January 10, 2023 — Meeting Transcript

All right. Welcome to our Tuesday night meeting on January 10th. And I don't see anybody, any guests here and maybe there's some online, but you're so welcome. And we can get started with our six o'clock discussion items.

Great. The first item we're going to discuss is the comprehensive planning process. And Anna Krane, our director of planning and development services is going to walk through

Great. The first item we're going to discuss is the comprehensive planning process. And Anna Crane, our director of planning and development services is going to walk through

a presentation. So

this presentation has been made to the Commission and two separate presentations we've just combined it here. So really, the goal is to show you or go through what the comprehensive plan process is so what is an introduction to comprehensive planning. Some differences between zoning and planning and then talk about who's going to be involved in the process so i'll try to go through this fairly quickly feel free to stop me if you have. Questions as we go through So what is a comprehensive plan, this is really a policy document that acts as a guide for our decision making moving forward it's tied to various departments. And zoning and ordinances come kind of after this policy document, but it really guides not just the physical growth, but also policies related to the social aspects of our community, our economy, all that kind of big picture items. Traditionally, comprehensive plans or master plans, as they're sometimes referred to, have really been rooted in the future land use. So they really grew as a tool when... communities had land they were expanding into and trying to identify how that would be used moving forward. So in communities like ours that are already established in terms of our boundaries, we don't have anywhere we're looking into, compliance have really grown to include a lot more engagement to gain consensus on kind of paths and policies moving forward outside of just physical development. So we'll go through that. So, establishing the comprehensive plan really gets rooted in Missouri statute so I kind of bolded a few of the key terms related to the comprehensive plan and where where how it's established so within the Missouri statute it's It's a city plan for the physical development, but it also talks about surveying existing conditions and thinking about the probable future and growth of the community. So there's basic elements of a comprehensive plan outlined in these statutes that we will include, but it doesn't limit us from expanding beyond that physical development role. And then really relating back to that general welfare and how we want to develop our communities. When we look at the city charter, a lot of the language you see here that refers to planning and zoning, creating of the plan commission and this plan is almost identical language to what you see within the Missouri statutes, which really again, align this plan with the responsibilities being the plan commission as the adopting authority. One of the areas that our city charter kind of varies from those Missouri statutes is it talks about presenting that plan to the Board of Aldermen for approval. But because of how the state statutes are set up, Really, it's the plan commission has the authority to prove that. And then to be in line with our charter regulations, we will present that adopted plan from the plan commission to this board, but more in a presentation mode and not in a way that you would then make changes to what has been adopted by the plan commission. So what do we look for in a comprehensive plan? Some of the language you'll see on the screen here is pulled directly from our request for proposals. So really, when we think about the big picture of where our community is headed, we think about the different aspects that influence how our community is for people that live here or work here or own property. So we're thinking about our economy, we think about the natural environment, stormwater issues, sustainability, the built environment, what's that physical atmosphere that we walk around in, our regional context is really important here in the St. Louis area. So what's our kind of role within the region and how does that regional context influence what happens within our boundaries. And then also that social environment, what makes people want to spend time in the community. So when we look at our actual plan content, one thing that has changed since previous proposals to do a comp plan for the city is outlining sustainability and equity guiding principles. There's a variety of ways that communities will organize their plan. I think based on a lot of the conversations that have been coming out of some of our subcommittees, the way that we decided to establish it within our RFP is early in the process really defining what guiding principles are in terms of equity and sustainability related to our community. And then use those principles as a lens for reviewing and setting priorities in the larger categories of our physical development, our economic policy, our transportation analysis, all those community elements that are outlined below. As opposed to having future land use and then a separate section on sustainability because there's so much overlap within a lot of those categories. The Community needs assessment that's kind of a more of a moment in time, look at it market analysis So what are kind of our demographics, how do we spend money, what are potential gaps or types of businesses, maybe that we could support here. mentioned the existing and future land use transportation network analysis that will overlap a little bit with our livable communities plan, which is looking at pedestrian and trails. And then a big one is the performance management and implementation part of the plan. That's where we're actually identify some, the path forward. So now we've set the policy kind of guiding principles, how can we start to work to implement and get there? So that leads us into really, An area that sometimes can be a little bit confusing is the difference between planning and zoning. So the comprehensive plan, again, this is our policy directions outlines our goals and our vision, whereas the zoning that's an actual tool for implementation and enforcement. So that's really a mechanism that would come after our guide is set up within the plan document, then we look at our tools how we're enforcing projects moving forward and update that. So thinking about the Downtown Master Plan, an example was creating that Maryland Gateway District. So we identified a vision for a specific area and some key actions that relate to that vision. Then the result in our actual implementation tool was creating that Maryland gateway overlay, which is an actual enforcement mechanism that we can use to directly influence projects. And so we have really updated that within the downtown master plan for a specific area, but it's been a really long time since the city has looked at as a city of a whole in terms of that guiding principles and where do we need to update some of our codes and influence different areas, not just our downtown. So who will be involved? This is probably a question that a lot of people are curious about. There's a few different kind of larger categories of that the consultant team so that's a team that will be selected through the interview process that will work really kind of hand in hand with staff to make sure that elements of the plan are created to kind of meet minimum standards that they're included, the consultant team will really be the ones that are responsible for drafting the plan language, the content that goes into it. So they'll kind of work on that document and we'll be able to choose them through our interview panel process. The steering committee is really a big representative and we'll go into them a little bit more in a few slides, but they're really the community representation that will stay constant throughout the entire process. So they're providing guidance and feedback and they're going to be representatives of really hopefully a variety of stakeholders within our community. The public is incredibly important to successful comprehensive planning, so we really need to make sure and we'll work with the consultant team to make sure that we're approaching the public in different avenues. When we think about Clayton, we have residents of all ages and types, we've got property owners, but a big part of what makes the Clayton community are the people that come here to work, the people that come the businesses that choose to locate here. So that's another avenue that a lot of times more standard traditional comprehensive plans focus on the residents and the property owners. One thing we need to make sure that we're doing within our comprehensive plan is also engaging some of those other people that might not live here full time, but are really important to the success of our commercial areas.

Does that include

the county? They'll be invited to participate. Yep. So the plan commission, as I mentioned before, within the statutes for the comprehensive or for the planning document, they're the adopting authority. So they're rarely involved in the process and another side will kind of break down how they'll be involved in different elements. But ultimately, they'll be the ones who will review and adopt our comprehensive plan. And then you all the Board of Aldermen will be presented that plan after so it'll be important for you all to continue to be involved throughout the process. making sure that people come out to participate in the different engagement activities that we have, providing feedback. You can provide feedback through the process and attend events as well, but you aren't a little different from a lot of the projects that come before you. You aren't that ultimate adopting authority of this plan so that your participation throughout will be slightly different than with a PUD where ultimately you have the adopted authority over that development. Okay, so going into the steering committee just a little bit more, really the roles of the steering committee fall into two main categories. The first being that the steering committee is really the representation of our community interests and our stakeholders. So relaying information back to the groups that they represent, encouraging participation from different community members, being that link for the consultant team and staff that might not have direct people to reach out to in some of the groups that we want to make sure their feedback's engaged, and then attending events. So that category of really helping to make sure that we get that public feedback and the message is important. And then the second role is guiding staff and the consultant team. So really commitment to attending the meetings, the steering committee will be kind of that first you work to make sure that everybody comes to the engagement meetings, then staff and the consultant team kind of take the feedback from different various, you know, meetings or events or surveys or what it might be and evaluate what that is. And then the steering committee provides feedback. Yep, it sounds like that's a good interpretation of the feedback received at engagement or not. And then also providing feedback as we look to draft priorities. So there's going to be tons when we talk about engagement of the comprehensive plan, it's touching a lot of aspects of the community. So a big

part of Okay,

so what do we look for in steering committee members? So again, building on the commitment, really we need representatives who are going to attend these meetings. That's the really important way to make sure that we're providing the right direction to the consulting group. Another big one is really the passion for the direction of the Community, so you want to be involved with the future of what the community is since this is a. Policy document that's driven towards the future, so I put this graphic from an earlier slide back up here, so when we think about what is influencing and making up a community. We want to think about representation of these different aspects. and look at residents, businesses, like I talked about before, professionals that might be in a few different categories that have kind of training and knowledge about different aspects that are important to a comprehensive plan, institutions that are a part of our community. So as much as we can when we're establishing and solidifying who's on the steering committee, we want to try to get a variety of representation through that. So in our first discussion with the Planning Commission, we kind of presented this idea of what the structure would be to support that. We're looking at a nine-member group for a steering committee. We think that's a good number to provide some variety and representation, but also A number that's easy to manage in terms of gaining a consensus scheduling ability other things like that. So three members will be representatives from the plan commission, then we'll have a representative from sustainability one from equity and another one from the school district. And then the last three members will be at large community representatives that we aren't going to restrict what it means to be a community representative at this time that will hopefully help us fill out the steering committee with other representative groups. So for existing commissions and committees, those or those entities will be involved in selecting and letting us know who the representative will be. So Sustainability Committee will determine who their representative for the steering committee is. Staff's not going to choose a representative from them or from point commission to participate. And then for the three at large community representatives, we're really going to essentially use an application or an interest form. So community members will be able to submit themselves as options for these at large members. And a few reasons why we want to do that. One, Again, we really want people that are committed to this process in the future and providing feedback. So this will allow them to present themselves as people who are willing to make that commitment to be engaged, but also hopefully allow us to again at the end, make sure that we have those various representatives when we look at how to fill out our steering committee structure. The plan commission then will serve a few different roles. So one of them is providing the three members to serve on the steering committee. The other three members who are not serving on the steering committee will then kind of run our interview panel so to speak so there'll be representatives. along with a few staff members that will interview the different consultant teams to ultimately select a consultant. And there will also then be the three that will review any of the interest forms that we receive from at-large community representatives to select those three at-large members that will then serve on the steering committee as well. So we're kind of separating the plan commission throughout the process to kind of spread their influence The city manager will really operate as a member of the staff during this process. So when we think about that relationship with the consultants, it's a really important one for staff to be going back and forth with. So that's where we'll have the city manager. And then when everything comes back with a draft plan to be presented to the planning commission and ultimately adopted, that's when then we'll work back with the planning commission in a whole, everybody there in their typical

roles. So I did a really good question.

Can you, I'm not sure I totally understood the statement city manager will act as a staff member. What does that mean so the as opposed to.

