July 26, 2023 — Meeting Transcript

Okay, well welcome to our meeting of July 25th and will the city clerk please call

the roll. Alderman Berkowitz. Here. Alderwoman McAndrew. Here. Alderman Buse. Here. Aldermen Gary Feder.

the roll. Alderman Berkowitz. Here. Alderwoman McAndrew. Here. Alderman Buse. Here. Aldermen Fader.

Here.

Aldeman Rick Hummell. Here. Mayor Harris. Here. City Manager David Gipson. Here. City Attorney O'Keefe. Here. Thank you.

Aldeman Hummel. Here. Mayor Harris. Here. City Manager Gibson. Here. City Attorney O'Keefe. Here. Thank you.

Okay, now's the time in our agenda when we ask for public requests and petitions from the audience, either the online audience or here in person. Don't see anybody here in person and I don't see anyone online. We have attendees. Can you switch to that? And anybody, we do have some online. Do we have any comments or questions from our attendees on Zoom about things that are not on our agenda tonight? Okay. Seeing none, we can move on to the consent agenda and we'll take the city manager report. Want to say anything? Just a

motion and a vote.

Okay. I just want to call out just so it gets some attention that in the consent agenda is the recommendation for the Philippine village recommendation. And so again, I'm very excited that this has come through. I'm glad that y'all support it and it'll be great to get moving on actually completing it. Okay, so we need a motion.

I'd like to move to approve the consent agenda with the items listed.

Second. Any discussion?

Okay, it's a roll call. Alderman Berkowitz? Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Alderman Buse? Aye. Aldermen Gary Feder? Aye. Alderman, Mayor

Okay, it's a roll call. Alderman Berkowitz? Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Alderman Buse? Aye. Aldermen Fader? Aye. Alderman, Mayor

Harris. Thank

you.

And Jonna, I see you're listening. So congratulations and thanks again for all the hard work on that recommendation. Now we're into the city manager report.

Yes, the Board of Aldermen approved an agreement with the School District of Clayton for the provision of school resource officers or SROs on July 11th. The district is requesting that the agreement be amended to remove any references to a fourth or fifth SRO. All other provisions and terms remain unchanged in the attached documents and staff recommends approval of the ordinance. So just a simple amendment

here. Any discussion? Okay.

Alderman Berkowitz. I'd like to introduce bill number 6984 to approve an agreement with the school district of Clayton for school resource officers to be read for the first time by title only.

Second. Any discussion? Mr. City Attorney.

Bill number 6984, first reading and ordinance approving a police services agreement for school resource officers with the Clayton School District.

All those in favor? Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? All right.

I move that the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of bill number 6984 and the day of its introduction.

Second. All those in favor?

Aye. Any

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

Let's introduce Bill number 6984 to approve an agreement with the School District of Clayton for school resource officers to be read for the second time by title only.

Second. Any discussion? City Attorney.

Bill number 6984, second reading in consideration for adoption, an ordinance approving a police services agreement for school resource officers with the Clayton School District.

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

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

Aye.

Aldeman Rick Hummell.

Aldeman Hummel.

Aye.

Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you. Okay. Would you like to report

on the art project there?

Yes, so this is public art for the PUD that's at 8220 and 8264 Forsyth Boulevard, so over there on the Forsyth curve. PUDs are approved through a point system with points awarded for different public benefits in exchange for relief or modification of certain zoning and subdivision regulations. the ordinance that governs the development the public art was awarded three points out of a possible five and it was described as public art on the property shall include at a minimum a monumental piece at the entry and several complementary pieces along the front pedestrian walk a specific plan or rendering of the public art shall be submitted to the public art advisory committee and the board of aldermen for approval In the event such artwork does not merit three points and the applicant does not make timely changes, the PUD development plan shall be reconsidered by the Board of Aldermen. The development plan approved by the Planning Commission and Board of Aldermens includes one substantial piece near the main entrance and two corresponding pieces along the public sidewalk. The public art plan proposed by the applicant identifies three similar art pieces. A larger sculpture is proposed at the north end of the property adjacent to the entrance. Two smaller sculptures are proposed south of the entrance adjacent to Forsyth Boulevard and the residential patios. The sculptures designed by Jeremy Thomas are proposed to be inflated steel of varying colors. The Public Art Advisory Committee met with representatives of the development on Friday, July 21st to discuss the concept and staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve the public art installation as submitted. And I don't know if the applicant is online or

not. I can't tell. Is the applicant in the Zoom audience? Apparently not. Okay. Can I ask if the PAC was unanimous in their recommendation of this art?

