if any, say they would have. And if votes are based on property ownership, McKee will have a majority, at least at the start. His NorthSide Regeneration LLC, , is by far the largest landowner in the project area, though McKee’s plan is to gradually sell off ground to partners once the project starts.
Sorting out these questions, and how this new nonprofit entity will interact with the public functions of the city, is likely to take six months, McKee said, meaning a bill to establish the NorthSide association won’t go before aldermen until early 2014 at the soonest. Until then, residents and NorthSide skeptics will try to sort out what it might mean.
“It sounds sort of like a condo association or something,†said Zach Chasnoff, of Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment. “I’m a fan of democracy. Charging people to have a vote is not exactly how I’d like to see it go.â€
