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ST. LOUIS — For more than two hours Tuesday, residents of several near north side neighborhoods urged city aldermen to back a new redevelopment plan for their swath of the city.

It would give them the ability to apply for tax relief if their neighborhoods — which surround the nearly complete National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency campus and its 3,000-plus jobs — see new development and rising property values. The plan, crafted with nonprofit Legal Services of Eastern Missouri representing the neighborhoods, would create a new citizen panel to weigh in on big development proposals.

And while it would allow eminent domain, it would exempt the homes of longtime residents, some of whom had to move once already for the NGA, from city acquisition.

But not all property owners would be spared the city’s condemnation authority.

Finally, Alderman Michael Browning asked about the elephant in the room.

“Is Mr. (Paul) McKee here?� Browning asked.

A few people in the crowd of about 50 in a City Hall hearing room yelled “no.� The three lawyers representing McKee and his NorthSide Regeneration, which for 15 years has owned enough land in the area to control any significant redevelopment there, were silent.

“I think that says everything,� Browning said.

ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ development officials, the area’s alderman and a lawyer for the neighborhoods say the redevelopment plan will protect residents even as it catalyzes development around the NGA. Regional leaders see new investment in the area around the NGA as essential if the city hopes to finally stem a half-century of decline in north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and carve out an economic niche in geospatial tech to fill the hole left by deindustrialization.

The aldermanic Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee voted 4-0 to advance the redevelopment plan to the full board for final passage. The only opposition during the three-hour hearing came from two lawyers representing NorthSide Regeneration.

“Please,� pleaded Paul Puricelli, a longtime NorthSide Regeneration attorney with the firm Stone Leyton and Gershman. “Don’t do this to Mr. McKee.�

While sponsor Rasheen Aldridge said the bill is about more than using eminent domain on McKee’s properties, NorthSide’s holdings in the area — some 900 parcels and 100 acres, including many crumbling buildings — are clearly a target.

“This isn’t about one developer,� Aldridge told the committee. “This is about the future.�

But Aldridge went on to mention the NorthSide projects since the developer started buying up property 20 years ago: a GreenLeaf grocery store, now closed; a gas station on Tucker Boulevard; and the recently opened 15-bed hospital, which Aldridge likened to more of a “clinic.�

“Years and decades of having land and only three projects open,� Aldridge said.

ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Development Corp. CEO Neal Richardson told the Post-Dispatch after the meeting that rather than assembling shovel-ready sites the city would likely wait for a development proposal before using eminent domain. But, he said, the city may be “proactiveâ€� in acquiring “nuisanceâ€� properties from neglectful owners who don’t live there.

“They have to do something, or the city will remove them from the equation,� Richardson said.

NorthSide began acquiring acreage in the area 20 years ago, financing much of it before the 2008 financial crisis when bank lending was loose and tapping $40 million in state tax credits for the endeavor. The city initially supported McKee’s efforts, but the relationship soured over the years as properties crumbled and development officials questioned whether he had the financial capability to actually develop, rather than speculate. Some say he needs prices above what the land is worth in order to satisfy the debt encumbering the land, primarily from Franklin County-based Bank of Washington.

But McKee’s backers argue without his land assemblage, the NGA may have moved to land near Scott Air Force Base from its location near the Anheuser-Busch brewery. Even city officials admit NorthSide made the initial pitch that got the NGA thinking about the north side, though the city had to finish buying up the other half of the site.

NorthSide has spent “millions and millions of dollars� maintaining land and demolishing structures on properties it owns, Puricelli said. What other developers, he asked, have tried to invest in the area?

“The only person who has tried is Mr. McKee,� Puricelli said.

Darryl Piggee, another McKee lawyer and former chief of staff to former U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, asked why the former Pruitt-Igoe site across from NGA is included in the land eligible for eminent domain. The new hospital is there on the western corner where Cass and Jefferson avenues intersect. It’s not one of the crumbling houses residents were complaining about Tuesday, Piggee said. He asked aldermen to take that land out of the bill.

“I’ve heard no one speak today about Pruitt-Igoe being a detriment to their neighborhood,� Piggee said. “It seems like a land grab by unnamed people.�

Richardson, the SLDC chief, said Pruitt-Igoe was included because there was still “an underutilization of that site� east of the hospital.

“Right now, we have not selected developers for any of these sites,� Richardson told the committee.

Piggee, though, said he doesn’t “think it’s right� that the city made a plan to “take away (McKee’s) property and has never even talked to him.�

Asked after the hearing if the bill was the beginning of the end for the McKee saga in North ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, Piggee said no.

“I don’t think so,� he said. “We’re the only thing going on in that neighborhood.