Back in August, I wrote about Jane Carpenter and the effort she led to defeat a bogus blight designation in the small Missouri city of Ozark. In a nutshell, the citizens voted to establish a Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) because of a truly blighted trailer park. However, once the LCRA was established, the blighted area ballooned as local officials saw the potential for a major development. Luckily, although the Ozark homeowners are still currently “blighted,” the city passed an ordinance in May of last year that took away eminent domain authority from the LCRA.
It may turn out that that was an especially good move for the city. Last week, the developer hired for the Finely River Neighborhood District Development failed to make six deadlines in the development agreement.