CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — A multimillion-dollar development plan in downtown Chesterfield is one step closer to full approval.
A special 12-member commission voted 9-3 to send the tax increment financing (TIF) to Chesterfield's city council.
This was the third meeting of the TIF commission. According to Chesterfield City Administrator, Mike Geisel, the city has been working on this project to improve downtown Chesterfield for a while.
"For the last year and a half, the city has been working on a special financing district for the Southwest quadrant. It's an extension of our comprehensive planning process, which we started in 2017," he said.
It's a project that's receiving some pushback though.
Parkway School District's chief financial officer, Patty Bedborough, said their biggest issue with the TIF is that the city wants their taxpayer dollars diverted to support residential units.
"Essentially they need our money in order to make this work and that's really at the burden of my taxpayers," she said.
The multimillion-dollar infrastructure project in downtown Chesterfield is causing the city and one of its biggest school districts to not see eye to eye.
Geisel described the district's stance as 'puzzling.'
"The reality is that the school districts are the largest beneficiary of the TIF," he said.
The $353 million in tax increment financing would pay for things like parking garages, new roads, apartments, homes and more around the Chesterfield Mall.
It's something Geisel said would elevate the city.
"We want to create downtown Chesterfield, so it can be the robust revenue generator for the schools and all of the other taxing agencies," he said.
Bedborough doesn't see the 241 acres that way though. She said the district fully supports the development, but they're worried with the added residents could overcrowd the schools over the 23-year-long TIF.
"We have almost 3,400 residential units included in the development and very little funding coming to the school districts," she said.
According to Bedborough, the district's data projects that this new development will add over 800 students and could cost them between $44 million to $235 million, depending on enrollment.
She said the problem is that the TIF offers little funding to the schools, which means education will suffer.
"Chesterfield's soundbite is all about what will come to us over the 30 years, we're most concerned with the revenue that will come in the first 23 years, so that's two generations of students going through schools, very minimal new revenue coming to the district; however, we will have to support those students and provide a high-quality education," Bedborough said.
The city projects fewer students being added and said the district will benefit from $216 million in additional revenue, according to Geisel.
"Parkway's enrollment is down 3,608 students since 1999, it's down 674 students since 2018, and according to their budget, they're going to lose 300 more students, so the number of students whether or not you use their numbers or our numbers, is a fraction of what their loss in enrollment has been," he said.
Bedborough agreed that enrollment is dropping, but she emphasized that the new students would attend only three schools: Shenandoah Elementary, Central Middle and Central High school.
She said the district is worried that those schools wouldn't be able to handle the increase of students.
"Right now, we feel the enrollment at the middle schools and the high schools would not be as impacted, but certainly would be impacted over time, but our real concern is them not being able to support, with enough revenue for the operating expenses, that the new students would mean," she said.
The City Council has final say over whether to approve it or not. The TIF will be introduced at the council's meeting on Monday, Dec. 5.
The Parkway School District provided the following statement in response to the plan being advanced:
“We are disappointed in the vote of the Chesterfield Regional TIF commission. While we are pleased there is a plan for this area of Chesterfield and always welcome new students, the development does not provide adequate financial resources to educate the hundreds of potential new students it will generate.
The total loss for our operating expenses could be more than $220 million in the next 23 years. Our taxpayers may be asked to foot the educational bill, and families will be disrupted due to the redistricting required.”