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Visit www.callnewspapers.com to read about the Oakville High football team’s ‘secret weapon.’

Gov. Jay Nixon overhauled leadership of the Missouri Lot-tery Commission after reports of declining lottery profits for education while paying higher administrative costs. Nixon last week replaced four of the five Lottery Commission members. Visit www.callnewspapers.com to read more.

Web exclusive

Crestwood mall owner could presentredevelopment plan before year’s end

With library closing, Green Park officialseye redevelopment of business corridor

By GLORIA LLOYDStaff Reporter

South county residents wary of a McBride & Son development waited through hours of Ferguson-related protests at last week’s County Council meeting, only to learn that the new subdivision is a done deal.

South Hills subdivision residents, the future neigh-bors of the Villas at Suson Hills, submitted a petition to the council Sept. 16 with 166 signatures asking 6th District Councilman Steve Stenger, D-Affton, and the council to reject the McBride project.

Stenger supported the subdivision, however, and the council granted final approval 5-0, with Chairwoman Hazel Erby, D-University City, abstaining. Third Dis-trict Councilwoman Colleen Wasinger, R-Town and Country, left the meeting before the vote.

“When those people have water problems or there’s car accidents, I want it on record that the County Council knew about this and chose not to do anything about it,” said Anita Hagan, who has lived in South Hills for 36 years and said Suson Hills Drive can be

(See CONCERNS, Page 5A)

Council OKs subdivision over neighbors’ concerns

Volume 17, Number 39 1 Section, 16 Pages Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014 callnewspapers.com9977 Lin Ferry DriveSt. Louis, MO 63123

Ferguson protesters call for Stenger to denounce McCulloch

By MIKE ANTHONYExecutive Editor

Crestwood officials anticipate that a redevelopment proposal for the former Crestwood Court site could be presented to the city before the end of the year.

Mayor Gregg Roby told the city’s Eco-nomic Development Commission last week that Chicago developer UrbanStreet Group, which owns the 1.5-million-square-foot, 47-acre mall property at Watson and

Sappington roads, is getting close to pre-senting a proposal to city officials before the end of the year.

UrbanStreet purchased the mall property from Chicago-based Centrum Partners and New York-based Angelo, Gordon & Co., which owned the majority stake in the site.

Centrum and Angelo, Gordon bought the mall in 2008 for $17.5 million from Westfield Group, which bought it in 1998

(See MALL, Page 8A)

By MIKE ANTHONYExecutive Editor

With the Tesson Ferry Branch County Library scheduled to close in late 2015, Green Park officials are considering ways to redevelop the city’s Lindbergh Boul-evard business corridor, including the Lin Ferry Drive area.

The Board of Aldermen voted unanimous-ly last week to approve a motion to sched-

ule a work session to discuss establishing a redevelopment district “to encompass all retail and service commercial, office com-mercial, institutional public and institu-tional semipublic” uses from Tesson Ferry Road to Mueller Road as outlined in the city code for the areas adjacent to Lindbergh Boulevard, Tesson Ferry Road and Lin Fer-ry Drive.

(See CORRIDOR, Page 10A)

Nolan’s name added to plaque at dog parkBy GLORIA LLOYDStaff Reporter

The Sunset Hills Board of Aldermen recently voted to add former Mayor Bill Nolan’s name to the dedication plaque and boulder at Kitun Park — the city’s dog park at 12343 Eddie & Park Road.

At the suggestion of Ward 3 Alderman Jan Hoffmann, the board voted unanimously to add Nolan’s name to the plaque — a move that got loud applause from the audience of roughly 90 residents.

The dog park is a collaboration between the cities of Sunset Hills(See PLAQUE, Page 4A)

By GLORIA LLOYDStaff Reporter

At a County Council meeting like no other, Ferguson protesters packed the chambers last week with an overflow crowd that targeted 6th District Councilman Steve Stenger,

D-Affton, to demand that he denounce county Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch or lose their support in the November county executive election.

Along with that ultimatum, hundreds of protesters attend-ed the meeting to demand an immediate arrest of Ferguson

Police Officer Darren Wilson, who killed unarmed teenag-er Michael Brown Aug. 9, sparking last month’s protests.

During two hours of public comments, some speakers demanded the council fire county Police Chief Jon Belmar

(See PROTESTERS, Page 6A)

Megan LeFaivre-Zimmerman photo

Mehlville falls to MarquetteThe Mehlville Senior High School varsity football team fell to Marquette 31-14

Friday night in Mehlville’s homecoming game. The 1-4 Panthers will travel to Fox Friday night to face the Warriors. Above, Marquette’s Turner Cook, left, attempts to take down Mehlville’s Tradell Cunningham. Read more on Page 3A. Visit www.callnewspapers.com for complete coverage of Friday’s football games, plus more photos from Mehlville’s homecoming game.