Yeah,

yeah, I was there. Okay, great. So it was I mean, yeah, I mean, it was a it was a great discussion. Meredith, Meredith, Meredith McKinley was there with via partnership. And then Willie Shearburn was there who I guess works with the via partnership. Jacob Reby was there who's or Jake Reby, who's the chair of Sally Pinchard was there, Dwyer Brown was there. And then Steve, Steven Mether was there with Midas. So yeah, everybody was really in agreement that this was, these were some cool new pieces. You know, it's really something different for the city. I would say the only, just in terms of like what this artist does, he actually welds the steel almost like origami. It's really interesting. And he infuses high pressure and then like somehow forms it into the structures that you see. So really the only, I asked because I mean, I'm obviously no art expert, but I was, I thought it was kind of cool. The two of the colors that he picked were blue and orange, which are the Clayton colors, but I don't think he, it was, it's my understanding. He did not pick those colors at all because they were were for Clayton. They're just the colors that he picked. But yeah, there was a good discussion. I think everybody was in agreement that these were really pieces of art um really the only concern that people expressed was um the yellow piece is very you know front and center at the um door which is great the other pieces people were a little concerned they were maybe a little small so I think I mean in terms of like they don't want them getting lost in the landscaping um so I think they were going to discuss with the artist about you know putting them on pedestals a little bit just so they're a little bit you know, above the sidewalk rather than kind of resting on the ground. So I think there'll be some discussion with that. The artist plans to come into town, you know, when they're installed. So yeah, I mean, yes, everybody was in full agreement that these were, you know, something different too. I think that was, you know, they're a little bit different than other art pieces that are around. And so I think it will be a really nice addition to the curve. Yeah, they look like they'll be real

conversation pieces. Yeah. Okay. Well, I will open the discussion. Is there any comment from our Zoom audience? I don't see any. I'll just go in order of seniority. Ira, did you have any comments or questions about this? I did not.

Thank you.

I heard what you just said. Alderman Buse, anything? Mr. Gary Feder.

I heard what you just said. Alderman Buse, anything? Mr. Fader.

Looked good to me.

Alderman Rick Hummell.

Alderman Hummel.

Is there... Was there any discussion with the artist or representatives of artists about the relative safety of the sculpture in terms of making sure there weren't sharp edges or if somebody climbs on it or does something? I just want to make sure that somebody doesn't, just by touching it, somehow gets hurt.

Oh, I mean, no, that didn't come up. But I don't think there'll be any sharp edges at all. I think it's all, you know... it's all powder coated and I'm sure that all the edges are soft. I mean, hopefully, I mean, I would guess there would be something, there's going to be a plaque or something that says what the name of the artist is. Don't climb on it. Yes. I'm sure there'll be something like

that. The pedestal in addition to giving it better visibility and maybe is appropriate for any sculpture. It just strikes me too, to prevent small children perhaps from climbing on it or large children for that matter.

Right. I don't think so. I think it's also important. I know that the forsythia development in general, I mean, I know they have a door person. So, I mean, at least, you know, I would, yeah. I mean, I guess that question didn't per se come up, but I wouldn't imagine there's any sharp edges or anything. And this artist, we are not new. He's well into his career. I mean, they called him like kind of a mid-career artist. So he's done these kind of all over. I mean, there's some, I think there were pictures where they're kind of out in like public areas and stuff, so. He's not, he's not new to creating these at all.

I know. And I believe all of that. I just want to make sure that we've, there's so little that we can weigh in on. So just making sure that it's a safe thing is, is all that I wanted to make sure of.

Yeah. I guess I can't say that that didn't come up and I mean, I'm happy to, you know, pass that information on to Meredith McKinley, especially in the people at Midas to see if they have any response to that. But I don't think that there's any, I wouldn't imagine there'd be any concerns about that.

Okay, very good. All right, I think we can take a

motion. I move to approve the public art for 8250, Forsyth.

