Business park in St. Peters clears one more hurdle
City: Floodway will be moved to make way for 370 project
On Monday, the city issued a news release confirming the change, which would make would-be tenants eligible for federally subsidized flood insurance, allowing the controversial project to clear one more hurdle.
According to the city, FEMA will issue a document called a letter of map revision that, when finalized, would move the floodway boundary. The revision is set to go into effect October 30, after a comment period."This is great news and the final step is being completed in the regulatory process for the Lakeside 370 levee," said Mayor Len Pagano in the release.
The 829-acre business park, including a 505-acre industrial portion, is proposed in the Mississippi River flood plain along Highway 370, north of Interstate 70.
The Premier 370 development would be constructed on roughly half of the 1,600 acres acquired by the city several years ago for what originally was referred to as the Lakeside 370 business park. The city eventually sold land for the business park to a partnership of Duke Realty, Gundaker Commercial Group Inc., and Kaplan Development and Investment Co. The city also built a four-mile levee to protect the site from flooding and created a park featuring a lake for fishing and recreation.
According to the news release, FEMA will revise the federal Flood Insurance Study report and Flood Insurance Rate Map for the Lakeside 370 levee.
The map revision "will be utilized for all flood plain management purposes and for all flood insurance policies and renewals issued in St. Peters," the news release stated.
The notice was issued June 13. The city received the official letter Monday.
Dan Burkemper, executive director of the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, an environmental group against flood plain development, issued a statement Monday about the map revision letter.
"We at GRHA remind city officials there is a 90-day review period before the (letter of map revision) takes effect," he said in the statement. "We look forward to participating in the review process and hope no one misses the irony of the city celebrating its potential acceptance into the National Flood Insurance Program, a program which is presently over $17.5 billion dollars in debt and one that will only get dramatically worse after this latest round of floods. Calling it a broken system is a serious understatement."
In April 2007, FEMA issued a conditional map revision letter but insisted its permanent status rested, in part, on concurrence from St. Charles County as an affected community. County Executive Steve Ehlmann signed a letter of concurrence with the city on May 7, 2007, in hopes that FEMA would issue the map revision.
Last month, Ehlmann said the county's role as a co-plaintiff in a Great Rivers lawsuit challenging the city's financing plan for the business park had nothing to do with the map revision issue.
City officials have waited about a year and a half to receive the map revision.
Patrick F. Sacbibit, a FEMA program specialist, wrote in a letter dated May 27 that the agency "is currently processing a Letter of Map Revision (LOMR) request" submitted by the city, and that the LOMR "will be issued approximately 30 days from the date of this letter."
