St. Louis tears down abandoned homes to absorb rainfall

ST. LOUIS -- About 1,000 of St. Louis' delinquent properties are expected to face the wrecking ball to create more green space to absorb rainfall.

The move will help the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District comply with a court order to cut sewer overflows, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Doing so means the sewer district must reduce rooftops and pavement in areas where rain overwhelms its system.

The sewer district has earmarked up to $13.5 million for the demolitions, which will create about 50 acres capable of absorbing stormwater.

The city, which has thousands of abandoned homes because of suburbanization and disinvestment, will maintain the properties and work with other organizations to turn them into more than just empty lots.

It is partnering with the Missouri Department of Conservation to help fund plantings of vegetation, such as buckwheat and coreopsis, to help beautify neighborhoods, said Rebecca Weaver, who coordinates the city's Urban Vitality and Ecology Initiative with the state conservation department.

Discussions are underway with other organizations about helping with the maintenance of the lots.

"It's also a pilot for us to think about how we do demolitions in perpetuity," said Patrick Brown, who worked on the project as chief resilience officer in Mayor Francis Slay's office and recently was tapped as chief of staff for the outgoing administration.

The program is a small part of a $4.7 billion infrastructure campaign the sewer department launched in 2012 to update aging pipes and other infrastructure because of a lawsuit from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.

As part of the agreement, the sewer district received approval to spend $100 million on "green-infrastructure," the idea being that rain gardens and green space absorb rainwater that otherwise would require bigger pipes in the ground.

Brown said he hoped the program signaled more of a willingness from the city to forge "productive and collaborative relationships" with other entities.

That has been somewhat of a weak spot in the past, he said, but it's a necessity for an urban area struggling to adapt to a population half the size it was built for.

"This is just the beginning of us pulling in partners here," he said.