Right. So that just means that during basically we split the six members of the plan commission into either on the steering committee or part of the interview panel and then the city manager is the seventh member of the planning commission won't serve. Yeah, so David will be part of the interview panel kind of as a part of the staff group and will be part of ongoing working group with a consultant, but won't serve on the steering committee. So that's kind of how it will be a little bit different from the other planning commission members. So overall the process started December 5th or 14th when we posted the request for proposals. So those are due by end of day, February 1st. We've had a handful of kind of questions about responses to that. So hopefully we'll get a good number of responses by February 1st. Then that's kind of when we'll open that at-large community representative form to start gaining interest from different representatives. And then early February is when we'll solidify that interview panel and start going through and selecting the consultants that we would like to actually interview. And the interviews will take place end of February, might spill over into March depending on the scheduling of those. And then March would be when we would determine who our consultant is and go through the process of negotiating contracts and getting all that set with the goal of starting our plan in April. So once that plan starts in April, we'd also have to have the steering committee set because they'll start meeting on some sort of regularly scheduled meeting times. Then engagement will be settled exactly what that looks like based on who we choose as our consultant, but it will likely involve aspects of you know, the website and presentations and surveys and events, whatnot. And we expect this process in total with the consultant to run probably a year, maybe a little bit longer, depending on the timeline of events for actual adoption with the public hearing requirement. But the plan should hopefully be completed within a year. And then the public hearing and adoption would be at the plan commission. And then we'll also make a presentation to the Board of Aldermen after that. All right, that was the

highlights of the summary. Very good. Great summary. Great presentation. Lots of information. That's really great. We'll just go around and see if anybody has questions. Rich, anything that you want to

ask? I guess the only question I have is in the steering committee, it's kind of hard with only nine people to get a real cross-section of everything, everybody. I guess the couple that I'm curious about are business, you mentioned the business community being one of the stakeholders. Are they available to offer their services as an at large?

Yes.

Okay. How about students? Since I see we probably have a few.

Yeah, that's a good point. So the nine is not a number that we have to be stuck to based on the responses. So we kind of talked about that. The planning commission had the same question. So once we start to see the members kind of form and what interests we're getting with that large form, we can always add more members to make sure that we're including everyone. The student one is interesting. We've been having a lot of, with the rest of the department, conversations about how we can intentionally engage students at different levels from elementary school through but because when you think about a comprehensive plans looking typically 1020 years in the future so. At the end of we've implemented all these goals of the plan, the people that are living in the Community in terms of working here and owning property are the people that are currently in school so. It will be important. That's also why we wanted to specifically invite a school board representative to be on the steering committee to hopefully help create more of a link to get engagement from those groups.

Thanks. Ira, do you have some questions for Ana? I

do, just a couple. Ana, is this sort of a model that's been done before in Clayton or in other cities?

For the steering committee?

Right.

Yes, typically comprehensive plans of this nature will have a formula steering committee advisory committees, you know some insert name. Yes, so usually we outline when from the past when on the private sector side working on these we want to identify who those stakeholders are and then hopefully round out that groups that's where I. There can be flexibility in that nine target number. I think nine is kind of our minimum number that we want, but it usually works well to have a solidified steering committee with intentional and inviting different groups to participate in it.

So, because it seems like a daunting task when you're talking about stakeholders. If you want to put on somebody from the business community, we don't know that they'll be here in 10 years, right? Or 20 years. We don't know if any of our residents who might be on it will be here in 10 or 20 years either. And so it's like, is there any way to figure out who might be more likely to be remaining as a resident or remaining as a business operator in the city?

I would just say, I think that'd be tough, Ira, especially residential. But, you know, in terms of business, I mean, we have some major, if we want to go that route, we have small businesses and then we have major corporations. And I'm not sure, although anybody can be sold, right? But let's just give an example of something like Commerce Bank. You know, if they had a person they want to offer up, you know, I mean, that would be a more or less risky in terms of long-term.

You might imagine, Ira, that someone who self-nominates for a planning process like this and feels engaged and listened to during it is even more likely to still be here in 10 or 20 years than some of us.

Okay, good points. Okay, that's it. I just was curious about how we're going to put that together, but I guess it'll be a process.

Bridget, any questions?

Yeah, I mean, I talked about this a lot at Planning Commission. I'm also kind of worried, obviously, about getting a full cross-section. One of the things we talked about related to getting the business community was I know Gary Carter meets with a group of people who obviously have shown a lot of interest in being involved in communicating with the city. So making sure that they're aware of the application that goes out to the community at large, and hopefully we'll get somebody to respond and really be involved. Are

you talking about the economic development advisory board?

Yeah. And I know he just needs, or you, you, you and Gary have met with people. So just knowing, making sure that they're aware that there is this application out there. And then on, I, I, I guess I don't remember this, but the three other members from the plan commission that aren't on the steering committee are Are those three alone going to select the community representatives or will they get some input from

others? The way we talked about it and have it right now is that those three alone would be doing it. It wouldn't be a staff decision or influence, but obviously we're here to provide help and guidance for this planning process. So we wouldn't need your own advices if needed, but ideally in this setup, it would be those three that would review it.

And then I was also, one of the things we talked about too, is just making sure that the people who are chosen from the like sustainability and equity and the, you know, that there's, that we kind of know who those people are before we start picking out the community at large representatives, just so that we're getting a diverse cross-section of ages, males, females, you know, everything. So, yeah.

Okay, Susan, questions?

It was an excellent presentation. And my one observation is pretty much the same, making sure that we get that representation on the steering committee. And a lot of that depends on how it plays out as well as the community engagement afterwards. But nine does seem, when you listed all the voices that we actually need, including allied universities to what everyone else was saying with businesses, and those will be here for the long haul. it might be tough to make sure that we have all the voices we need in nine people. But it depends how it all plays out in the other engagements.

Becky? Thanks, Ana. I would just think it would be great if we had so many people apply with such diverse backgrounds that we were able to expand the steering committee and still have it be manageable. So that would be a great thing. And to keep in mind that the engagement is going to be focused to ensure that we're engaging with each of those groups like directly or and that they all have an opportunity to participate in everything so and i think what you pointed out is the responsibility that really we all have to communicate on this to our constituents and neighbors so that we ensure that people know about it and can participate. My only question is on the engagement, understanding that we are going to be going through the pedestrian and bike planning process at the same time. Are those going to be distinct plans, like separate consultants? Right?

Okay.

And so I imagine... you all are thinking about how to manage that, like those two major engagements at the same time. I don't know what, if you can talk at all about what you've thought about that to date and how you think we

can make it work. Yeah, we've had some internal sessions. I think a lot of that will be staff leading to making sure that we're updating each other. We've also talked with Gabby in marketing about how to make sure that the message is clear and make sure that we don't have conflicting events for engagement. So I think through some of these channels, we'll be able to do so, but it will be an important part about making sure that we choose the right consultant to make sure that they've are open to those types of processes and having things change or maybe hosting joint events that would be engagement for the livable communities and ours. But we definitely want to make sure that the plans align with each other and there aren't any conflicts and that we're reinforcing kind of the same goals. So it'll be something that we'll have to just keep an eye on as the process goes, but I think ultimately it won't have any negative impacts on either plan. Thanks.

Alderman Gary Feder.

Alderman Fader.

Just as an aside, I'm teaching a class this week at Washington University Law School, a one-week class on commercial real estate, and I invited any of my students who wanted to see local government in action. So two of the students are here. So if you were wondering... Those are two of my students in May. I did say we also had a seven o'clock meeting, so a couple more may wander in. Just a comment on the representation. It does occur to me, we probably don't want to expand the committee, but if we're looking at the business community, the Chamber of Commerce obviously represents a wide variety of businesses. And as the mayor and David know, because they come to the same meetings I do, the chamber has a monthly meeting, a legislative committee meeting. And a lot of those people I think are very interested in legislation like this. And so even if it's not a member of the steering committee, some way to reach out to the chamber to see if there's some way to involve them in the process, that might be a very direct way to try to get some input. And my question really for Ana was I'm trying to understand at the end of this process, since the plan commission is ultimately not the implementing body for a lot of things, particularly rezoning, creating new districts, I'm wondering is the level of specificity you're looking for from the plan commission in terms of recommendation? Would it reach the level of hypothetically taking this part of Clayton and rezone it, the recommendation from R1 to R2 or vice versa? Or is it more conceptual and it's still up to the Board of Aldermen to decide how to implement achieving that goal assuming it's the right goal?

I think the implementation strategy will have a variety of levels in terms of what the actual steps to achieve the goal and the vision will be. When it comes to the rezoning or the establishment of a new zoning ordinance, I think that that's typically a follow-up to any new comprehensive plan of this level is a more widespread analysis of our zoning code so those types of aspects are directly and related to the plan commission's roles and responsibilities so that's kind of probably has a lot to do with why the statutes outline them as the adoption authority in this case but i think there'll be a variety of looking specifically at districts and we talk about the use of overlays in the downtown And then we look at some of our other commercial nodes throughout the city, the secondary ones you know why down handling other areas where there aren't overlay districts but. They I think within the comprehensive plan looking at those as maybe sub areas. would likely happen with more detailed analysis. White-owned Hanley comes to mind as an easy one because there's existing provisions of the code that really directly conflict with the uses you see there, such as residential being allowed above retail and restaurant uses is not allowed in the C1 district, but that's pretty much what white-owned Hanley is. That's like a low hanging fruit that I would expect something to be noted in the comprehensive plan as the goal of removing those conflicts and barriers. But then there's going to be larger, more conceptual ideas, especially as we look at our guiding principles of what equity is, what sustainability is to our community. That's where this comprehensive plan offers an opportunity for really widespread engagement to understand what those terms mean to us. that would be a lot harder to maybe achieve that widespread engagement on just the equity commission alone trying to achieve it. So that's kind of where this plan will cover a variety of really targeted implementation steps and then more guiding conceptual principles.

Thank you.

Well, I just have a couple of questions. One is a question, one is a comment. So on the guiding principles, That's a really critical part of this whole thing, getting it started. And so how will those principles be developed? Who will develop those? And will there be public engagement around those then once there's some initial ideas or?

Yes, there will be public engagement. So usually the first kind of phase of these comprehensive plans is really data gathering and analysis. And so some of the initial conversations that we can have through that are creating the interactions that would start to have the conversation where people start to feel comfortable answering some of those tougher questions that communities have to face. So that first phase will be important. Maybe in the end of it, we won't know exactly the wording of our principles, our guiding principles for equity and sustainability, but we're at least, the goal is to at least establish those relationships where people start feeling comfortable having those conversations. We'll have kind of a general idea of where we're headed, and then that will allow us to make sure that our more specific engagement throughout the next few phases of the project will allow us to dig in a little bit deeper to establish, use those as a lens when we're looking at really specific land use policies or more specific questions related to access and transportation elements. And then ultimately in the draft of the plan, the final kind of end stages is when the wording will probably more be flushed out specifically for those.

And there really isn't any formal process for the board to give input on those. It's just if we happen to be in the audience during public engagement or something like that?

Right. I don't think through the public engagement, all of the, even the steering committee meetings, those are open meetings. So if you're not a member of the steering committee directly, you can still... be there and hearing, participating in terms of listening in on the meeting. But I don't think there's going to be anything through the process as specific of us necessarily putting up a sentence and then gaining feedback on the wording of that. You know, that's more kind of the end of the process when we look at the draft plans, the steering committee might provide some feedback at that level, and then it'll be presented to the planning commission. But you all are welcome to participate and should participate in all elements of the public engagement throughout that entire process. So there's, even though you're not the adopting authority, there's opportunities for you to still participate as an important part of the public and ultimately an important part of policy side of the city.

