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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ residents may soon be asked to approve a tax increase to fund a MetroLink expansion that would run through some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

Mayor Francis Slay said Monday that city voters could see a proposition for a sales tax as soon as the April election that would include help for , a project he has touted as a top priority in his final year as mayor.

Slay described the plan to seek a tax increase to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro during a bus tour Monday morning of the “Promise Zone,â€� an area of north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County that is eligible for extra federal assistance in grant applications.

that ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ was one of five cities to win a competitive Choice Neighborhood grant. In addition to Slay, Gov. Jay Nixon, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, and Alderman Tammika Hubbard were among elected officials who attended Castro’s press conference at the Polish Heritage Center, at 1413 North 20th Street.

A good chunk of the $29.5 million grant will help housing developer McCormack Baron Salazar , adding market-rate housing, opening up the neighborhood street grid and adding retail space along 14th Street.

Nonprofits and other institutions have committed over $75 million in matching funds to provide education, job training and health programs for residents in .

The federal grant would support neighborhoods around the , a $1.75 billion complex expected to open at the corner of Cass and Jefferson avenues by 2023.

“There’s tremendous momentum in the near North Side neighborhood, with the Promise Zone, NGA and other investments being made,� Castro told the Post-Dispatch.

Slay indicated that the city hopes to continue that momentum by moving forward with a MetroLink line that runs from far south ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, through downtown and into the North Side, serving many of the same areas that the HUD grant will.

It’s a project that he and others have indicated is necessary to truly bring change to a long-neglected portion of the city. The HUD Choice grant will, of course, help areas near the NGA, but “a game changer would be a north-south MetroLink,� UMSL professor Todd Swanstrom said in an interview on the significance of the Choice grant.

Since the NGA committed last spring to building a new campus in north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ for its 3,000 employees who currently work at the old Armory near the Anheuser-Busch brewery, Slay has said the new MetroLink line could run right past the new NGA and help spur development around the campus.

Bi-State Development, which operates Metro, won this year to plan the new route, and the part of the proposed route last month.

But the estimated $2.2 billion project, which would also cover almost 13 miles in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County, will likely need a substantial portion of local funding if it hopes to move forward. The city’s portion of the project is estimated at $1.4 billion.

Voters may soon get the chance to make that commitment, at least in the city.

“The polling is favorable,� Slay told Castro on the bus tour following the Choice Neighborhood announcement.

Further details were sparse. Slay would not say how much the city would ask voters to raise sales taxes if a ballot question appear before voters in April. Nor would he say exactly what it would fund, saying some details are still being hashed out.

But he said an announcement with more details could come as soon as this week. A tax proposal could include funding for other city priorities and could come at the same time city residents are asked to help finance a new stadium for a Major League Soccer team. Backers of one stadium proposal have asked for $80 million from the city.

Slay did say city funding of a MetroLink expansion would apply only to the city portion of the line, leaving open the question of how the region would fund light rail .

The southern portion of the line would follow Interstate 55 into South County, ending at Meramec Bottom Road.

A sales tax question would be posed to voters who already pay over 10 percent in many ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ shopping centers and restaurants. Combined with state and other sales taxes, at least 8.679 is already tacked on to non-food purchases in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. Special taxing districts set up by neighborhoods and developers often add as much as an extra 2 percent to that rate in many stores and restaurants.

Meanwhile, the Choice grant calls for starting case management work with Preservation Square residents within 30 days, said Isaac Dozier of Urban Strategies, which co-applied for the grant with ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. Caseworkers will point residents toward health, education and job services, and most importantly, make sure their housing situation is stable, he said.

Dozier also signaled that another big project called for in the application would move forward: the redevelopment of the Carr School on 14th Street into a new Jonas Hubbard Jr. Family Center.

Urban Strategies, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and its partners are still finalizing details and shoring up other funding sources, which could include New Markets tax credits, he said. The federal government awarded ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and a McCormack Baron Salazar $75 million in New Markets last month.

The YMCA and the Carr Square Tenant Management Corp. have indicated they would run the new community center, built in a historic school building that now sits crumbling and unused.

“It’s pretty much going to happen,� Dozier said.