School news ............... Page 2ASports .......................... Page 3ACalendar...................... Page 3AOpinions ..................... Page 4ACounty news ............... Page 6ACalendar...................... Page 7ACrestwood news ......... Page 8AGreen Park news ........ Page 10AClassifieds ................... Page 11ACrossword puzzle ....... Page 12A

Inside the Call

Call Publishing, Thursday, September 25, 2014 - Page 5A

Some question contributionsmade by McBride to Stenger(Continued from Page 1A)“pure ice” in the winter, when “it’s like the Keystone Kops out there” with cars sliding and colliding.

With hundreds of Ferguson protesters packed into the council meeting, the con-cerns of the south county neighbors who want to keep their neighborhood the way it is were mostly well-received by the protesters, who were also directing their comments that night to Stenger.

The neighbors hoped to duplicate their success at stopping a subdivision at the same site a decade ago, when former Coun-cilman John Campisi, R-south county, led the council to unanimously vote down a proposal for 105 houses. Stenger defeated Campisi for the seat in 2008 and has taken a different tactic toward potential develop-ments than Campisi, who would typically oppose rezoning if nearby residents did not want it.

McBride’s Jeannie Aumiller said at the July 21 Planning Commission public hear-ing on the project that the new proposal is smaller: a 65-unit subdivision of attached duplexes, triplexes and four-plexes that will span 13.5 acres on either side of Suson Hills Drive, with an average lot size of 0.12 acre.

No traffi c study has been conducted for the new development. Responding to con-cerns that the traffi c from this subdivision and a 25-home subdivision being built by Pinnacle less than a mile away near Wells Road could overwhelm the traffi c capacity of Suson Hills Drive, McBride attorney John King dismissed those concerns and said traffi c is a good thing to have.

“Traffi c? We have traffi c everywhere. I come out of my subdivision on Laclede Station Road to traffi c,” King said. “If we didn’t have traffi c, we’d all be sorely upset because we wouldn’t have places to go to work.”

The organizer of the subdivision oppo-sition, 38-year South Hills resident Geri Baum, told the Call that when she talked with McBride CEO John Eilermann Jr. while the bill was still on hold at the coun-cil, he told her that the property’s closing date was set for the next week, which would mean that the council would have had to grant approval two weeks in a row.

“He said, ‘We close next week.’ I said, ‘The county hasn’t even voted on it yet.’ He said, ‘It’s going to happen,’ and I thought that was curious that he would know with certainty that this zoning was going to go through — and we hadn’t even voted yet,” Baum said.

Some of the neighbors noted to the coun-cil that Stenger has received signifi cant campaign contributions from McBride, King and other developers whose projects Stenger later voted to approve.

“I really thought at one time — falsely — that Steve Stenger represented the people that voted him into offi ce,” Baum said, noting her yard had a Stenger sign before the Aug. 5 primary. “And now I feel that he represents McBride and (J.H.) Berra and not the interests of the people.”

Campaign-fi nance records show that Stenger has raised more than $2 million in his bid for county executive. The Planning Commission recommended approval of the Suson Hills project 6-0 on Aug. 4. In August alone, Stenger received $17,500 from McBride, which is the largest union home-builder in the nation.

This summer, Stenger also received at least $20,000 in donations from subsidiar-ies of J.H. Berra, which often develops properties with McBride and currently has a proposal for a 43-unit subdivision on Brittinger Road pending at the council.

Stenger told the Call that he has never based a zoning decision on whether a company has donated money to one of his campaigns and that he analyzes each proj-ect individually for its merits.

“In my last report, I think I may have had in excess of 300 separate contributions from companies and individuals. These contributions have extended over years, years and years. I mean, it’s what we do in public life. You have to run for election, and people make contributions,” he said. “I think what you’ll fi nd is the individuals that she mentioned and the companies that she mentioned have been giving to me for years, quite literally since I fi rst began.

“Not for some type of political favor, but because they believe in me. And they believe in good government.”

Veteran real-estate attorney King, who represents McBride and Berra, has donated to both Stenger and County Executive Charlie Dooley in the past. His wife, Gloria, donated $1,000 to Stenger Aug. 26, listing the address of King’s Clayton law fi rm, Lathrop & Gage.

Overall, Stenger receives heavy fi nancial support from fellow lawyers, unions and development interests, including $10,000 donated Aug. 28 from a political-action committee for homebuilders.

Campaign-fi nance records of Stenger’s opponent in November’s election, Rep. Rick Stream, R-Kirkwood, show Stream has raised $465,000 and did not receive anything approaching the level of fi nancial support from homebuilders and developers that Stenger did.

• Concerns

• ServiceSime’s father-in-law outragedover criticism of administrator(Continued from Opinions, Page 4A)we are proud — I should think we should be proud that we have hired vets in our community. I’m saddened tonight by the way we treat people ...”

That’s ludicrous. Certainly no one in public service would stage such an elabo-rate setup just to defend himself or herself

against criticism. Equally ludicrous, how-ever, is that somehow Sime merits a free pass from criticism on how he is perform-ing his duties as city administrator because of his past military service.

Perhaps President Theodore Roosevelt put it best: “To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is mor-ally treasonable to the American public.”

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