Right. Okay. And then my comment just is based on our experience with waste collection and people ability to learn about it or, you know, the success of our public awareness campaign. I would love to see what your plan is for getting the word out on this, because I can see, obviously, you want to engage a broad scope here of all kinds of stakeholders, all kinds of cohorts. And I think it's very hard to get people to be aware, engage. Are you going to have an online tool for people to engage with and give input on things that are discussed in the meetings. I just think the outreach, it has to, I mean, I'm getting in the weeds, but we need to put signs up, you know, yard signs all over town or, you know, people just aren't paying attention and that's okay. But, you know, we really want that input so that when we get down the road at Hanley and Y down, whatever we start trying to do is not met with problems.

Yeah, I mean, that's correct. Absolutely. A lot of the details of that planning will be something that will be worked out with the consultant team that we choose. That's part of when we interview them, getting an idea of how they've been able to achieve that kind of outreach success with a variety of groups. So right now, I can't tell you exactly what it would look like, but we have started conversations with Gabby understanding the bang the table aspect of our website and other elements of it to make sure that we're prepared to have those conversations with consultant to ultimately outline a good path forward for engagement, but it will. When you talk about a community, especially people who've lived in a community for a long time engaging them everyone has their kind of method of how they get the data, the information from the city, so some people. you know, they look for the city views mailing and that's how they get their information for a few months some check the website on a regular basis so we're going to definitely have to utilize all the platforms available to us to make sure that we're reaching everyone. It'll be, it's gonna be hard.

Yeah. Okay. Any other comments or. All right, very good. We can thank you. That was great. And we can move on to the Maryland bike lane.

John Potter, All right, so that's the second conversation here is the bike lane review. John Potter, So i'll go through this report just a little bit I know everybody had an advanced and then we'll open it up for discussion. But we've had the bike lanes open on Maryland just over 14 months. And we did say that after a year of use, we would come back and have this conversation and talk about how they're functioning. So we'll just offer up a few observations that we've made over the past 14, 15 months. There have been no reported accidents or incidents involving pedestrians, cyclists or vehicles within or as a result of the bike lanes. So Chief Smith and the police department went back through all the reports over that period and could not find anything. in their system related to the bike lanes, which is good. And then we made some anecdotal observations. So the lane reduction on the westbound side of Maryland, and this is one of the big concerns you hear out there, it's appeared to result in slower traffic flow overall. So if you travel that on a regular basis, we certainly have observed that it's moving slower than it did before the bike lanes were there. While there has been no degradation of service, so we haven't observed people waiting for multiple lights over and over again as the results of the bike lanes being there. If there's a delivery truck or you have somebody that's not very good at parallel parking maybe that's going to take multiple attempts in order to park their vehicle within that travel lane, that could certainly impact the flow of traffic. But the bike lanes themselves, reducing it to just that one lane, absent a delivery truck or somebody trying to park, traffic is still flowing through that section of Maryland Avenue. We have the bollards that delineate the bike lanes from the lane of travel for vehicles. And those are an operational burden for our staff. They have to go out and manually remove all of the bollards when the winter comes because we can't plow snow to the curb if those bollards are there. And then when spring comes around, we go ahead and put them back out. But when they are out, we can't get a street sweeper all the way up against the curb. So I know we did receive a couple of concerns just about the leaves and the sort of debris that accumulates within that bike lane. So that requires us to go in manually again with leaf blowers or other tools in order to clear that out. So that is one of the drawbacks of having the bike lane delineated. The reason those are there and the reason they're effective is what we saw back when the bike lanes were initially installed, which was the delineators came out after they had been in about a month or so. And then we had people parking up against the curb instead of parking in the designated spaces. So they were parking in the bike lane essentially and blocking that path. We passed that ordinance that prohibited parking within a bike lane. And that's something we've enforced on a regular basis. We also had a lot of public education and then additional signage along the bike lane. And our observation since that time is that that condition has improved. And if you drive down the street now, you know, the bollards are out and you'll see that people are parked in the correct spot. So that's something that just took some education over time and people doing it and getting used to parking in a new area. And then finally, we don't have an accurate count of cyclists utilizing the bike lanes. Again, anecdotally, I've observed people riding them. I've ridden them, you know, ridden in the bike lane. Personally, I know people utilize them. We don't know to what extent that's occurring, though. We don't have a formal count at this point. So as far as the traffic counts, though, on Maryland, we probably won't do that again until all of those lanes are restored. Not just on Maryland where we have the bike lane that's currently interrupted at the Bemiston Place development, but also we need Forsyth to be open because Forsyth's lane closure associated with the Forsyth Point development is definitely sending more traffic over to the Maryland side. So we need to get a real true count of what the traffic flow is. and the traffic count on Maryland is, and until that construction is complete, that's going to be difficult to do. We also have the whole element where office occupancy isn't what it was prior to the pandemic. So if all of the offices were back at 100% occupancy, that would certainly increase the flow on Maryland, and we're not sure how that would impact or how the bike lanes would impact that with the single lane of travel when you go westbound. So that's something we're going to have to observe. going forward. So staff's recommendation at this point in time is just to continue to monitor the bike lanes and also have a broader community discussion through that livable communities master plan, which is coming up. So we are going to be discussing bike and pedestrian facilities and the network itself. So there's certainly going to be more conversation on that. But at this point in time, we can't find any real detriment that's impeding traffic or causing a safety concern where we would recommend a removal at this point in So with that, I'll open it up to you and the board. Absolutely. And then we do have our Director of Public Works, Matt Malik is here tonight, along with Chief Smith from the Police Department.

Hey guys, any comments? Rich?

My only comment is I would like that if we are not going to do anything, that we make sure we communicate that we've looked at it. And for the reasons you've cited, we are keeping it as is. So we said we would look at it after 12 months. We ought to say that we did look at it and we're not going to do it right now, at least.

We've got a city views coming up. I know that because I have to write something marni.baker-steinfield.com i was doing a week or so, so we could put something in that I can't think of a really better way to let people know I mean unless anybody else has ideas. marni.бaker-steinfield .com that'll come out in the spring okay. marni .baker-steinfeld .com I already comments questions.

I mean city views it probably the best way to let people. Know that we've done the annual review. And we've come up with the best answers to the questions that most people have. And I think that's fine. And I think it's important to, you know, I... You know, this question about about use, I think, is something that the public keeps wanting to talk about or at least make comments about whether they're anecdotal or anything else. And, you know, I just want to make a comment about this on the record that as far as use goes, I know it's been used. I see it. But but but I don't think that really is the major crux of this. Because if you have a bike lane that we this is our first real bike lane downtown. We don't have any, you know, we haven't done any adding to these this in terms of connectivity and creating something bigger out of this. And so I appreciate what David put together in terms of his list. I think it's a these are these are good answers, good questions to ask and good answers to those questions. I'm just not particularly interested in how many people are using it at this point so that's my comment

good Bridget

um I you know I think the um observations by staff were good um I I myself am on Maryland many many times I don't I'm probably I would guess from the people in this room I am on Maryland the most um just given my trips to and from school and the center and I'm on Maryland constantly. Chris even sent me cause it drives, you know, the traffic lights and stuff, you know, which again keeps traffic slow, but Chris, my husband, like it makes him crazy, but although he loves the bike lanes, but yeah. I will just say, I think the observations really are good in terms of understanding because we really don't know what traffic is going to be like once we kind of get all the lanes back. From Forsyth, I know getting to the high school has been a nightmare this fall. And I know a lot of parents have been moved to Maryland in order because you literally couldn't get down Forsyth. And there was a line all the way to almost Forest Park Parkway. to turn left into the high school when those lanes were closed. So I just think there's a lot going on before we start making any big decisions about Maryland. I will also say, I just want to reiterate too, what the bike lane has accomplished is, unlike many people's observations, I do consistently see people using this bike lane And also it is accomplishing the fact that people don't, people can't drive 40 miles an hour down Maryland anymore. They can't. And that's a good thing. You know I will say the wonderful woman who owns happy up actually says that because people drive slower, they can actually see her shop a little bit better now. So so for all those reasons and just, you know, I think it will be important as people have already mentioned the communication, because I, Gary and I constantly get communications from our residents, asking about evaluation of this so I think it'll be important to communicate that.

Good, I agree.

I don't have much to add I think it's a, it's a very good step for our community. And the connectivity area, you're right, as things develop more, we'll really see it. And as the city settles into some type of norm as well. So publicizing that and that it ties into the local communities, the bike and the pedestrian study, I think is great. Makes sense. Becky,

comments?

Yeah, I supported this bike lane as a resident before I was on the board. And I use the bike lane. And I think it's great. I'm pleased that we are seeing use of it in these general positive ways. impacts, and that's all. Thanks. Alderman Thader.

I would echo the idea about this communication, and I think we might consider, I'm not a communications person, but this is one of those things where like a Q&A approach might work well because we all hear the same questions over and over again, and to be able to address the question directly as opposed to a narrative that just says this is what we're doing, but something that addresses the questions. But I think all this makes a lot of sense. As recently as at the last meeting I went to about the apartment project, someone stopped me and said, I wish I had a buck for every time I've heard this, you know, it's an accident waiting to happen. Well, I mean, the reality is, and I respect people's concerns, but the fact is accident hasn't happened. I mean, that's the point. I mean, the facts speak for themselves. We haven't had accidents. I understand why people are concerned, but I think after 14 months, I think those concerns I think have been adequately addressed. And certainly there's lots of reasons not to do anything different now, but we have to keep assuring the community because there are people who care a lot that we're going to continue to look at this very seriously, but to do something about it now doesn't make any sense. We should explain what we're talking about tonight in some cogent form to the public so they know what's going on.

We can like to clarify that most of the comments that I hear are very positive. and not a lot of discussion, just like, you know, it's a good thing that we're getting to the stage of the city operations. Yeah, things

are certainly getting better in terms of comments.

Can I, Mayor, I'm sorry too. I just want to clarify too, and maybe Chief could help with this because we get communications all the time from residents about the bike lanes. Somebody did contact Gary and I that there, I think there was an accident in the bike lane. I don't think there was any physical injuries, but I think there was some damage to a car. It was back in September, Chief. I don't... I think, no, I think it was a bike and an automobile. And I only say that because the resident who contacted us specifically. We

heard about it.

Yeah. So, and I don't, I know that there weren't any injuries, but just so that, you know, it doesn't come out that there was nothing. It sounds like there was something back in September. So, but yeah.

Might have been on Nextdoor, by the way. It was on some communication.

I thought it was a weekly report. Somewhere there was one report.