Second. Any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Okay, that completes that. When, when will I mean when I don't know when the project is going to be done but

that was asked as well so Steve anticipates that you know as floors get finished, perhaps late in 2024 so you know maybe the first floor people will begin to move in, I think once the construction fencing comes down so. you know hopefully late 2024 but then you know if the weather messes up but yeah i mean hopefully in the fall 2024 the construction fencing will come down and they'll be able to install them in yep before the winter or something so

okay very good okay um unless there's anything else we can go ahead with our round table we can start with ira what have you been up to

Well, I've been in Colorado now for almost a week. So I've not been up to anything there in Clayton. But I would like to just raise one thing, and that is I've had several discussions with David, and they've been very pleasant. You know, one thing that strikes me about our region is that we have a city, the city of St. Louis, that has a dispatch center that apparently is completely dysfunctional. And I think it's something that I don't know that there's anything that we can do about that in terms of helping people. But, you know, these incidents I keep reading about people having some kind of tragedy, something happening, they need help and takes over an hour for a dispatch to even respond to their call. is really, it's a reflection on the region. It's not just a reflection on the city of St. Louis. And I'm just opening for discussion at some point, not now, but at some point in time, if we can discuss maybe something that maybe we can do to help alleviate some poor woman bleeding out because they couldn't get hold of a city dispatch. And yet we had emergency services absolutely available at the same time that this was happening. Somehow, none of this makes any sense to me. And I just hope that there's something we could all maybe put our heads together. And I know we share a dispatch with other cities, but if somebody could raise the flag, I'm happy to do it. I'm just throwing that out there and it's something I've been thinking about for the last three weeks. So anyway, that's it for me though.

Um, Bridget, do you have anything to report?

Um, well, I don't need to talk about the art commission meeting because we had that this week. But prior to that, last week, we did have a planned commission ARB meeting. The conditional use permit was approved for Barcelona, they're going to go in. next to the calzone place

great

um over on foresight they'll be back um and then um there were a few other kind of small things that were discussed but um the big thing was a conceptual review um for the 111 121 south baramac which is the seven up building the county owned very dilapidated looking building so um It was you know I think you know we've all seen it a little bit, but it was it was a good conceptual discussion, I think, for the most part, plan Commission liked. What was presented in terms of the smaller. you know, the kind of the smaller tower that they're going to preserve. And then the higher tower, I think they really, I think everybody kind of liked the, they have these kind of different designs depending on the building. Um, and everybody kind of liked that. Um, and we certainly talked about all the different things that they will need to do as part of the PUD process. So overall it was a good, um, discussion, I thought. And so we'll see what happens. They seem pretty motivated to get going. The one thing that was kind of interesting was at the top of the 20-story tower, they were going to have some sort of cutout thing that would be an art installation of some kind that I guess could be viewed from afar. We weren't sure how close they'd be able to see it, but that was kind of we'll see what happened. So, but yeah. overall it was good discussion

it's good to know i'm you know we've talked about our skyline before and so i think that that's i'm glad they're considering something right

and we told them and we and it's not like they're gonna have like a branding thing on it it would be something that would be attractive um i will say i then reminded them that there are other apartment buildings and condominium buildings nearby so not to have it glow so as to um destroy the you know you know, have all kinds of light pollution to those other residential communities. But yeah, so but it was it was a good discussion.

Can I ask was this? I don't know what our process is. Is this just a preliminary discussion? Or what was the point of this?

Yeah, so conceptual hearing is something that just happens. The developer can come in and propose a project to the plan commission. There's really no public comment at all. The public could potentially ask questions, but it's really just feedback that the developer gets from plan commission arv that's it and so they're they've made no formal application to the city it's just really exactly just you know feedback from the plan commission and then you know i think for the most part if they come to the conceptual hearing they eventually make formal application but some projects don't um so yeah

thanks susan

Yeah, first I'll pick up on what Ira said that really resonates. I think that our regional responsibility, we have so much and when you hear something, especially something that's sharp, we have to take that both ethically and for our own self-preservation. We have to think regionally on a lot of things. So thanks for bringing that up, Ira. Then we had a sustainability meeting last week or so and The very, very crisp agenda covered a lot. A lot of it was touching on topics that have come up before. It was also shared with the group that we should pay attention to the MissouriEnvironmental.org site, which tracks legislation out there. And apparently there's a comment period right now for some plastics registration. I can't remember what it was, but watching just what's happening at the state level. We had an update on the soul smart application. Apparently we are pretty much done with the bronze level and it's doing a little bit more training of staff, but we're there. And then the goal would be to move us up to try to be where Kansas city is, which is at a silver level and nobody at this side of the state is there yet. The other topic then was the benchmarking. and trying to get information on building sizes and figuring out the scope of how we're doing it and what we will include in that effort. We had an update on the no idling efforts going on, trying to raise awareness on that. And the tools are all there and we just have to start enforcing it. And Suzanne Fuchs is going to bring that to the committee next time, which says what she does professionally as well. So that should be very helpful. A livable community master plan was mentioned that the survey is ready to go out. And then the hydration station grant, I believe is in or ready to be submitted. They're finalizing a list of recycling resources to be available probably on our website. And it includes the things that we don't know how to recycle, the odd things that we all have in our home. So we don't know where to take it. And there's a lot of different places that will be, I think they'll try to keep that updated. That was about it. Two issues that came up at the end with audience and committee comments were both to consider looking at the popularity and the current use of the gaslight prohibition. I think we all saw that. And as people put up the lights at our that have the gas as a questions of how much does it use and is this what we want in our city and what's the impact of it. And that led to a discussion to or just bringing up have we considered what's happening with fire pits as well and any impact on that discussions on those two are very, very short, but they were two topics that were brought up the group is very aware that they certainly are all investing in this and seem to to do the work behind getting the information for what they're going to come to the board. But I suspect we'll get some things coming our way soon.

