ST. PETERS WINS TIF LAWSUIT; COURT RULES ST. PETERS ACTIONS CONSTITUTIONAL
The Circuit Court in Cole County, Missouri has ruled in favor of the City of St. Peters on ten counts of a lawsuit filed by the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, St. Charles County, the Adolphus A. Busch Revocable Living Trust, Andrew Riney, Alan Poggemoeller, Randy Hudson and Delores Wetzell. The eleventh count of the lawsuit was called moot. In its sixteen page detailed ruling, the Court found that the City of St. Peters actions under the State’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) laws were appropriate and have always
been in accordance with the law.
The Court said that all the actions taken by the City of St. Peters regarding the TIF district for the Lakeside 370 Business Park Project were entirely appropriate, from the decision to blight the property to the
decision to use TIF financing to assist in developing the property. The Court rejected ten different claims made by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the actions taken by the city and
dismissed the final one as being moot.
The original plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in December 2004 and St. Charles County joined them in September 2005. The Great Rivers Habitat Alliance had also previously joined in with St. Charles County in another unsuccessful lawsuit against the City regarding St. Peters use of TIF. Both of these legal challenges have cost City taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees as St. Peters’ defended itself against the GRHA and their surrogates’ efforts to stop the St. Peters Lakeside 370 Business Park project.
President of the St. Peters Board of Aldermen, Terry Hawkins (Ward 1) said, “We have always believed we’ve been doing the right thing and here is another judge saying that. Unfortunately, the people who are trying to stop our City just don’t get it. The message from this decision should be loud and clear. The City of St. Peters does things right, we do things according to the law and we are working in the best interest of our residents. Our next step to benefit our residents is to sue to recover the costs of all the lawyers we’ve had to pay to defend ourselves against these bullies. I hope the opponents to our City have finally gotten get this message-enough is enough. Take your lawyers, take your cronies and move on.”
Alderman John “Rocky” Reitmeyer (Ward 1) said, “This reaffirms the fact that the City of St. Peters is consistent in its efforts to do everything according to the law and in the best interest of our residents. It is unfortunate that what the opponents to this project have been consistent about is their efforts to tie things up in the courts and cost our residents hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight their frivolous lawsuits.”
Alderman David Hayes (Ward 2) – said, “Two St. Charles County judges, three judges from the Missouri Court of Appeals and now another judge from Cole County have all determined that everything the City of St. Peters has done is perfectly legal and in accordance with the law. The fact that the judge ruled in the city’s favor on each and every issue shows the continuing frivolousness of this litigation. “
Alderman Bruce Holt (Ward 3) said, “It’s bad enough that this is the second time that Great Rivers and St. Charles County led by County Executive Joe Ortwerth have teamed up to try to stop development in the City of St. Peters—it’s the second time the courts have told them that we’ve been doing
things right. I’d like to thank the City staff and legal team for staying the course and helping us do what is right for our residents.”
Alderman Bob Morrison (Ward 4) said, “This is a very good day for our City and our residents. We’re very proud that the Court confirmed that we’ve done things the way the law says they should be done.”
