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Martin Luther King, III

Notes from the Road- 4th Stop: Wellston, MO

Wellston, MO- a small city of around 2300 on the outskirts of St. Louis- used to have a large public park. A full service park, with a green and a playground in which the members of this embattled urban community could recreate. Much of this park is now paved over; it's been outfitted as a parking lot for a business incubator that the St. Louis County Economic Council built across the way. As of this writing officials of the city of Wellston could not name a single business that has come out of that incubator to help their city.

As we continue on this "Listening and Learning Tour," some clear patterns are beginning to emerge. One is that people in poor communities are proud of their efforts at community reclamation, and will welcome with open arms (and fine, fine food) anyone who arrives to help. Another is that they are often crippled by the cycle of poverty into which their neighborhood has fallen- a cycle whose public components include weak tax-bases, business-hampering property tax rates, and frequently questionable management of city resources.

The City of Wellston has fallen into just such a pattern. Like Benton Harbor, MI, any chance of development here is undercut by high tax-rates due to low rates of property ownership. Unlike Benton Harbor, however, Wellston is also hemmed in by the County itself.

Under what is locally known as 353 Legislation, St. Louis County has taken charge of Wellston's economic development (classifying it- reasonably- as a "blighted community"). The County controls Wellston's schools and oversees any proposed development in the area. In theory, there's nothing wrong with this. While some may chafe at local autonomy being taken from a city, it is easy to argue that small, poor communities like Wellston have their hands full providing basic city services and can't and shouldn't be relied upon to formulate and execute long-term, proactive development plans.

In practice, however, there are problems.

The first returns to the ever-present tax question. The County's solution is to offer major tax abatements to companies that choose to do business or develop in area. This isn't a bad idea, except that a decade-long abatement, which is what many businesses receive, defeats one of the major purposes of bringing in businesses in the first place. One could argue patience if it weren’t for the fact that- according to Wellston's tireless Mayor of 2 months (and City Councilmen of 32 years before that) Frank McNeil- this control means more than a deferment of benefits. In areas whose development the County has overseen, any tax revenue that does come in goes to the County- while Wellston is still providing basic services (that cost the city money) in these areas. Furthermore, because basic management of the development is out of the city's hands, it is much harder to make sure that the city or local businesses see any of the opportunities therein.

This is to say nothing of the major problem. The County has designated a corner of the city of Wellston as 64-acre light industrial development zone. Building three-score acres of light factory will relegate real estate values in Wellston to languish beneath a certain threshold, assuring that any true revitalization and development for the area is nearly impossible. From a County perspective, it can be argued that, if this light industrial has to go somewhere, it makes sense to consolidate it. But if that is the case, then every effort must be made to make sure that the City of Wellston will benefit from what positives these developments will bring to the area- principally in job and training opportunities. When a member of my team asked Wellston officials whether such plans were in place- plans to prepare the community to take advantage of these developments, if indeed their progress is a given- he was met with awkward silence. The city of Wellston should be proactive, surely, but if the County is running the development it must also take responsibility for generating opportunity locally. No one in the city government will say it, for many understandable reasons, but the County must have more extensiv- or transparent- plans for how to make sure that Wellston does not simply become a holding pen for its factories and their negative environmental and community impact.

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Posted at 8:17 AM, Aug 04, 2006 in Community Development
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