And I apologize, I forgot, I did have a steering committee meeting this afternoon as well, which I, so that was really good. The consultants talked to the steering committee about, they kind of dived into all our prior plans and then gave the steering committee kind of a primer on each of those different plans. So They also talked to us kind of about current data and just, you know, the fact that our population has gone up about 8% which you know the county the five county region only went up about 2%. So we grew faster. I won't go in, there was a lot of different data and it was really interesting but one of the things. 44% of our population is millennials so they're between ages 2742 which I was surprised so almost half of our population and then 37% of our population, is in one person household so people living in. you know, one bedroom apartments or studios, which I thought was interesting too. But I would also just encourage everybody, the first open house is next week at the Center of Clayton where you can come in and talk to the consultants. So I don't know, I sent out an email to all the people I kind of like, you know, think would be interested or at least so just to remind them about engageclayton.com because the survey is going to go out at the end of July. So and also just to saying to people like this is a big effort, but it's really going to only be truly successful if we get lots of people to participate. So yeah, but I feel like the planning effort, it's really kind of ramping up. So it's great.

We've put out the yard signs essentially, right? So that's good. I've been seeing those. I think that's great. Right. And then this report that you're talking about, is that available for anybody to do that on our website or somewhere we can read it to whatever presentation they gave

today? I think

on

a, will they, do you think they'll put it on engageclayton.com? I'm not sure. It was an interesting presentation. Thank you.

So there's a ton of data that they've already been gathering. So we did an hour-long update today. So we took some just kind of pieces that we thought would be interesting discussion points that they summarized. We've been working with consultants after that. We kind of discussed doing a similar slideshow to what is on the Concordia and WashU site, where they'll run through the same slides they presented to the steering committee and talk over the slides and put that video online. as opposed to just throwing the slides out again. So we'll work on that in the next few weeks. And then the full dashboard with all of the data will go out for public consumption, along with the full existing conditions report. And that's targeting to be completed sometime mid-August. So a similar at Ural, the joint meeting with the planning commission and the discussion session that's coming up on your agenda, it'll be a kind of a similar style of a presentation to what the steering committee saw today.

Yeah, I'd be interested in just seeing all those numbers. Yeah. Okay, good. Wonderful. Thank you. Sorry, I forgot about that. No, no problem. Mr. Gary Feder, anything?

Yeah, I'd be interested in just seeing all those numbers. Yeah. Okay, good. Wonderful. Thank you. Sorry, I forgot about that. No, no problem. Mr. Fader, anything?

On the Community Equity Commission, I think we were aware that Dr. Bolton from WashU had at least informally announced, I think via Facebook, that she was leaving the university and going out of town. But I think just recently Andrea confirmed with her that she is in fact leaving. So that means there is a Ward 1 opening on the CEC, which we'll need to obviously address. separately on the CEC, the subcommittee, the housing subcommittee had arranged, I think I mentioned at a prior meeting to invite members of that committee as well as our police chief to meet with faculty from the Brown School, and that meeting did take place since our last meeting. It was a very, I thought, productive meeting, about an hour and 15 minutes over there at Brown. They had, I think, five different faculty members who met with us, which was pretty impressive for a turnout. A lot of interesting ideas. I think the chief got some good thoughts to pursue probably if there was any idea, and again, extremely preliminary. And of course, concerned how the chief feels about it. But one suggestion was that at some point, some consideration be given to adding as a staff member, at least on a part time basis, someone who is more of a social worker in terms of their professional expertise. in the thought that that would help deal with the issue, which was the primary topic of the unhoused in Clayton, and that someone like that might be helpful, but that there might be other things that someone who is like a part-time social worker could do, maybe provide some release from our police force from some duties. So at least that was a thought that I think will be pursued. Again, I'm interested as we go forward, the chief's take on it from a and the city manager from a personnel perspective, but an interesting concept. So it was a good meeting.

