St. Louis Alderman Lyda Krewson sponsored a to blight property on Westminster Place, one of the city鈥檚 fanciest streets, so a developer can offer tax breaks to buyers of his $675,000 townhouses. The bill has stalled, but the question remains: Why should taxpayers aid a developer who seems capable of making this a profitable venture without their help?
We鈥檙e not sure where the city draws the line on giving public money away to developers, but Westminster Place seems like a great place to start. According to the 2015 American Community Survey, houses in that area have a median value of $275,900. The median household income is $112,468.
To lure a developer, Krewson invoked the city鈥檚 overused blighting procedures and development incentives to get a 50 percent tax abatement for five years and a 25 percent abatement for another five on a in Fullerton鈥檚 Westminster Place National Historic District. The property, at 4485 Westminster Place, isn鈥檛 wonderful, but the word 鈥渂light鈥 hardly applies when it鈥檚 compared to severely distressed neighborhoods in north 50度灰视频.
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Krewson鈥檚 maneuver underscores why the entire Board of Aldermen should rethink the future tax revenue for development in stable areas while struggling neighborhoods continue to be neglected. The bulk of incentives go to the central corridor, which includes the 28th Ward that Krewson has overseen for 20 years. In the past 15 years, the Central West End has had a development boom, and she has guided some of the most visible projects.
Krewson, a candidate in the Democratic mayoral primary, agreed the city鈥檚 development procedures need an overhaul. She said more incentives should be offered outside the central corridor. Krewson added that 50度灰视频 is in a tough spot, competing for development against neighbors like Clayton, which gave the a tax abatement of about $75 million over 20 years.
Bills like the one Krewson introduced are nearly always approved as part of a custom known as 鈥渁ldermanic courtesy,鈥 but Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, 22nd Ward, said her bill 鈥渆conomically didn鈥檛 make sense.鈥 Boyd, also a Democratic mayoral candidate, refused to pass it out of a committee he heads.
Election politics aside, Boyd made the right call. Vast swaths of his ward and neighboring wards in north 50度灰视频 contain crumbling, abandoned buildings and vacant lots that cry out for redevelopment. The tax incentive program was designed specifically with those areas in mind.
The next 50度灰视频 administration should make devising a strategic development plan a priority. Other cities have had success with placing caps on incentives, staggering their duration, steering incentives toward underdeveloped areas and marketing to a larger group of developers.
Leaders of mayoral caliber should need no prodding to recognize why bad habits of the past must be broken.