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ST. LOUIS — When Tim Morris says the Mississippi River area just north of the Chain of Rocks is a “prime site for a marina,� it seems clear that he doesn’t know the story of Michael Weber.

Morris is a developer based in Nashville. He is the latest to pitch to the Board of Aldermen a grand plan to place a marina and hotel development near the Chain of Rocks, if only he can get the taxpayers to pitch in millions of dollars to help.

Weber is a retired Marine and businessman from southwest Michigan. A year ago, he and his girlfriend took off in his 44-foot sailboat, the “White Widow,� for a dream trip down the Mississippi River. When Weber got just past the area that Morris now wants to develop, the sailboat lost control. The water at the Chain of Rocks hazard, just south of the bridge of the same name, becomes a powerful force, turning to dangerous rapids.

That’s why there isn’t much river traffic in that area. It’s because the water is dangerous. Barge and commercial traffic are supposed to avoid that part of the river, and there is a sign directing them to the navigation channel on the east side of the river. Weber missed it.

“I thought it was a sign for a turn into a marina, or something like that,� Weber told Post-Dispatch reporter Erin Heffernan last October.

How ironic.

Weber’s boat was stuck on the Chain of Rocks for three weeks while insurance companies tried to figure out what to do. He and his girlfriend were saved by St. Louis firefighters, whose water rescue team is quite familiar with the dangers of the Chain of Rocks part of the river.

The firefighters are used to the process. Boater misses turn to channel, lured by the calm water that fools the uninitiated skipper. Boat gets lodged in rocks. Boater is rescued. Boat, as the White Widow did, eventually disappears, sunk by the power of the river.

The people who own the land where Morris and his M2 Development team have pitched a marina know about the power of the river. Years ago, when he had a different scheme tied to the land he and his wife own, Tony Daniele had an old entertainment barge — the Belle of the Night — docked there. High waters broke it away from its moorings. U.S. Coast Guard towboats rescued the barge before it created an even worse disaster.

That’s what will follow if a marina is ever built on the land that Daniele and his partner, Mark Repking, pitched to the Board of Aldermen for several years. Every time the proposal makes it back to various committees, Alderman Christine Ingrassia pulls out all the river experts. Ingrassia, a paddle guide for Big Muddy Adventures, is reminding her colleagues that despite the pronouncements of a Nashville developer promising the latest shiny thing, the land and its adjacent riverbank are no place for a marina.

As someone who has paddled near the Chain of Rocks, Ingrassia knows how dangerous the area is. But just as concerning to her is that the city’s development apparatus, from the St. Louis Development Corp. to various aldermanic boards, seem poised to push through a proposal without a study to determine whether it is feasible.

“So far, the proposed development of a marina along the Mississippi generates serious questions that lack thoughtful answers,� Ingrassia says. “St. Louis is unique in that it is situated immediately south of the confluence of North America’s two longest-running rivers. The serious environmental and public safety concerns need to be addressed before we let go of our control to have a meaningful conversation about this at the local level.�

It’s amazing how short the memories of some aldermen are. After Repking and Daniele pitched their scheme in 2017, it eventually died. River experts like Mike Clark and Washington University professor Bob Criss had explained clearly that the site is a horrible place for a marina.

Five years later, with a new developer (who doesn’t even own the land), the idea is back. Two aldermanic committees are nodding their approval to taxing districts. But the transportation committee headed by Alderman Shane Cohn has twice put a hold on the biggest incentives, in part because SLDC Executive Director Neal Richardson says, “We want to make sure we do our due diligence.� It became clear that none of that due diligence had actually been done.

What didn’t come up at any of the meetings is the piece of property is already highly incentivized by taxpayers. When the Daniels couple bought it from the previous owners, they convinced the city to help raise the oft-flooded property out of the flood plain by dumping dirt and other fill there. The city paid hundreds of thousands of dollars over several years to help the owners raise the property out of the flood plain.

Now it’s a big, flat, 62-acre dirt pile next to a river and a major highway. No doubt, it’s going to attract attention from developers. If they just made a couple of phone calls or did a couple of Google searches, they would realize that a marina isn’t the project to go there.

“My concern would be that we incentivize this, and we get some bad news from regulators in the future,� Alderman Bret Narayan said at a meeting last week. “Have we just incentivized a dog of a project?�

That’s a good question. A sunken sailboat named the White Widow holds the answer somewhere under the raging waters of the Mississippi River.