I attended my first Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) board meeting in Saint Louis yesterday. I couldn’t help but notice stark similarities and differences between the LCRA and the Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) board.
One stark difference is the amount of information that each board expects from the petitioners. When presenting before the LRA board, an individual has to demonstrate financial ability and provide the written endorsement of an alderperson, as contributors to Show-Me Daily have communicated previously. When presenting before the LCRA board, apparently, the presenter provides neither. He only has to cite the dollar amount that the developer is spending on the project, as well as the projected number of jobs that will be created.
As a related point of contrast, committee members of the LRA board pose probing questions to petitioners, whereas those of the LCRA members ask few, if any.
As a point of similarity, both the LRA and the LCRA promote policies that remove properties from the tax base and therefore reduce the amount of property tax revenue received by the city. Each has a different way to accomplish this, however — the LRA board denies proposals from individuals to buy properties that are withheld by the city, and the LCRA board approves proposals from private corporate developers to abate property taxes.
I encourage you to compare the number of suits in the first photo below to the number in the second photo.
To me, it begs the following question: Whom is Saint Louis City government serving: taxpaying individuals or corporate developers?
Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) Meeting, August 24, 2010
Photo Credit: Thomas Duda
Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) Meeting, June 30, 2010
Photo Credit: Thomas Duda