Okay, good. Just in case. I'm glad you brought that up. Okay, great. Yeah, I don't really have anything to add. I agree with what everyone said. And I do think having bike lanes in our business district, if possible, makes us more welcoming. And that's one of our overarching goals because we're trying to provide activities for people they're young and for families, and we want to be that city. So I agree, we don't have much connectivity, but honestly, that's not really our fault. So we need to, I do remind our other mayors nearby that they need to connect to us, but it does connect to the Great Rivers Greenway, you know, path. So that's good. And we will see. Well, I look forward to seeing how the community engages around this during that bike eds planning process. I think that'll be really enlightening. So I think we'll hear a lot more positive things then than at least I hear now. So, all right, great. Good, thank you. We have a few minutes until seven and so we can just take a break and do whatever and we'll

reconvene right at seven. You know, nothing that, like I don't have, I don't know if I was smart enough why I couldn't do that. and that we are right in the middle of a sterile period. So when I'm in a situation like this, and I want to store a diamond or a plant that is meant to be of color to me, it is hard now since I'm calling. And we are in a lack of technology. And so that is complicated now. If we need somebody to be able from the possibility that we shouldn't say that those individuals are the most important individuals. Right? And that's the point, right? So if you're saving money, how do you want to do it? Do you think they're wrong? Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I mean. So. Right. even if it's in like actually and maybe as they develop that and before they move forward I mean, like, that seems like something that might be a really open question. I don't know. I don't know. Thank you. All right. i'm. I. Thank you. the gary austin's response thanks We're still broadcasting.

All right. Well, welcome to our seven o'clock portion of the meeting here tonight. And we'll ask the city clerk to call the roll.

Alderman Lentz.

Here.

Alderman Berkowitz.

Here.

Alderman McAndrew. Here. Alderman Buse. Here. Alderwoman Patel. Here. Aldermen Gary Feder.

Alderman McAndrew. Here. Alderman Buse. Here. Alderwoman Patel. Here. Aldermen Fader.

Here.

Mayor Harris. Here. City Manager David Gipson.

Mayor Harris. Here. City Manager Gibson.

Here.

City Attorney O'Keefe.

Here.

Thank you.

Great, thank you. Now I'd like to call for the approval of the minutes from December 13th and need a motion.

I will move to approve the minutes from December 15th.

Second. All those in favor?

All right.

Any opposed? All right, very good. And now's the time on the agenda for public requests and petitions. So if there's someone in our audience, either online or here, that has comment or question about something that's not covered in this agenda, now's your chance. So I'm looking to see if any hands are raised anywhere. And I don't see any. So we'll move on to the public hearing for renewable energy.

Thank you, Mayor. This is a public hearing to consider amending Article 28, Renewable Energy Systems of the city's zoning regulations to revise the location requirements and create an administrative review process. In May 2022, the City Sustainability Committee drafted a recommendation to the Plan Commission and Architectural Review Board to consider changes to the Renewable Energy System regulations to allow for expanded installation of solar panels. Multiple discussion sessions have been held since then to gather feedback and direction of potential modifications. The following goals have guided the amendments drafted by staff. First, expand opportunities for installation of solar panels and other renewable energy systems to further the sustainability goals of the city and community. Secondly, remove barriers for installation of renewable energy systems that conform to standard criteria by providing a path for administrative review and approval. And third, identify historic context considerations and additional criteria for review to ensure continued protection of neighborhood and architectural character. The Plan Commission considered this request at its meeting on December 19th and voted unanimously to recommend approval. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve the amendment as proposed. We do have Anna Krane, our Director of Planning and Development Services here this evening to answer any questions, but I did receive one question in advance of the meeting from Alderman Gary Feder, just about the different approval types that are contained within the ordinance.

Thank you, Mayor. This is a public hearing to consider amending Article 28, Renewable Energy Systems of the city's zoning regulations to revise the location requirements and create an administrative review process. In May 2022, the City Sustainability Committee drafted a recommendation to the Plan Commission and Architectural Review Board to consider changes to the Renewable Energy System regulations to allow for expanded installation of solar panels. Multiple discussion sessions have been held since then to gather feedback and direction of potential modifications. The following goals have guided the amendments drafted by staff. First, expand opportunities for installation of solar panels and other renewable energy systems to further the sustainability goals of the city and community. Secondly, remove barriers for installation of renewable energy systems that conform to standard criteria by providing a path for administrative review and approval. And third, identify historic context considerations and additional criteria for review to ensure continued protection of neighborhood and architectural character. The Plan Commission considered this request at its meeting on December 19th and voted unanimously to recommend approval. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve the amendment as proposed. We do have Ana Crane, our Director of Planning and Development Services here this evening to answer any questions, but I did receive one question in advance of the meeting from Alderman Fader, just about the different approval types that are contained within the ordinance.

Perhaps I should open the public hearing as well and request proof of publication. There we go.

All right. So there are really three different approval types that contain within this ordinance. The first one is an administrative approval. So that's essentially a staff review. And if the application meets all the requirements in the regulation, Then it's approved. It doesn't have to go on to any boards or anything beyond that. Then we go into the permit issuing process. So for an administrative review, we will do that for residential ground-mounted and building-mounted energy systems. So solar panels on a roof of the building, for an example. Also non-residential building-mounted systems. So solar panel on non-residential buildings are also subject to administrative review. The second level is an ARB review. And for an ARB review, there's a section in this ordinance that talks about alternative compliance. Anything that would fall under that, anything that kind of falls into a gray area or if there's question about it, ARB would actually step in and take the review at that point in time. staff also has the ability during one of those administrative reviews to refer the matter to architectural review board. So if there's something unique, if there's some sort of question as to the application and whether or not it meets the requirements, staff could trigger that review by ARB. And then finally projects with historic context. So the final section that's in the proposed ordinance talks about historic context in kind of what constitutes historical context. If it's a building that's listed on the National Register, if it's within a National Register district and it's a contributing structure, in those particular cases, ARB would need to do the review. Finally, there's a conditional use process that's spelled out in this ordinance, and that applies to non-residential ground-mounted units. So if you have a commercial property and you want some sort of solar panels that aren't affixed to the top of the building, but maybe they might be out in a required front yard or in the rear yard, wherever, If it's on a commercial property, it has to go through the CUP process. So that would be the plan commission or ARB and also the Board of Aldermen. And the same is true for wind energy systems. So this ordinance does allow wind energy. However, any application for that has to go before the Board of Alderman. So we have an administrative process, we have an ARB process, and we have a CUP process depending on the type of application. And all of that is spelled out in the ordinance.

Very good. Thank you. I would like to open it up now for discussion. Any questions or comments from the audience here or online? I see no hands. Any questions or comment from the board? Rich, we'll start with you. Nothing? Ira? Okay. Bridget?

I was IRA oh no here he is sorry

IRA no questions are coming,

I know I don't have any questions or comments, thank you okay

all right. I was just going to make a comment, you know just with respect to the approval process through staff so at ARB we approved because this wasn't in place yet we approve some solar panels on the top of the new Bank of America building. So, which is fantastic. They're doing it all around the country. The gentleman who was on the phone doing it was talking about how he's going from place to place. So that's fantastic. But in the future, staff would be able to do that without it coming. So I think it's, you know, I think it's everybody at the plan commission was really supportive and I'm just really excited that we'll be able to get this through quicker at the staff level. And then if necessary, you know, it can come before the ERV. But I thought Ana did a great job.

Yeah, very good. Great. Susan, any comment?

I just want to commend the Sustainability Committee and the Planning Commission and everybody who worked on this and getting it done because as you pointed out, it's time and it's happening anyway and this will make it much more streamlined and effective.

Alderwoman Patel, anything? I'm just going to pile on because I really appreciate you know I mean the sustainability committee didn't know like how this should be done, they just knew that. it was consistent with like what we value and want to see more of and want to make it easier for people to put on solar panels. And I really appreciate the way that Anna and her staff approached this because I think anything we can do to ease the process for our residents to invest in their homes in general and specifically when it's sustainable like this or innovative, that's awesome. Good work.

My only comment, I think David's explanation of these three levels of review is very helpful and it's very helpful tonight, but it's not very helpful to the extent it's not reflected in the ordinance anywhere. It is, of course, if you read through it, you get there, but I would think, not to impose an honor to think about it, but I would take a very simple chart that would say, these are the three levels of review and this is what triggers each one of these for those who John Potter, want to use the ordinance in the future, I think it would be very helpful to have something like that. John Potter, I certainly think it would it would make it easier and then the other thing that, and I think David and I talked about it as I understand. John Potter, Typically, when things go through the ARB that's the end of the process, the Board of aldermen does not get involved, except if there is an appeal. John Potter, And it seems to me, particularly as this thing sort of works its way through it's not inconceivable that we might have somebody who's a homeowner. who doesn't like the placement of a particular solar panel, and at least would like to have the right to go forward and appeal that. And as I understand it, in fact, that right is there because where this is in the ordinance, there actually is an appeal process. It's just not in this ordinance, but it is part of the broader zoning section. So I think it's important somehow to convey as this thing gets rolled out that there still is an appeal process. If a homeowner is unhappy with an ARB decision, it would go under the right circumstances to the board, to our board, again, under certain circumstances. So I think we just want to make that clear to people that that appeal right is still there.

Yep. Great point. We can do that, I'm sure.

Yes, we can do that. We also are in the process of updating it. We have a lot on our website different kind of submittal guides based on different topics and with our new online platform for submitting permits, we're updating those guides to align so and talking with what you're mentioning, not being in the ordinance about what type of project and what type of process it might go through. I think we can cover that in the updated guide related to renewable energy applications, as opposed to putting it within the actual code.

That'll work as well, sure.

Very good. All right. Anything else from anyone? No. Okay. I will now close the public hearing. Alderman Lentz.

I'll introduce Bill 6934 to approve an amendment to Chapter 405, Article 28. Get that right. Renewable energy systems to allow for expanded installation of solar panels to be read for the first time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? All right. Mr.

City Attorney. Bill number 6934, First Reading, an ordinance amending Chapter 405, Zoning Regulations, Article 28, Renewable Energy Systems, to revise locations for energy system installation, establish an administrative review process, and other modifications related thereto.

All right. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Very good.

I'll move that the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill 6934 on the day of its introduction.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, let the minutes reflect. The board has given unanimous consent.

And I'll introduce Bill 6934 to approve an amendment to Chapter 405, Article 28, Renewable Energy Systems to allow for expanded installation of solar panels to be read for the second time by title only.

Second. All right. Any discussion? Okay, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6934, second reading and consideration for adoption. An ordinance amending chapter 405 zoning regulations, article 28, renewable energy system to revise locations for energy system installation, establish an administrative review process, and other modifications related thereto.

Alderman Lentz. Aye. Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderwoman Buse. Aye. Alderman Gary Feder.

Alderman Lentz. Aye. Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderwoman Buse. Aye. Alderman Fader.

Aye.

Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you.

All right, moving on, I will open the public hearing and request proof of publication for the Chapter 425 sign regulations.

