“When you’re hiking in the wetlands, do you really want to be walking through a giant, light-industrial, manufacturing, commercial complex with giant buildings?” asks Bob Menees, a lawyer at Great Rivers Environmental Law Center.

It’s a future scenario Great Rivers has been fighting since early this year as we work to protect nearly 2,500 acres of Missouri River floodplain from development. The mostly undeveloped land and farmland sits adjacent to Creve Coeur Lake Park, abutting wetlands considered by the National Audubon Society to be an “urban oasis” for many migrating waders, waterfowl, and shorebirds, and the bird watchers who come to see them.

Creve Coeur Lake provides excellent habitat for wading birds like the Great Egret and other Herons during their spring migration when mudflats are exposed.

Good progress has been made to protect this ecologically rich area, but the fight goes on. Earlier this year, Bob Menees and fellow Great Rivers’ attorney Sarah Rubenstein helped stop the creation of a TIF district that would have had taxpayers subsidizing the development to the tune of $151 million dollars. The victory was significant for those who do not want to see their tax dollars go to this environmentally destructive and economically short-sighted idea. Unfortunately, the setback did not deter the developer from continuing their pursuit of the area, who in response to the loss of this taxpayer financing simply modified its proposal and continued to push it forward (a revealing move, considering the TIF’s supporters’ urgent earlier insistence that tax abatement handouts were necessary for private development of the area).

This October, Bob Menees further championed the area through helping to successfully curtail the developer’s plan to extend their construction’s footprint into Creve Coeur Park. The overreach into the park would have been blatantly illegal, since the developer had not first secured the approval of the public through a countywide vote.

It seems the dollar signs in the developer’s eyes are so tantalizing that despite both these defeats and the condemnation of environmental groups and the public alike it continues to try to push this foolish plan forward. As the battle rages on, Great Rivers will continue to mount the most vigorous possible legal defense against the destruction of this special place.

Great Rivers Environmental Law Center is a nonprofit Missouri-based public interest law firm that works to protect the environment and public health, and empower ordinary citizens to stand up for their environmental interests. We receive no government funding and rely on donations to sustain our work.