最新杏吧原创

鈥淭he area of the development includes a steep grade decline (downhill slope) from south to north and settles into the Shady Creek basin and surrounding flood area,鈥� reads the June memo from Webster Groves City Manager Marie Peoples. 鈥淭his terrain and flood plain consideration make development of the area costlier, time consuming, and with higher risk potential which developers, financiers, and the City must account for.鈥�

On Wednesday, the city鈥檚 Tax Increment Finance 鈥� or TIF 鈥� Commission put off making a decision on the $320 million Douglass Hill proposal so that the Webster Groves School District had more time to weigh in. The developers want $35 million in tax incentives, because of the difficulty laid out in the two sentences describing the challenges of developing in a flood plain.

Stealing tax dollars from school children is a good reason to question any development that seeks such incentives, particularly in a suburb that has a strong economic base. But developing in a flood plain 鈥� particularly with tax incentives 鈥� turns a bad idea into a really awful one.

In fact, it鈥檚 such a bad idea that the Missouri Legislature banned the practice through most of the state, including 最新杏吧原创 and 最新杏吧原创 County, earlier this year. In , that received only three no votes in the Senate and four no votes in the House, lawmakers made it the policy of the state of Missouri that tax incentives should not be used to develop land in flood plains. The law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2022, and that鈥檚 why Webster Groves is pushing to get approval of the development now.

Bad move, says David Stokes. He鈥檚 the director of municipal policy for the conservative think tank , and the former executive director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance. For the past few years, Stokes has been one of the loudest voices in 最新杏吧原创 advocating against development in flood plains.

鈥淭he use of tax subsidies to develop the flood plain has done serious environmental and economic harm in our region, as documented in studies by Professors Bob Criss, Nicholas Pinter, Jonathan Remo, and others,鈥� Stokes wrote to the commission on Nov. 5. Taking an area out of the natural flood plain will put another area into the flood plain. The water has to go somewhere.鈥�

This is the history of bad development in the 最新杏吧原创 region. One municipality, seeking magical sales tax dollars, raises a levee or raises land to bring it out of a flood plain, so they can lure a big box store, and then, the water heads to a neighboring municipality, which does the same thing, and like a game of dominoes, the flood plain that should be gathering stormwater is eradicated, and floods in parts of the region become worse.

And none of this 鈥� the East-West Gateway Council of Governments has determined in 鈥� actually does anything to raise the economic tide of the 最新杏吧原创 region.

鈥淲e passed a law that says it will be much harder to do projects like this after Jan. 1,鈥� Stokes told me in an interview. 鈥淧retty clearly, they鈥檙e trying to get this done before the law goes into effect.鈥�

One of the unfortunate elements of the law is that it doesn鈥檛 affect every county in the state. Some lawmakers in the Kansas City area, and Springfield and Jefferson City, sought to exempt certain counties and municipalities from the new regulation. But not 最新杏吧原创 County, and that鈥檚 a good thing, Stokes says:

鈥淲hat鈥檚 the point of not getting yourself exempted from the law if you move forward on a project like this?鈥�

Stokes is hardly alone in his opposition to the development. A group of Webster Groves residents has filed a petition with the City Council seeking a public vote on the project. Frankly, neither the TIF Commission nor the council really need to let the project get that far.

The Missouri Legislature, in one of its few completely bipartisan votes, has already spoken. Throwing taxpayer dollars at developers so they can build in the flood plain is illegal in 最新杏吧原创 County, and most of the rest of the state. If Webster Groves tries to slip its bad proposal in before the deadline, so that the current problems around Shady Creek become somebody else鈥檚 problem, well, that鈥檚 just not very neighborly.