Yes, Mayor. This is a public hearing to consider amending Chapter 425 sign regulations of the city's land use regulations to reorganize sign types by zoning district, clarify definitions and sign allowance and other modifications. Over the years, case law has shaped how signs are regulated. One of the more well-known decisions being Reed versus Town of Gilbert in 2015, which struck down the sign code as being content-based and therefore a violation of the First Amendment. Since then, many communities have taken to rewriting sign codes to remove content-based regulations. Staff has rewritten sections of Chapter 425 to remove content- based regulations. The proposed regulations do not significantly modify the sign types, sizes, or locations that are currently allowed, but rather reorganizes the code to align with current best practices. The proposed regulations create consistency throughout zoning districts and will help contribute to a certain character and support necessary wayfinding and messaging. post regulations also provide for clarity and how sign areas are calculated and determined. Diagrams have been added to section 425.020 definitions to show how the calculation is applied to different building sizes and layouts, as well as different sign shapes. Many traditional sign regulations measure sign area using a rectangle based on the height and length of the sign. The proposed regulations allow for the sign area to be measured using the boundary of a sign for various shapes, which can encourage creativity in shapes while maintaining a standard size allowed. The plan commission considered this request at its meeting on December 5th and voted unanimously to recommend approval. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve the amendment as proposed.

All right. I'll open the discussion. Any questions or comments from the audience? All right, seeing none, I'll move on to the board. Rich, any questions, comments?

No real questions. I just think this is great. Signs were always confusing when they came to the ARB, so clarifying it is terrific. Thanks.

Very good. Ira, any

comment? I concur. with my fellow Alderman on the confusion and the difficulty in dealing with signs at ARB. And I think this, I welcome this clarification. Thank you.

No comment. Thanks, Anna. Susan, any comments? Good work. Thank you. Alderman Gary Feder?

No comment. Thanks, Anna. Susan, any comments? Good work. Thank you. Alderman Fader?

All good.

Okay, very good. I will then close the public hearing.

I'll introduce Bill 6935 to approve an amendment to Chapter 425, sign regulations of the city's land use regulations to be read for the first time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? All right, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6935, first reading, an ordinance amending Chapter 425 sign regulations to reorganize sign types and regulations by zoning districts, clarify definitions and other modifications related thereto.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right.

I'll move that the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill 6935 on the day of its introduction.

Second.

All those in favor.

Aye.

Any opposed. Let the minutes reflect the board has given unanimous consent.

Then I will introduce Bill 6935 to approve an amendment to Chapter 425, sign regulations of the city's land use regulations to be read for the second time by title only.

Second.

Any further discussion? Okay, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6935, second reading and consideration for adoption. An ordinance of any Chapter 425 sign regulation by reorganizing sign types and regulations by zoning districts clarifier definitions, and other modifications related thereto.

Alderman Lentz?

Aye.

Alderman Berkowitz? Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Aldermen Buse? Aye. Aldewomen Patel? Aye. Aldeman Gary Feder? Aye. Mayor Harris? Aye. Thank you.

Alderman Berkowitz? Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Aldermen Buse? Aye. Aldewomen Patel? Aye. Aldeman Fader? Aye. Mayor Harris? Aye. Thank you.

Okay, moving along. I will open the public hearing and request proof of publication for Honeymoon Chocolates.

This is a public hearing to consider an application for a conditional use permit submitted by Cameron Loyette of Starry Night LLC doing business as Honeymoon Chocolates to allow for the operation of a 2,500 square foot cafe with an outdoor dining area. Honeymoon Chocolites will be open seven days a week from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. The cafe concept is dessert-based to serve drinks and food that incorporate or pair as well with the chocolate created in-house. The applicant has also applied for a liquor license. The cafe will have 40 seats and will continue to operate the existing outdoor dining area. The proposed cafe is located within the existing retail chocolate shop. Off-street parking is not required for restaurants located in the Central Business District measuring less than 3,000 square feet. Deliveries will be made in the morning via street parking in front of the restaurant. The restaurant will continue to use the existing recycling and garbage pickup services. The Planning Commission considered this request at its meeting on December 5th, 2022, and voted unanimously to recommend approval as requested. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve a conditional use permit for the operation of Honeymoon Chocolates located at 16 North Central per the conditions outlined in the resolution. And the applicant, Cameron Loyette, appears to be online.

Oh, okay.

All right. Cameron, are you with us?

Yes, yes, I am.

Okay, great. Well, this is a fun, sounds like a fun, exciting new business for us. Can you kind of give us sort of the concept of what it's going to be like?

You bet. So as it stands now, we manufacture chocolate sweetened with honey. We've been selling throughout the country and throughout the world. We're in seven different countries right now, sold with our chocolate that's all made here in Clayton. But we want to expand to have more of a footprint here in St. Louis. So doing so through either pastries, alcoholic beverages like a chocolate martini or wine and whiskey pairings, partnering with some local distilleries like Switchgrass Spirits is our goal with this particular conditional use permit.

That sounds great. And I might've missed it, but when are you thinking of opening?

So we're open right now, but I would still- When are you thinking of

converting? Yeah.

I'd love to convert for Valentine's Day if possible.

Sounds like a plan. Okay, great. Well, we're excited for you and thanks for coming to the meeting and listening. And I'll ask the public if there are any questions, comments. And any questions or comments from our board?

I'd like to say that I've been over there a bunch of times. Cameron is a wonderful person to talk to, but his product is fantastic. It's a great product. You all ought to go over there. He's got a nice restaurant, nice indoor area to sit and enjoy the chocolates and some ice cream as well. So I think it's a great addition to the city. So thank you, Cameron.

Wonderful. Anything, Bridget? Anything over here? No. Okay, very good. All right. Everybody's excited. Thank you again. And I will close. What?

Everybody wants chocolate.

Everybody loves chocolate. Yeah, you know, really, you should have come to the meeting and given us some... given us some samples, but there'll be more meetings that you could come to. So that's good. All right. I will close the public hearing then and Alderman Lentz.

I'll move to approve resolution number 2023-01 granting a conditional use permit for Starry Night Cafe LLC doing businesses Honeymoon Chocolates at 16 North Central Avenue. Second.

Okay. Any discussion? All right, all those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Okay, very good. Thank you. And we can move on to the city manager's

report. Starry Night Cafe LLC doing business as Honeymoon Chocolates is requesting a liquor license to sell all kinds of intoxicating liquor at retail by the drink, including Sundays at 16 North Central Avenue. The police and planning departments have completed a review of the application and support issuance of the requested license. The applicant has chosen not to submit a petition from surrounding property owners and first floor tenants. As a result, they are aware that this application must have a super majority vote of five board members in order to be approved. Staff recommends passing a motion to approve the liquor license to sell all kinds of intoxicating liquor at retail by the drink, including Sundays.

Okay, I'll open the discussion. I don't see any hands online. Anybody here have questions or comments? Okay, very good. Alderman Lentz.

I'll move to approve liquor license for honeymoon chocolates at 16 North Central Avenue.

Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. All right, very good. And moving on to the marijuana text, Mr. City Manager.

Yes, on November 8th, 2022, Missouri voters approved an amendment to Missouri Constitution relating to the legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana. Section 2.6, subsection 5 of Article 14 of the Missouri Constitution authorizes the governing body of any local government to impose an additional sales tax and an amount not to exceed 3% on all tangible personal property retail sales of adult-use marijuana sold in the political subdivision, in addition to any and all other retail sales tax allowed by law if approved by voters of the political subdivision. The attached ordinance calls for an election for Clayton voters to consider an additional local sales tax of 3% on the retail sales of adult use marijuana sold in the city. The proposition known as Proposition M would be placed on the April 4th, 2023 ballot and would read as follows. Shall the city of Clayton be authorized to impose an additional sales tax and an amount not to exceed 3% on all tangible personal property retail sales of adult use marijuana sold in the city? Staff recommends approval of the ordinance.

Very good. All right, I'll open the discussion. Any questions from our audiences? Okay. Alderman Lentz, I mean, yeah, Alderman LentZ, I'm sorry. Yes. Do you have any comments or questions?

I don't.

Sounds like a good idea.

Yeah.

Ira? No, but we're doing it.

Okay. I guess, you know, we don't have any dispensaries in Clayton, but, you know, Is there any, are we going to do any sort of PR effort? I mean, I'm not suggesting that we spend a lot of money sending anything out. Are we just hoping that there'll be enough interest? I mean, i think a lot of other communities are doing this so just assuming that maybe word of mouth will

sure our

residents will know

right and I know we had interest as far as medical dispensaries none of that materialized. The next step in this process is for us to go through our offenses section and also our zoning code to make sure that those are all up to date. So you'll be seeing more legislation come forward. But as far as dispensaries, I mean, it's on the approved use list, so I'm sure there will be some interest out there. And if we certainly got a dispensary, then we would hope people would utilize it and pay the additional 3%.

Well, I think just like when we put anything- Oh, that's

the tax proposition. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah. As far as the tax proposition goes, I think everybody is putting this out there. So we'll communicate that it's going to be out there. Of course, we can't put things out to go ahead and support it. But I think every city around us for the most part is going to have this on the ballot as well as I'm sure the county will have something on there as well. So it'll be out there. And everyone has named this across the state Proposition M. So there's consistency there as well.

Okay, very good.

Let's see. Any other comments or questions? I was going to ask how it got named. You got to choose that. You basically answered. That's exactly right. We get to ask. There was a

lot of conversation throughout the state and then the Missouri Municipal League put out a recommendation that everyone use proposition for exactly that.

Yep. Okay. Very good. So any other discussion? All right. Alderman Lentz.

I'll introduce Bill 6936, levying an additional sales tax on sales of adult-use marijuana and calling for an election for voter approval to be read for the first time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? Okay, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6936, first reading, an ordinance levying an additional sale tax on sales of an adult-use marijuana, and calling an election for voter approvals of such tax.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right.

I'll move that the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill 6936 on the day of its introduction.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed. All right, let the minutes reflect. The board has given unanimous consent.

Then I'll introduce bills 6936, levying an additional sales tax on sales of adult use marijuana and calling for an election for voter approval to be read for the second time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? City Attorney.

Bill number 6936, second reading and consideration for adoption. An ordinance levying an additional sale tax on sales of adults use marijuana and calling an election for voter pool such tax.

Alderman Lentz. Aye. Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Aldermen Patel. Aye. Aldemann Gary Feder.

Alderman Lentz. Aye. Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Aldermen Patel. Aye. Aldemann Fader.

Aye.

Mayor

Harris. Aye. Okay. Mr. City Manager, the IT agreement.

This is a contract renewal for technology services to be provided by the City of Clayton to the City of Brentwood. on a contract basis. The previous three-year intergovernmental agreement for technology services expires on February 1, 2023. We have developed the attached renewal agreement that outlines the services to be provided by Clayton and the cost to be paid by Brentwood. Under the current agreement, the City of Brentwood pays 35% of Clayton's total cost to operate our IT departments. Since the start of the current agreement in 2020, we have tracked our activities and time spent supporting each city. We also provide this particular service to the City of Richmond Heights. This data was taken into consideration, and this new agreement will lower the fees that the City of Brentwood will pay to 31%. We have also budgeted a small contingency for unknown items which may come up throughout the year. The approval of this agreement will initially extend our technology services contract for an additional 18 months. Upon expiration of the initial term, this agreement will automatically renew for an additional three-year term with fees being reassessed at that time. The City of Brentwood will have its first reading of this agreement at their January 3rd, 2023 meeting. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve the attached ordinance authorizing the City Manager to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Brentwood for Clayton to provide technology services. And the other thing I'll point out with the partnership with Richmond Heights is right now Brentwood and Richmond Heights have contract terms that don't match. And the way the formula is set up is basically the three cities split the cost of those services. The intent of the initial 18-month period is to get Richmond Heights and Brentwood on the same contractual schedule so that if one of these cities was to make a material change, it would change the cost for the other cities. We can talk about that, negotiate it, and also get it approved at the same time. So if you're wondering why we have a strange 18-month initial term, that's the reasoning behind it.

