Overview
- A key stadium financing ordinance cleared the Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee with a recommendation to pass, sending it to the full City Council.
- The measure directs the city manager to negotiate a lease and development agreement for a Royals ballpark at Washington Square Park near Union Station and Crown Center under a plan that contemplates significant city support.
- The ordinance authorizes applications for Missouri’s Show-Me Sports Investment Act incentives and the use of tax increment financing, and it allocates $250,000 from the Development Services Fund for planning.
- A separate Parks Board resolution up for review would allow leasing parkland for the project and would require at least 30,000 seats along with new public park and recreation space.
- Councilman Jonathan Duncan is discussing a petition to force a citywide vote, saying about 2,200 signatures would be needed, citing a county rejection of a stadium tax extension two years ago as context for public funding concerns.