Creve Coeur TDD Updates: Paying It Down and Paying Up

In April, City Council members passed a resolution with the goal of developing an exit strategy for the Olive Boulevard Transportation Development District (TDD), which has been dogged by financial issues and delays for years.

Tuesday, during the first TDD board meeting since that council vote, directors largely rejected scaled-down projects, neither of which were affordable with existing revenue.

"I'm a little tired right now. It disappoints me a lot," David Kreuter, a TDD Director who was one of three panelists also on the city council at the time of the April vote, along with Beth Kistner and Robert Haddenhorst. The trio, who have long been criticized for their dual roles, were focused Tuesday on the idea of an "exit strategy" that would close out the project with existing funds and without further new construction.

The plans identified Tuesday suggested work on the Olive corridor at Old Ballas Rd. and CityPlace--the preferred option by the Koman Group--or changes at Craig Road. Any new construction plan on Olive, a state road, would require new traffic studies from the Missouri Department of Transportation. City Administrator Mark Perkins said he thought it was worth doing the new study, since it hadn't been done in six years, and might help determine if the scope of a project could be reduced.

Kistner called the plans "another possibility that is guaranteed to take another year," and lamented the idea that in some respects the process would be starting all over again. Instead, she supported work to bury power lines and pay down TDD debt sooner.

Staff now hopes to meet with MoDOT officials in the next few weeks to find out what kind of projects the agency will support, and to come up with more options which don't call for new construction.

Olive/Graeser TDD

A meeting of the Olive/Graeser TDD board scheduled for Friday was cancelled. Work to put in a median along Olive Blvd. near the new Walgreens continues on that project, after delays of several weeks.

, the city of Creve Coeur informed TDD Directors in closed session that it had received notice of a lack of payment from at least one contractor.

A pair of mechanics liens filed June 15 in connection with the project by Bussen Quarries and Pace Construction totaling more than $45,000 have been paid, Joseph Blanner, an attorney for the plaintiffs said Thursday.