Very good. I can open the discussion. I see Larry is here, if you have questions for him. So I'll start over here.

Yeah, I guess the question I have is if we're splitting this somewhat evenly, but it would... It would surprise me if all three cities had exactly the same needs on their technology at any one time. In other words, their systems are all being renewed or some system being renewed one year versus another year or another period. So I guess I'm just, how do you get that all to

even out? Yeah. But overall,

it evens out in the end as far as system upgrades or system implementations or audio video implementations in the council chambers. It evens out. We track all of this in a few different places. We have our own time management system. where we track exactly what we do each day from what city we spend our time in. Our project management platform, we use SharePoint, we go back by, you know, city by city, see how much time we're spending there. And then our help desk system, we can see who's putting those calls in and who's taking up our time. And you're right, not each city requires the same amount of our IT staff, it's heavily weighted towards Clayton. Clayton has more users, Clayton has more technology than the other two cities. And that's why I believe Clayton is around a 45% is what they pay for out of the operational cost of our department right currently. And what David said about the co-terming is really helpful in that regard because what we found ourself Every time these would renew, they would possibly change by a few percentage points one way or another, but it left the other two cities to make up the difference. And so now that they're all renewing at the exact same time, we can right-size those costs across the board.

Great. Thank you.

Ira or Ira, any questions?

I don't. We've done this before many times and I like the fact that we're doing it. It's a good program. Thank you.

Yeah, we began supporting them in 2017. So six years as we're going into our seventh year with the city of Brentwood specifically. And I feel it's been pretty, it's been mutually beneficial to all participants, including the city of Richmond Heights.

Great.

Yeah, Larry already answered my question. Okay. All good. Thank

you. Is this the amount that they pay us? Is it based on a fully loaded cost? Fully loaded, you know, all the benefit, all the total. Yeah.

When we figured out I work with finance, this past agreement was with Kayla. I worked and we, you know, we consider all operational costs from benefits to salaries, even down to laptops and cell phones and our vehicles and mileage that we reimburse and everything else. We try and think of every operational cost that we have. And that's also why I forget which page it is on that agreement. There's an overhead piece that is usually three to 5% overhead and that's to cover costs that's hard to quantify like our office space that we're, but we're trying to make up for that in that overhead piece, things like that.

Okay, good. That's great. All right. I don't think there's any further questions for you so you can sit down again. Alderman Lentz.

I'll introduce bill 6937 to approve the renewal of an intergovernmental agreement to provide technology services to the city of Brentwood to be read for the first time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? City Attorney.

Bill number 6937, first reading, an ordinance authorizing an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Brentwood, with the City of Clayton to provide technology services to the City of Brentland.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

I'll move the Board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill 6937 on the day of its introduction.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right, let the minutes reflect. The board has given unanimous consent.

I'll introduce Bill 6937 to approve the renewal of an intergovernmental agreement to provide technology services to the City of Brentwood to be read for the second time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? All right, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6937, second reading and consideration for adoption. An ordinance authorizing an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Brentwood for the city of Clayton to provide technology services to the city of Brentward.

Alderman Lentz.

Aye.

Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Aldermen Buce. Aye. Aldemann Gary Feder.

Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Aldermen Buce. Aye. Aldemann Fader.

Aye.

Mayor Harris. Aye.

Thank you. Okay. The lockers at the outdoor pool.

Yes, the Shaw Park Aquatic Center was renovated in 2003, at which time new lockers were installed on the locker rooms, pool deck, and the lifeguard office. These lockers are approximately 20 years old and in need of replacement. In some cases, the lockers are missing doors and hinges are failing, both of which use parts that are no longer available for repairing the lockers. Approximately 88% of the current lockers in each locker room measure 12 by 12. and all lockers on the pool deck are 12 by 12 as well. Staff often hears from users that the size is too small to store their belongings. In addition, each public locker requires a fee of 25 cents per use. Due to the cost and inconvenience, many participants simply leave their belongings on the pool deck or in unlocked lockers. Staff agrees that a phenolic, I guess is how you say this, I'm going to say it's a plastic-like material Yeah, there we go. With a keyless lock feature is the best solution for lockers at the Shell Park Aquatic Center. The material is more durable than metal lockers in a pool environment and a reconfigured layout will provide a better size lockers for storage. In addition, each locker offers either a combination code that can be reset with each user free of charge or the ability to bring your own lock. Grid is the provider of these lockers with keyless entry in the St. Louis area. They also participate in SourceWell, which is a nationwide purchasing organization for public sector procurement that offers an extensive portfolio of solutions and partnerships. As a result, they have provided a bid for the project, factoring in a 20% discount from the normal price of their products. The full project scope includes removal and disposal of the existing lockers in the locker rooms, pool deck, and lifeguard office, as well as installation of the new lockers in these areas. The project should take approximately one to two weeks to complete. Funding for this project has been included in the city's IRF for 2023 in the amount of $81,600. The total cost of the project will be $73,817. It is recommended that we include a 5% contingency of $3,690 to be used to cover unforeseen expenses. Staff recommends that the Board of Alderman approve an ordinance allowing for the purchase and installation of new lockers at the Shaw Park Aquatic Center through grid and the amount of $73,817 plus a contingency of $3,690. And Tony Searing, our director of Parks and Recreation is here this evening if you have any questions about the project.

Very good. All right, we'll start over here and open the discussion. Any questions for Tony? Ira, questions?

Well, I don't, we covered it last night on Parks and Rec, so I don't have any questions here.

Okay, very good.

Tony, I was just going to ask, are the lockers going to be different shapes like they are at the center?

Yes, they will be different shapes. They'll be larger. So there will actually be fewer of them, but they're not being used as frequently, but there'll be a better size that you can fit an actual bag in as opposed to trying to cram something in a 12 by 12 box.

But will all the lockers be uniform in size? Yes. Yes. Sorry. Okay. Great. And yes, this is. They are in bad need of replacement. Yeah.

Good.

I had one more. I did have one more question, Mayor.

Go ahead.

Tony, do you know, I mean, you know, the prior lockers or the future prior lockers required a 50 cent payment for the use of the lockers, correct?

It was a quarter.

Oh, quarter even?

Yes.

Do you happen to know on any annual basis what we actually did receive from those quarters?

I do. It's been getting less and less over the last several years, and it's less than $200. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

It used to be

quite a bit more than that, but yeah, it's not substantial. Had you considered a price

increase

because they're new? No, we're really trying to encourage people to lock their valuables. So we're giving them the either combination code or there are some that you can put your own lock on, but we want to encourage people to secure their belongings. Yes, I

understand. So just to be clear, there will not be a fee to use? Correct. It'll be like at the center? Yes. Great, thank you.

You're welcome. Okay, any other discussion or questions?

I just want to say, I really like your thinking on this. This is really a smart way to go. So I appreciate that.

Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you, Tony. Okay, Alderman Lentz.

I'll introduce Bill 6938 to approve the purchase and installation of lockers at the Shaw Park Aquatic Center to be read for the first time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? City Attorney.

Bill number 6938, first reading an ordinance authorizing an agreement for purchase and installation of walkers at Shaw Park Aquatic Centre.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

I'll move the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill 6938 on the day of its introduction.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, let the minutes reflect. The board has given unanimous consent.

I'll introduce Bill 6938 to approve the purchase and installation of lockers at the Shaw Park Aquatic Center to be read for the second time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? All right, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6938, second reading and consideration for adoption. An ordinance authorizing an agreement for purchase and installation of lockers at Shaw Park Aquatic Center.

Alderman Lentz?

Aye.

Alderman Berkowitz?

Aye.

Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Aldermen Buse? Aye. Aldemann Gary Feder? Aye.

Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Aldermen Buse? Aye. Aldemann Fader? Aye.

Mr. City Manager, the Police Department Training Room.

Yes, this project will construct a permanent onsite training space for the police department to conduct training exercises at 10 South Brentwood. The design of the space, which is located in the lower level of the police building was coordinated between the police department and public works facilities division in 2022. During design there were modifications made to enhance the functionality of the space for conversion to use as a classroom setting. as well as modifications to the HVAC system that added to the estimated cost. Two bids were opened on November 14th, 2022 and Pinnacle Contracting submitted the lowest responsive responsible base bid in the amount of $98,213. This project was placed on hold temporarily due to COVID in 2020 and was funded in the fiscal year 2022 budget at $84,000. The increase in construction prices has resulted in an overage. Therefore, an adjustment to the fiscal year 2023 budget may be requested to cover the increase. So that's something we'll monitor as we move forward. This is contained within the capital improvement plan. So we'll see how other projects, if there's savings and we can make up the difference there. If not, this will be part of a future budget amendment. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve the ordinance authorizing a contract with Pinnacle Contracting for construction of the Police Department Training Room in the amount of $98,213 plus a contingency of $10,000 to cover expenditures to correct unknown issues that become apparent during the project. And Chief Smith is here to answer any questions you have about the project or the facility.

All right, I'll open the discussion and I'll start over here. Any questions?

Is the I guess i'm confused about how the training room and works as a classroom is it does the training room have equipment in it, and that has to be moved in order to make it into a classroom.

Yeah, so it's going to be an open floor with mats, rustling mats on it. But we're also going to be able to roll those mats out, roll them up, and then move desks in there and seating. We plan on hosting training with other agencies. That's one of the things, bringing instructors in for the defensive tactics type training we utilize. We also have that simulator now. and that'll be down in that room as well.

So I guess that's what I was thinking is that the bigger equipment, like the simulator, isn't going to be in the way of the classroom. It's just...

Yeah, the simulator is just a screen with a projector and there's a computer attached to it. That's going to be easy to move out of the way. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Ira, any questions for Chief?

yeah chief um so was there not a we didn't have a training room there was no facility at the department for training i mean

no there wasn't one uh put into our current station so we um we used we're currently using a an unfinished room we improvised and found an unfinished room unfortunately it's next to larry's office and so the walls are pretty thin and he hears all the grunting and yelling and during the training. So there's that issue. Also, that current room doesn't have electricity in there. We have to run cables out the hallway for the simulator. So it's an unfinished room that nobody found a use for when we moved into our current location.

Okay. Thanks.

Good question. Bridget,

anything? Becky. I'm just glad we're getting you a room that is more suited to your value and skills.

Sure.

Thank

you.

Well said. Alderman Gary Feder.

Well said. Alderman Fader.

I enjoyed my tour of the facility in the past. And I've seen the space you use. And so I'm sure you need a new one. So I'm excited you're going to get it.

That's right. You got to see the simulator. Is that correct? That's

great.

