Secret Document Reveals So Called Environmental Group Interested In Greenbacks
Not Greenspace
Group Includes Millionaires Adolphus Busch IV, Don Musick III, T.R. Hughes,
Charles Hager
Tell Tale Document Discovered During Legal Proceedings
By Tony Brockmeyer
The City of St. Peters informed the First Capitol News of the discovery of a secret document which disclosed a sneak attempt by Great Rivers Habitat Alliance to gain millions of dollars for its operations if it were to obtain control over the controversial Lakeside 370 Business Park Property. This scheme can be compared to the rich and powerful land barons of the early 20th century.
The document was discovered by the City during legal discovery proceedings in a lawsuit filed by Great Rivers against the City of St. Peters in Cole County, Missouri over the city’s use of Tax Increment Financing funds for the Lakeside project, a $350 million commercial development on 1,600 vacant acres owned by the City near Highway 370 and Interstate 70.
The document was from Wayne Freeman, executive Director of Great Rivers and addressed to Great Rivers chairman Adolphus Busch IV and board member Don Musick III. It contradicted years of public statements by the group and its officers that the land should be sold to them and they would keep the property for park development with half going to the City of St. Peters with the balance to St. Charles County and the State of Missouri.
Great Rivers had offered St Peters $5 million for the Lakeside 370 property and in mid-May surprised the St. Peters Board of Alderman by suddenly increasing their offer from $5 million to $12 million. They did not reveal to the City the potential financial gain for Great Rivers and their intent to develop as much as 800 acres on the property. The sale contract offered to the City by Great Rivers called for great Rivers to put up $10,000 as earnest money with closing to come three years after the contract was accepted. Thus Great Rivers would have plenty of time to secure donations and make development deals without having to put up any more of their own money. Last week the St. Peters Aldermen approved the sale of the Lakeside 370 property to Kaplan Development for $50 million. It is expected the sale will be completed later this summer.
“It’s clear from this secret memo that Great Rivers has been planning this buyout for some months,” said Terry Hawkins, president of the St. Peters Board of Aldermen. Hawkins noted, during this period Great Rivers continued to encourage local river communities to support an intended lawsuit to stop construction of a levee proposed to protect the 1,600 acres from a 500 year flood, not indicating to the communities that it was their intention all along to build on the land themselves and not preserve it for flood control purposes.
Hawkins said, “Great Rivers appears to be prepared to continue the deceptions even after the proposed purchase of the property. One of the most disturbing and alarming parts of this secret memo is Mr. Freeman’s description of a scenario where he says how Great Rivers will try and pull the wool over the public’s eyes by using advertising to try and put the blame on St. Peters, telling the public they could only make this deal if development was promised to our City. It is more and more obvious that when it comes to Mr. Freeman - the ends justify the means.”
The secret document describes Freeman’s plan for Great Rivers to disguise its real intentions by telling the public in a full page ad to be purchased and printed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the only way Great Rivers could get control of the property was to promise St Peters they could have some development on the land after the sale to Great Rivers.
“I have always felt that the Great Rivers habitat Alliance was not what it seemed to be,” said Alderman David Hayes. “It is now clear from documents recently discovered during litigation that they have been considering their own commercial development of the Lakeside 370 land once they acquired the land under the guise of environmental protection.”
“We’ve said all along based on scientific studies, the levee will not impact flood levels anywhere. Great Rivers must agree because they are willing to build on this land. The shame of it all is they have been deceiving local communities and not revealing their plans all the while attempting to get them involved in Great Rivers’ lawsuit against St. Peters on a false premise,” added St. Peters Alderman Rocky Reitmeyer.
Here is an alleged environmental group formed explicitly to stop our development finally having to come clean as to their true intent. It’s now clear the actions by our Board to not succumb to their pressure and instead move forward with this project in the best interests of the residents of our community was the right decision. We stood up to the incredible pressures generated by Great Rivers who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising, direct mail, billboards, telephone calls, slanted polls, and public relations to try and derail a program that will ensure the economic future of St. Peters,” added Hawkins. The City is awaiting permit approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to begin construction of a levee to protect the development.
Alderman Bruce Holt says after the recent sale of the property to Kaplan Development St. Peters citizens are clearly the winners. “After reading this memo I am now convinced this offer we have is truly the best agreement we could have made. The citizens of St. Peters stand to make millions of dollars in return on their investment from this deal. If we would have signed the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance agreement the GRHA would have stood to make millions from this project,” he explained.
“What we have done for our city and the residents is we have made the best financial decision for the residents,” added Alderman Len Pagano. “It was a tremendous return on our investment.”
The First Capitol News asked former St. Peters Mayor Tom Brown to give us his thoughts on what happened. “This is one of the proudest days of my life,” he said. “I am so proud of our Board of Aldermen and our City staff. They have stood up to the pressure and intimidation from the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance and the misinformation and half truths they have been spreading about this project. This development proposed by St. Peters was for our kids and our grandchildren. It would have provided six to eight thousand permanent jobs, tens of thousands of union jobs, construction jobs for the next 15 to 20 years. Great Rivers Alliance was formed after a group of individuals appeared at one of our Board meetings to speak against this great project. I demanded they identify themselves and where they lived. They were from Ladue, Clayton and Town and Country. Nobody from St. Peters. Nobody from our County. I told them I didn’t think there was even any discussion on this matter. That is when Great Rivers Alliance was born. The next thing we heard about is now it is an ecology issue and Great Rivers Alliance is coming back to do battle with the terrible City of St. Peters who wanted to build a levee. We spent over $1 million dollars with Sverdrup, an internationally known company. They built levees around Earth City and Riverport. The levees held in ‘93 and ‘95. The land was dry. They are experts in building levees and doing this type of work around the world. I presented this to August Busch and to August Busch’s engineering firm. The City has a copy of the letter that came back saying: Dear Mr. Busch this project will not impact you one bit. Still Great Rivers Alliance kept talking about how unsafe it was going to be and all the problems it would create. All these lies and innuendos and half truths. It was kind of like the Gestapo in World War II. I guess they felt if they threw enough - and of course money is unlimited with those people. The City cannot spend taxpayers dollars like they can spend money. They flooded every household in St. Peters with half truths and lies. Letters to our attorney were even stolen from City Hall. I am very happy to hear this. I am very proud of our Board. I am very proud of our staff. They stuck together even without leadership they stuck together. It has been pretty tough. Really, really tough. I am very proud of them. But the underlining fact I want to get across to everybody, this is the proudest day I have had. Leonard Kaplan got one hell of a great deal. But there is no other choice when you have all the problems that you heard from me, facing you. They done well. They done well. But you know the Post and the Journal keeps mouthing Great Rivers Alliance distortion of the truth. Come on people get with the story.”
