Though CIDs have proliferated throughout the state, some observers have criticized the way Kroenke’s real estate companies and his lawyers Alan Bornstein and Jeffrey Otto have used the CID law in Wentzville. Because they control most of the property along Wentzville Parkway, they have enough votes under the law to include property they don’t own within the district. Under the proposal, local grocery stores Schnucks and Dierbergs, which are on property not owned by Kroenke-affiliated companies, would be included in the Wentzville CID and may have to collect sales taxes that would help finance a new development expected to include a competing grocery store.

Ehlmann has been a critic of subsidizing retail development, in the past focusing on the use of tax increment financing, or TIF. Recent reforms to state law giving counties more power when municipalities try to establish TIFs, which allow future taxes generated by new developments to be used to finance the project, have curbed their use. But Ehlmann told the Post-Dispatch earlier this month he suspects developers are now looking at using CIDs as a substitute.