Okay, I would just say if anybody would like to experience the simulator, it's very fun and a little scary. You should take the Citizens Academy police training. I probably have the title of that wrong.

Well, it's Citizens Academy,

yes. Yeah, you should do it. When is the next one?

We run that from September through November.

Okay, so you have time to think about it and get up your courage. Yeah, it's great. All right, moving on then. Alderman Lentz.

I'll introduce Bill 6939 to approve a construction contract for the police department training room to be read for the first time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6939, first reading an ordinance approving a construction contract with Pinnacle Contracting Incorporated for the police department trading room.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

I'll move the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill 6939 on the day of its introduction.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Okay, I'll let the minutes reflect. The board has given unanimous consent.

I'll introduce Bill 6939 to approve a construction contract for the police department training room to be read for the second time by title only.

Any discussion? Sorry, we did that simultaneously. Okay. Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6939, second reading and consideration for adoption, an ordinance approving a construction contract with Pinnacle Contracting Incorporated for the Police Department Training Room.

Alderman Lentz?

Aye.

Alderman Berkowitz? Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Aldermen Butel? Aye. Aldemann Gary Feder?

Alderman Berkowitz? Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Aldermen Butel? Aye. Aldemann Fader?

Aye.

Mayor Harris? Aye.

Thank you. Okay. Finally, we are getting to the fire department. Mr. City Manager.

All right. The station alerting system is designed to utilize the digital data signals from the new computer-aided dispatcher CAD system at East Central Dispatch. Prior to any audible tone, a digital data packet will be sent to the fire station to pre-alert and dispatch crews. This system segregates alerts for the ambulance, ladder, engine, and chiefs. Recently, East Central Dispatch has updated their CAD system. With this upgrade comes the ability for new technology for receiving the request for emergency services. The information received from dispatch will be in a computer-generated voice tone, so the firefighter is able to hear and understand the information being relayed. The fire station alerting system allows for an automated dispatch message, and the selection and generation of tones is also an automated process. Overall, the automated system reduces the reliance on the primary fire dispatcher to select the appropriate tone and verbally announce the call for service. Through the equipment replacement fund, $110,000 has been budgeted for this project. The cost of the hardware and installation in this contract is $108,646.65. Staff recommends that the ordinance be approved. And Chief Rhodes and other members of the fire department are here this evening if you have any questions.

Glad to see you all here, by the way. Glad you came. Yeah, anybody, I'll go around. Any questions for the chief or anyone else? No, no. Ira, questions? No. No questions. Okay. It looks like a slam dunk then. Alderman

Lentz. I'll introduce Bill 6940 to approve the purchase of the fire station alerting system to be read for the first time by title only.

Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Okay.

I'll move the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill 6940 on the day of its introduction.

Second.

My turn. Oh,

I'm sorry.

Sorry.

Mr. City Attorney. I'm sorry we skipped you.

That's all perfectly all right. Bill number 6940, first reading an ordinance approving an agreement for purchase of a fire station alerting system and installation thereof.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Now I'll move the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill 6940 on the day of its introduction.

And I'll second it again.

Oh, good. All those in favour? Aye. Opposed? All right, let the minutes reflect. The board has given unanimous consent.

I'll introduce Bill 6940 to approve the purchase of a fire station alerting system to be read for the second time by title only.

Second. Discussion? Okay, Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6940, second reading in consideration for adoption and ordinance approving an agreement for purchase of a firestation alerting system and installation thereof.

Alderman Lentz.

Aye.

Alderman Berkowitz.

Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Aldewoman Buse. Aye. Aldowoman Patel. Aye. Aldermen Gary Feder.

Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Aldewoman Buse. Aye. Aldowoman Patel. Aye. Aldermen Fader.

Aye. Aldeman

Lentz. All right, done deal. Mr. City Manager, the CCF MOU.

Yes, the City of Clayton has an agreement with the Clayton Community Foundation or CCF that went into effect on April 27th, 2010. It was subsequently amended July 12th, 2016. and again on March 23rd, 2021. The current agreement contains a funding provision stating that CCF will be expected to incur 75% of all costs associated with the administrator for fiscal year 2023 and 100% of all such costs thereafter. The restated agreement being considered this evening would provide for continued contributions from the city of Clayton to the Clayton Community Foundation through fiscal year 2025. The requested contribution would be approximately $50,000 in fiscal year 2023 and is projected to increase by 3% annually in both fiscal year 24 and fiscal year 25. Half of the contribution would go towards the executive director's salary for work performed solely for the city. This would include 10 hours of work per week related to research, grant writing, involvement with the Hanley House or other special projects. The other half of the contribution would operational expenses such as insurance, service fees, utilities, supplies and licenses. No portion of the contribution would be directly utilized for the solicitation of donations to CCF. Section 8.3 is also new to the agreement and clarifies the roles of both entities. Staff recommends approval of the attached ordinance and Alex Elmstead, Executive Director of CCF appears to be online.

Okay, very good. I'll open the discussion. Alderman Lentz, any questions or comments about this?

No, I think it's a good move forward. I like the fact that we've got an end date to separate them. And I feel good about the way we've separated and delineated the roles that Alex is going to play for the

city. Ira?

Yeah, it's a reasonable request. I just think, look at the history of CCF and our relationship with them. And I think as a fledgling, I think the city participated quite a bit more in their operations. And I think that that has become less and less and less over the years. And so I think this is a reasonable request and I'm in favor of it.

Bridget, anything? Yeah. Okay, over here.

Okay, great. Well, yeah, I just want to say thank you to the CCF for all the work they do on behalf of the city, enhancing our city. A lot of things we have in place would not be possible without their hard work. And so I'm happy to support this as well. And so all the minutes.

I'm pleased to introduce Bill 6941 to approve amending and restating the Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Clayton and the Clayton Community Foundation to be read for the first time by title only.

Second. Any discussion? Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6941, first reading in ordinance approving an amended and restated Memorandum Of Understanding between the City Of Clayton and the

All those in favor.

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, very good.

I'll move the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill 6941 on the day of its introduction. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, let the minutes reflect the board has given unanimous consent.

Then I'll introduce Bill 6941 to approve amending and restating the memorandum of understanding between the City of Clayton and the Clayton Community Foundation. To be read for the second time by title only. Second.

Any discussion? City Attorney.

Bill number 6941, second reading and consideration for adoption. An ordinance approving an amended and restated memorandum of understanding between the City of Clayton and the Clayton Community Foundation.

Alderman Lentz.

Aye.

Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderawoman Buse. Aye. Alderna Patel. Aye. Alderman Gary Feder? Aye. Mayor Harris?

Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderawoman Buse. Aye. Alderna Patel. Aye. Alderman Fader? Aye. Mayor Harris?

Aye. All right. Mr. City Manager, Bill number 6942, IRF.

Yes, it is the last ordinance of the evening. At the Board of Aldermen meeting on September 27th, 2022, the Board approved ordinance number 6775, approving a memorandum of understanding between the City of Clayton, the International Association of Firefighters Local 2665, and the Eastern Missouri Coalition of Police Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 15 for specified pension enhancements. The enhancements include a one-time backdrop, which is a deferred retirement option program, a forward drop, and the purchase of military service credits. Per RSMO 105.665, the city engaged the services of Buck, the plan's actuary, to develop a cost statement for the proposed enhancements, which was available for public inspection for the required 45-day period. Under the current plan, the anticipated employer costs on January 1st, 2023 is $738,818, which is 9.84% of covered payroll. With the enhancement, the anticipated employer cost on January 1st 2023 is $800,054, which totals 11.15% of covered payroll. This results in an increase in total employer costs of $61,236. A 10-year employer cost was provided in the packet. Staff recommends approval of the Uniformed Employee Retirement Fund plan restatement and inclusion of the one-time backdrop forward drop and purchase of military service credits and to the uniform employee's pension plan as drafted by the city's pension plan attorney. The one thing I would point out is we talked about it being cost neutral quite a bit. The one thing that this doesn't capture while we talk about the costs is also the associated savings with this type of program typically, or actually in order to be eligible, an employee would have to be here for a long period of time. Those employees are typically at the high end of your pay scale. And then when they take the drop, when they elect to do that retire at that point, that position is backfilled with somebody that's at the beginning of the range, which results in savings. So that additional $61,000 that we anticipate for this year, if we have individuals that utilize that backdrop, we will actually... The web's doing the math. All right. But we should be able to recover a lot, if not all of that amount just through that attrition. So just wanted to point that out. And we do have Karen Dilber in case there are any questions,

our

director of finance online this evening.

Very good. I'll open the discussion and I'll go around.

Just like to say that I know this has been going on for a long time and I'm glad we're finally getting it done.

Alderman Berkowitz? Same here. Yes. Any questions, comments over here? Yep. Okay, very good. Well, I just want to say we appreciate all the hard work that you guys do every day. And we're thrilled to give you the benefits that we are able to. And again, glad you came to visit our meeting. Yeah. All right. No further comments. Alderman Lentz.

It's a pleasure to introduce Bill 6942 to approve the Uniform Employee Retirement Fund plan revisions to be read for the first time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? City Attorney.

Bill number 6942, first reading and ordinance amending the city of Clayton uniformed employees retirement plan and trust by including a one-time offering of a backdrop deferred retirement option program, a forward drop and a purchase of military service credits and approving a restatement of the pension document.

All right. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Sorry, any opposed? Let the minutes reflect the board is giving unanimous consent. No?

You don't need that yet. In a minute.

Oh, you said all those in favor. Okay, yes, go ahead. First move.

Give unanimous consent. I'm

skipping.

I'll move that the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill 6942 on the day of its introduction.

All those in favor? Aye. Sorry, there's a delay here. I'm sorry. Let the minutes reflect. The board has given unanimous consent.

I'll now introduce Bill 6942 to approve the Uniform Employee Retirement Fund plan revisions to be read for the second time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? To the attorney.

Bill number 6942, second reading and consideration for adoption. an ordinance amending the City of Clayton Uniformed Employees Retirement Plan and Trust by including a one-time offering of a backdrop, deferred retirement option program, a forward drop and purchase of military service credits, and approving a restatement of the pension document.

Alderman Lentz. Aye. Alderman Berkowitz.

Aye.

Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Aldermen Buse. Aye. Aldemar Patel. Aye. Aldeman Gary Feder.

Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Aldermen Buse. Aye. Aldemar Patel. Aye. Aldeman Fader.

Aye. Mayor Harris. Aye. All right, last but not least, a motion for disposal of record.

Yes, it is the recommended guideline of the Secretary of State to formally approve the disposition of records at the Board of Aldermen level and to include a list which describes the record series, including quantity to be disposed, the manner of destruction, and the destruction date. A list of records from the Fire Department and Planning Department was included in the packet. Based on the board's past discussions, staff has reviewed the records and confirmed that these materials meet the retention schedule set forth by the Secretary of State and that these records are no longer needed by staff. We have also verified that this list does not contain any records we would consider to be of a historical nature. And following the board's request that a method of disposal be procured that assures maximum security and confidentiality of the records, The city has arranged for a company to come to City Hall and shred the records on site. This will occur in a timely manner upon approval of the motion by the Board of Aldermen. Staff recommends that the Board of Alderman approve a motion to dispose the records as listed in conformance with the Missouri Secretary of State general records retention schedule.

