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<br />Ms. Carr stated she heard from several property owners who indicated that there was no <br />general agreement among the property owners for most of the basic terms. She said the <br />owners did not know which way it was going or even what they wanted. She suggested that the <br />City facilitate a meeting with the property owners to help them decide what they wanted. Ms. <br />Carr thought the sequence was wrong and was too early to hire a lawyer to draft the C.I.D. <br />document until the property owners fully know what they want. The owners have to agree on <br />the specifics as a fair way to assess the property. Then they can create an annual budget so <br />each property owners had an idea of what would be the amount for each property’s special <br />assessment. Ms. Carr stated the East Loop is really different from the West Loop and the two <br />parts of the Loop may just have to go their own special way and later down the road, then they <br />might want to look at a revision. She noted it was a little too simplistic at this point without <br />consulting the real stakeholders. Ms. Carr said she thought the special assessment would just <br />be passed on to the lessor and the owners needed to hash it out. <br /> <br />Ms. Riganti stated that there was a needed task for the legal team to educate the business <br />owners. She noted there was a lot of data collection and work that needed to go into evaluating <br />scenarios and was a necessary task to be accomplished by the legal team that could not be <br />accomplished by a volunteer Loop Special Business District. Ms. Riganti stated that once that <br />was accomplished, then various scenarios could be presented to various stakeholders. She <br />reminded Council that the request for funds from the Economic Retail Sales Tax Development <br />came from the Loop Special Business District, which presumably had significant support from <br />the business and property owners. <br /> <br />Mr. Edwards stated they really needed the expertise and needed someone to analyze what the <br />property tax would be for each building and start suggesting formulas that might work. He said <br />the first thing that Armstrong Teasdale would do would be to get together with each property <br />owner in the district. <br /> <br />Mr. Sharpe noted that he completely understood the concept of the C.I.D. and called the <br />Missouri Municipal League to get their advice, and the League had no problem with it. He said <br />what they were asking for was to do the survey to decide what C.I.D. should be formed, not <br />whether the property owners agree or disagree. The money was for deciding if a C.I.D. was <br />needed, which would require the expertise of an attorney. Mr. Sharpe said Olive Blvd needed a <br />Joe Edwards expertise for its development. <br /> <br />Mayor Welsch asked Ms. Riganti if she could supply Mr. Sharpe with information as to how <br />much money has been allocated from the Economic Retail Development Sales Tax for Olive, <br />including funds for hiring of an attorney in connection with the Olive/I-170 effort. <br /> <br />Ms. Carr asked to remind everyone the EDRST board is advisory to the Council, so even if they <br />passed it, the Council made the final decision. Secondly, she had two constituents who are <br />property owners who have said NO that it was premature and they were not ready to move <br />forward. Ms. Carr said since the City always has had this problem with stakeholders, she asked <br />that Council look to avoid this problem. <br /> <br />The study session adjourned at 6:25 P.M. <br /> <br />7 <br /> <br /> <br />