Neighborhoods around the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s new headquarters in north St. Louis may soon see more new development thanks to a piece of legislation signed by Mayor Tishaura Jones on Tuesday.
The bill establishes a redevelopment plan and blighting study for roughly 821 acres in the Jeff-Vander-Lou, St. Louis Place and Carr Square neighborhoods. Jones noted these are parts of the city that have long suffered from systemic disinvestment.
“It’s a new day in development in the city of St. Louis,” Jones said. “This is the result of the advocacy of neighborhood residents who have long been frustrated with the intentional neglect of their communities.”
The ordinance clears the way for the city to use the power of eminent domain to force the sale of certain private property for projects that the public would benefit from.
Ward 14 Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, who sponsored the legislation, said it faced some skepticism at first from residents who were worried about how eminent domain might be used.
“When you talk about eminent domain and a blight, this neighborhood has been done wrong in the past,” he said.
Aldridge credited neighborhood residents for their input, which helped shape the details in the final bill.
“Sometimes when development comes you have that fear of gentrification,” he said. “But thanks to the residents we put a lot of protections in there.”
One of those protections is how the legislation defines which properties eminent domain can apply to, Aldridge said. It applies to ones that are condemned, vacant, unoccupied, have repeated violations of ordinances or property maintenance code or have had multiple calls to the police for criminal activity.
Jones said it will help address the issue of developers buying up property but not investing in it.
“This isn’t targeted at one specific individual,” she said. “This is about an entire neighborhood or neighborhoods that have felt neglected and left behind for far too long.”
There are protections for current residents of the 821-acre area too, Aldridge said. The legislation makes it easier for them to receive a tax abatement when they renovate their home and requires a community advisory panel to review plans for development proposals over $1 million, he said.
“I think this is a blueprint for how we do development in St. Louis,” Aldridge said. “Not only are we going to bring economic opportunity to this community, but the way it was done, there’s a lot of protections (for) residents in this piece of legislation.”
Jones agreed, adding that it’s a tool to help revitalize neighborhoods while protecting the existing residents who make their communities vibrant.
“I hope that these neighborhoods that surround NGA are thriving in several years,” she said, “that the houses currently there are repaired because St. Louis has some of the most beautiful architecture.”
The legislation comes at a critical moment before the new NGA is set to be fully occupied in 2026, Jones said.
“These are building blocks that we have to do now before the NGA is complete,” she said. “We can lay the groundwork for a vibrant neighborhood once the employees move into the NGA.”