Very good. I'll open the discussion. Any discussion?

Have we ever had a request for something that we've already destroyed?

No, but we've had a request for something that was destroyed in the tornado, during the tornado. A few years ago, we had off-site storage out in Earth City, and that building that it was stored in was destroyed, and so we have records.

Many years ago, we accidentally destroyed some historical stuff that certain people wanted, but that's long behind us. Ira, any questions?

I'm imagining that we have less and less to destroy, right? Are we going more and more paperless, especially in our planning department?

Yes. All of our permitting is now online in the planning department. So we've been pushing people that way since the beginning of the pandemic. So that creates an electronic file, which is great. There's still some requirements for hard copies and we'll continue to comply with those regulations. But as soon as... Those records no longer need to be kept. We can dispose of the paper copies and retain the digital files. Same is true with public works where a lot of that has gone online. So everywhere we can go to online permitting, we're making that move. And we've actually had it implemented now for going on three years. So we should get to a point I would think in about five years or so where all of those records will be kept digitally. So anything we're getting rid of as far as paper copies, it's not going to matter so much.

Thank you. Questions?

Susan? Gary? There

seems to be a hand up on the screen. Oh,

I'm sorry. Well, all right. Thank you. Mr. Berland, do you have a question for us on this?

Yes. I was wondering what the cost was. The cost for the shredding? Yeah, the shredding and the approval. Yeah, how much this- For

shredding you mean or?

It's associated with this disposal of records. I don't know if it's simply the shredding or if they have to be stored or whatever. Is there a cost associated with that and what it was?

Yes, Mr. Berlin, there is a cost associated. We don't have that cost until we know how many boxes that we have. They go by boxes and barrels. because they'll empty the boxes into the containers and then shred them. So it's per container.

Okay, so is there any idea of the range are you talking about?

It can range from $42 per container.

I understand that, but I'm talking about the item. Several items have come up tonight and there hasn't been a budget connected with them, the lockers at the pool and so forth. And I'm just wondering how much the aldermen are approving for these various things.

We do budget for shredding each year. I believe the budget that we carry, it's per department. For instance, for the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen's budget for shredding, it's usually about $750 a year. Thank you. And

Mr. Burland, every item that was presented tonight is... is already budgeted, has been already budgeted either in our operating budget or our capital improvement budget. That's most of what we talked about tonight. For example, the lockers at the pool. So those are all budgeted items and they're all, most of those are projected to be a little bit less than what we budgeted. So we don't do anything without a budget.

Thank you very much. That sounds great.

Okay, very good. And Mr. Winkleman, you have your hand up. Any questions for us?

We want to share an incredible journey of trying to understand how Clayton has evolved physically and how I got fascinated with the whole process issue of approvals of planning projects that have built so many projects and Clayton, they go from pure lead to, you know, the project that's on foresight point, you know, and the planning submissions and the laws that have been associated with them. And it has been so difficult. You all know how well there was, there were no documents available. You would have to go into the planning office and there would be these 11 by 17 binders, but you really couldn't see it. You really couldn't copy it. You couldn't take it home and you couldn't find a way to defend Maryland school and try to find a way to make it a public park. and you couldn't find the documents to show that the Centene proposal was totally incorrect when it was developing a circular drive drop-off. So this discussion deals with the incredible intersection of let's call it your laws and the availability, the openness, the transparency of that to other citizens. And this is gonna be on your doorstep next week right on Merrimack. So, and I, sort of admired the money that you were giving to firefighters to have a 3D imagery of every building, but I'm not sure how that moves into, I'll call it energizing our planning community, which is our public about where we are and what we might consider and how it impacts our previous loss and what we really want to create.

Well, Mr. Winkleman, I thank you for those comments. And I think you'll find our comprehensive planning process very interesting and right up your alley. And so I hope you'll pay attention to our notices and, um, be part of that discussion. Thanks so much.

I do want to mention that no zoning documents or anything associated with the zoning approval is contained in this request to dispose records. So anything that goes through the zoning process is retained. Also, any of those permits or documents associated with a building that's newly constructed, we're required to retain those throughout the existence of that building. So as long as the building is standing, we have to retain those original documents. So none of that is impacted by this particular disposal of records. So anything that goes through the zoning process or has been built in the city or is being built in the city, those are records that we'll keep in perpetuity.

Thank you. Very good. All right. Any other discussion? All right. Alderman Lentz.

I'll move to approve the disposal of records as listed.

Second.

discussion all those in favor

aye

opposed okay very good that completes our business i think um that was a long agenda thank you everyone who came to share and uh answer questions and all that good stuff appreciate it i think at this point we typically go around i have a little round table of what people have been doing I suspect a lot of people have been celebrating the holidays, but we'll go around starting with Alderman Lentz.

I can't think of anything other than a sustainability, getting ready for a sustainability meeting, but so nothing really to report.

Okay, very good. Alderman Berkowitz, anything to report?

Yeah, we had a Parks and Rec meeting last night. And the subject for most of the meeting was the pool and some of the issues they have with the pool at this point. One of the biggest issues is the availability of of lifeguards to actually man the pool after, um, mid August. And, um, so there was a lively discussion about how to deal with that. And there was some resolutions that were, I believe that were voted on and passed. Um, but the bottom line is, is that after labor day, um, keeping the pool open for lap swimmers apparently is, is really not possible. not presently anyway. And so, and if Tony wants to speak to that right now, that would be fine. But I think she knows more about it than I do. But that was the subject for last night's discussion. And I think we came to a, we're at a crossroads when it comes to the pool and keeping it open after Labor Day.

Interesting. Probably need some time to work on that. But yeah, we'd love to know. I'm sure we all know a lot of people who love that lap swimming in the mornings. So OK, thank you.

Thank you. We've had a couple of plan commission meetings since the last time we've all met, but a lot of what We approved tonight was before the plan commission and we've talked a lot about about a comp plan in the last couple meetings. And I also just wanted to give a shout out to Tony and staff at the Center of the basketball season started in earnest with games last weekend and they did a great job, it was. remarkable to see that many people back at the center and really cool. They've started parents and people, actual spectators for games have to come in with a QR code, which I think was a great way to just make sure that the center stays a little bit more secure on those game days because people were just walking in saying, yeah, I'm here to say so. But overall, I think it was great and it was well received. So again, it's just exciting to see the center so busy and doing well again.

Very good. Alderman Lumpius?

Yes, I was with Ira last night and Tony with the Parks and Rec and the lifeguard discussion in the pool schedule was the primary topic and also mentioned It was also discussed that the Maryland Park Grant had come through, and that was going out to bid next month, which is great. And that the Anderson Park landscaping signage will be up this spring.

Great. Yeah, the only thing I want to share about is a program that I went to on January 5th at the Kirkwood Public Library. Vivian David Gipson is a local author, and she spoke about a book that she wrote called On Becoming a Mill Creek Child. And, or no, the book is called The Last Children of Mill Creek. And the event was called what I just said. Anyways. She was super engaging as a presenter. And the story of Mill Creek is, seems to be very similar to the story of our own Black neighborhood and others in the region that were, you know, targeted for destruction during the time of urban renewal. And so... It was just very interesting and a really great program.

Great. Yeah, the only thing I want to share about is a program that I went to on January 5th at the Kirkwood Public Library. Vivian Gibson is a local author, and she spoke about a book that she wrote called On Becoming a Mill Creek Child. And, or no, the book is called The Last Children of Mill Creek. And the event was called what I just said. Anyways. She was super engaging as a presenter. And the story of Mill Creek is, seems to be very similar to the story of our own Black neighborhood and others in the region that were, you know, targeted for destruction during the time of urban renewal. And so... It was just very interesting and a really great program.

Great. Alderman Gary Feder, any?

Great. Alderman Fader, any?

Last Thursday, I attended the community conference that the Keeley organization put on for the community as part of the PUD process in connection with their proposed apartment project, which is at Merrimack and North Brentwood in Pershing. and I think the community who attended were generally receptive. That project seems to be moving in a good direction, and I guess we'll be hearing more about it in the next few months, but I thought that was very positive, and we have an interesting meeting of the Community Equity Commission this Thursday at 5 30. I think we have seven religious leaders, people of various churches or other denominations who will be attending to talk to the commission about their efforts uh in terms of diversity and equities it should be an interesting discussion i'm sure anybody else on the board or anyone else who's in the public who's interested in attending i think it will be a good discussion and that's here this thursday at 5 30. very

good thank you i just have a couple things one is um just to build on what you said becky about milk the mill creek area um first of all one of the um One of the people really involved in sort of commemorating that and what's going on in the city there is Gwen Moore, and she serves on our Commemorative Landscape Task Force. So there's been a lot of crossover of ideas and insight that relate to our commemoration of Black Neighborhood. And she's really been a big part of that effort. And then if you have not been to the new soccer stadium downtown, go over there and check it out because they have done an art installation that is really amazing to honor Mill Creek. And one of the coolest things, it's art sculptures and all that, and the names and addresses of all the people who live there. It's pretty impactful when you see it. And I thought one of the most impactful things was they reserved space for about, I can't remember, but about four or five of actual footprints where those brownstone or townhomes were right along Market Street. And so it's a little grass yard with a bench and it has the address of the family that lived there. And it really is, it's really, they did a great job is what I wanna say. And it's very impactful and it's worth going down there to see it. Secondly, let's see. I want to report that I have been interviewed by the Globe, the high school paper, and they wanted to talk to me about housing and specifically affordable housing. So their articles are generally very long and very detailed. And I know that they were trying to contact the chair of our equity commission about this, and hopefully they succeeded. And so that's nice that there's some interest there. When did we go to the housing seminar? Was that before the last meeting? So did we already talk about that? Okay, we did. Okay. So nevermind. And then I did a little, I did get to meet with some Cub Scouts last night and talk to them about government. And they had lots of questions and they were unbelievably well-informed. This is fifth graders. So they're doing a little, a badge about government and how it works. And so anyway, and laws and all that good stuff. So that was fun. Those are always really fun. So yeah, that's all I have, I think. I

was interviewed by the Globe about trash.

Oh, trash. Well,

sounds like your interview is probably a little bit more enlightening, but I talked about trash.

So in Clayton, obviously. Well, I found for my interview, David sent me the presentation that was done at the Equity Commission earlier this year or last year. And I found that information very, very helpful in terms of trying to help them understand what the issues are and what cities can do. And there are a lot of things cities can do to forward this notion of what I like to call now attainable housing, the word I learned. So, all right. Anything else from our city manager?

I will just say this is my favorite kind of agenda because I think every department was represented with an item tonight. I just want to say staff and department heads are all doing a great job and it's all reflected in what you see this evening. So thank you all very much.

Very good comment. Yes. The best of the best. That's what we've got. All right. I think with that, we'll take a motion to adjourn.

I'll move to adjourn.

Second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Very good. Good night, everybody.