Frequent readers of Home Stories know that Norm and I often visit local birding and/or nature sites, including Powder Valley, the Confluence, Pere Marquette, and areas along our two great rivers, the Mississippi and the Missouri. One of our favorite sites, although I don't have many photos of it, is the Columbia Bottoms Conservation Area in far North St. Louis County. (This photo of the wetlands area at sunset was taken on August 3, 2008, by our friend John Sanders of Colby, KS.) About a year ago we visited the area with friends, and I posted some commentary and photos here.
A controversy has erupted in St. Louis County over a proposal by North County Development, L.L.C., to build a casino complex in the flood plain south of Columbia Bottoms along the Mississippi River. The site is immediately north of Interstate 270, along Riverview Drive. It's called the Riverview Casino Project. Although there have been numerous objections by residents, conservation groups and churches at the various planning and zoning meetings, the measure has advanced and a bill approving the zoning change and application of the developers was perfected at the Oct. 27, 2009 St. Louis County Council meeting. It will undoubtedly be on the agenda for final passage this coming Tuesday, Nov. 3, although that meeting's agenda has not yet been posted on the Council web site.
At the Oct. 27 public forum, two speakers favored the bill. A representative of the Spanish Lake Fire Protection district believes the project will bring more tax revenue to the district, and that this will help support schools, local government, and, well, the fire district. The Greater St. Louis Labor Council also supports the project, and its spokesman noted that it could create up to 4,500 construction jobs as well as up to 3,000 service jobs once the casino is up and running.
This is not a small project, although unless a gaming license becomes available, or the legislature approves removing the present cap of 13 licenses (6 are already in the St. Louis area and within 30 minutes of the proposed Riverview complex) a new casino cannot open. Nevertheless, the developer envisions
"a casino, convention center, theater, hotel, sports bar, buffet, store space, an 18-hole golf course, a wind farm and more than 8,000 parking spaces"on a little more than 375 acres situated between the Interstate and the border of the conservation area. Conservationists are alarmed because this area has been carefully developed to attract migrating waterfowl along the Mississippi Flyway, and the fear is that they will be repelled by the noise and activity of the casino complex, and perhaps in danger of being slashed by the blades of the wind turbines in the wind farm. Residents along this quiet rural road are fearful of the traffic, and of losing their tranquil community. The Department of Conservation has noted that the proposed casino, since Missouri Law requires it to be situated no less than 1000 feet from a body of water, will not only be in the flood plain, it will be in the actual floodway of the Mississippi River. The Audubon Society, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, the Spanish Lake Improvement Association, the Missouri Department of Conservation, and St. Louis Confluence Riverkeeper Association have all called upon the St. Louis County Council to table approval of the project until a comprehensive environmental impact study (paid for by the developer) can be conducted. (The graphic above appears in this online story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.)
At the Oct. 27 meeting, 19 citizens spoke against the development. The Council later voted on Bill # 297, moving it one step closer to passage. Approving it were council members O'Mara, Erby, Burkett and Stenger. Opposing it were council members Wassinger, Fraser and Quinn. Full accounts of the speakers testimony can be found in the Journal of the meeting, on the St. Louis County Council web site.
I fear I've come late to this fight. I had read about the zoning hearings that were held in August, and had seen something in the paper a few weeks ago. Then a friend sent me an e-mail last week, calling on people opposed to pack the Oct. 27 and Nov 3 meetings, sign up for a speaker's card, and speak. I had to lead another meeting on the 27th, and woke up Wednesday to hear an announcer on KMOX say the measure had been approved 4-3. Oddly, two days have gone by and nothing in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
If you live in St. Louis County, you can find the name of your council representative here and if you are interested, the Nov. 3 Council meeting begins at 6 p.m. at 41 South Central Avenue in Clayton. Coalition for the Environment members suggest arriving no later than 5:30 if you want to sign in to speak. If you cannot attend, you can also write to your council representative. The web site has a link to a message generator, or you can find out the council rep's phone number if you would prefer to call.
Although this bill seems pretty well assured of passage next week, this will probably not be the last battle to preserve a wild refuge and open space along Columbia Bottoms. And although I usually don't get political in this blog, I will be posting updates as I learn about them. We haven't been to Columbia Bottoms in several months, but it is one of the places along the rivers that we treasure. The eagles, herons, pelicans, snow geese, songbirds and other wetland residents lack the army of legal experts, financiers, and politicians who are advocating development in fragile wetlands. Ironically, the Federal Government has been encouraging farmers upstream to stop farming wetlands, to let them function as the natural buffer and flood preventer Nature designed them to be. It has bought out property so it can be removed from development along the rivers! Yet our local government sees "jobs" and "revenue" and doesn't hear the voices of the long-time residents, or the silence of the wild things. So I have decided, albeit rather late, to become a partisan in this issue. This development should never be allowed to happen. If humans continue to whittle away at habitat for wild birds and other creatures, some day we will have only ourselves to blame for silence in the skies.
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