Illinois Business Journal Illinois Business Journal
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River users object to Missouri River flow levels


Top: Gavins Point Dam on the South Dakota and Nebraska
border is one of the six dams that comprise the Missouri River Main Stem Dam System. Left and above: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife's biological opinion states specific flow management to help develop and retain the habitats of the endangered least tern and the pallid sturgeon.
By VICKI BENNINGTON

   A biological opinion issued recently by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has spurred ongoing debates concerning management of the Missouri River.
   Paul Johnston, public affairs officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Omaha, Neb., said the debate deals mainly with flow management. Released in December, the amendment to the original 2000 biological opinion issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service laid out prescriptive flow schemes for the Missouri River.
   The terms in the opinion call for the system of reservoirs along the river to limit releases during [continue]

 Urban levee districts attract more
 development, less concern

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. By KERRY L. SMITH

   Although building or leasing a commercial structure within a flood plain protected against a 500-year flood event appears to be a deal breaker for Smurfit-Stone Container Corp., it hasn't deterred tenants in Alton Center Business Park and hundreds of companies located within the newly improved Monarch-Chesterfield Levee District.
   Smurfit-Stone Container, which employs some 400 workers in Alton, has reportedly eliminated Alton as a potential site for its future 30,000-square-foot office facility and is seriously considering one of two sites in Edwardsville.
   Mike Clark, president of Clark Properties, said the flood plain locale did not appear to be an issue with Smurfit when he submitted a proposal last October, but that it surfaced in discussions within the past 60 days.
   The Wood River Levee was initially built in 1910 as an agricultural levee. Cas Sheppard, president of the Alton-based engineering firm of Sheppard, Morgan & Schwaab Inc., doesn't think protected flood plains are out of bounds for developers.
   His firm, which started in 1892 and was instrumental in the design and construction of the Wood River Levee, also partnered with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s to raise the levee to qualify it as a 500-year urban levee.
   An urban levee is one that is built to protect urbanized areas [continue]
 

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East St. Louis leaders are hoping Illinois House Bill 623 will pass this session, creating a redevelopment corporation to spur commercial development of the city's riverfront. The entity would be funded by shareholders with a local stake in the area's future.

East St. Louis riverfront draws inspiration from Laclede's Landing
By LORRAINE SENCI

   EAST ST. LOUIS - Sen. James F. Clayborne Jr. (D-Belleville) looked across the Mississippi when he wrote legislation geared toward redeveloping the East St. Louis riverfront.
   House Bill 623 was modeled after what worked for St. Louis to successfully develop riverfront property at Laclede's Landing, St. Louis University and the Barnes-Jewish corridor, Clayborne said.
   The bill, which has been endorsed by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, passed the Senate and has not yet been taken up by the House.
   "The legislation allows for the city to create a commission that the mayor appoints and the council approves," Clayborne said.
   This entity - typically referred to as a redevelopment corporation - would be a conduit for the city to develop a site based on a land-use ordinance that the city has passed, he said.
   "The city doesn't have to pay a dime for the redevelopment," Clayborne said. "It will be all incentive driven."
   And like the city of St. Louis, [continue]


 
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