Olive/170 Redevelopment Agreement Likely Delayed Until Next Year

UNIVERSITY CITY, MO — A redevelopment agreement for the proposed shopping center at Olive Boulevard and Interstate 170 has likely been delayed until next year, officials tell Patch. While City Manager Gregory Rose said in October that the agreement would be introduced by November 21, he later walked that back, telling Patch he hoped to introduce it to the mayor and council by the end of the calendar year.

But closed-door negotiations continue and enabling legislation for the new development has disappeared from the council agenda after being given a first reading on November 12.

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"I do not intend to introduce the redevelopment agreement by the end of the year," Rose told Patch in an email Friday, adding that he has no estimate on when the agreement might be introduced.

Funded by tax-increment financing — essentially a sales tax — about a third of the cost for the approximately $200 million project will be footed by taxpayers. Meanwhile, Webster Groves-based Novus Development will reap about $70 million in public money 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.

Some have called for a community benefits agreement to protect residents and business owners living and working near the development in the city's mostly African-American third ward. Others say they want the development put to a public vote. The city has expressed little interest in either proposal.

Some residents have complained that the project is being rushed, while homeowners eager to get on with their lives complained months ago that the development had already taken too long to win approval. The lack of a written contract with the developer at this point is likely to make neither side happy.

The University City Council will meet Monday at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers (6801 Delmar Boulevard, Fifth Floor). The meeting is open to the public. Find the agenda below.

An executive session will also be held Monday at 5:45 p.m. on the second floor of City Hall. That closed-to-the-public meeting was requested by Councilmembers Tim Cusick and Paulette Carr. It's not clear what the meeting is related to, but the notice references unspecified "legal actions."

University City Council agenda and draft minutes:

Photo by J. Ryne Danielson/Patch