Good. Alderman Rick Hummell.

Good. Alderman Hummel.

We had the first of our series of community meetings about the Washington University and Concordia Seminary projects. In some ways I think of this as a precursor to our master plan engagement and our parks engagement. And so I think the fact that we're doing all of these yard signs now, the direct mail and other things, this outreach is paying dividends. And so I'm glad to see that we're doing that. Last evening's community engagement, neighborhood engagement was here with the Hillcrest neighborhood. We've got two more on Wednesday, two more on Thursday. So 10 neighborhoods in all will be represented. So last night's group was well attended both online and in person. And I'd summarize the, at least in my opinion, the comments in three broad areas. The first would be don't adversely affect our neighborhood and property values with this, meaning specifically don't generate more vehicular or pedestrian traffic, more noise, don't bring crime to our neighborhood. Don't erect unsightly walls. Don't have inadequate buffers. Don't tear down our big trees. And then the second set was sort of more of an opportunity, which was, I think, exciting. And I'm wondering whether other neighborhoods will see it the same way, which is. find a way to make Big Bend better by either slowing traffic or somehow making it an improved safety and overall experience for pedestrians and bikers. Washington University has put forward some offers to create improved pedestrian ways and bikeways along the Big Bend. So we'll see where that goes. And I'll let David weigh in on meeting with the county since it's a Big Bend road. A Big Bend is a county road. And then the last one, this was a small comment, but I'm we'll be curious despite David's best efforts to put forth the best planning ideas, there at least was some concern that an overlay district seems to help WashU more than it helps the residents. And so, and that's largely because WashU doesn't present any specifics. And so it's a balancing act. And so getting people comfortable with how this can work is going to be part of our, I think, engagement and process to get them there. I was also, on a separate note, pleased to see that, again, we've got these open house cards out for the master plan. I saw that we had at least some signs out in the community, but it was brought to my attention that our neighborhood didn't have a sign in it. So I don't know if that was overlooked or if that's something that could be addressed.

So...

Some people will feel slighted just in case that, so you know. Those are my comments.

Very good. Thank you. Did you want to say anything about the county? We have

our first meeting with St. Louis County tomorrow, tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock. So we're going to get together with WashU's design team, Concordia's design team, public works planning. I'll be coming in at least for that hour to sit down with them and just kind of talk through the project and get their initial feedback. Because at this point, what happens with Big Bend is an unknown whether or not there'd be a new signal at any point for the entrance to the Concordia site off of Big Bend. So we'll see how that conversation goes and we'll share that information with the public. I would imagine some improvements are going to be in order. Just don't know what those look like.

Okay, well, I don't have much, but we did welcome our new municipal judge, Judge Strom, and I went to his swearing in and He's really excited about the opportunity. I did weigh in, and I was interviewed by KSDK on the senior tax freeze. So I've gotten actually a lot of good feedback on that. I was kind of worried because we have, and I would be interested in finding out if they know how many, what's the incidence of over 62 people in our city. But a lot of great, a lot of good feedback on, yeah, yeah, we agree with you. That's, you know, so I was worried I might get some seniors calling me up, but did not. And then sort of on the heels of your meeting with the Brown School, sort of independently and kind of around the same time, I got an email from one of our residents who has been working with and is knowledgeable about the unhoused communities and groups that work with them like the St. Patrick's Center. And so we had a meeting in Chief Smith and I met with her and the head of the St. Patrick Center and talked about a lot of really good ideas that they had. And Chief has since been communicating with the St. Patrick person and who seems very willing to share, you know, volunteer to share her knowledge and skills to help. But subsequently I talked to just an exploratory conversation with the head of the president of Fontbonne. Fontbonne has a nursing school and a social work school, and just about maybe some kind of internships or some kind of collaborative program that could help our department. So we're going to follow up on that sometime in the future here and see if there are opportunities there, which if there are, we'll get everybody informed on that. but I think there's a lot of conversation right now about this topic for whatever reason. And so we'll be pursuing it in all these fronts.

If I can pick up on that a little bit, remember we had talked earlier. I know that some neighbor municipalities are sharing social work type support. The other part of that with the intern, that's a great idea. And as everyone here may be aware, the sustainability committee does have a WashU intern. that has done a lot of the research behind the proposals that they have and that those kind of type collaborations, I think are really, really great for a lot of reasons not only the work but the the connections regionally

right yeah no good point okay so i think that's that's everything you have

one more item real quick i had a conversation with matt malik about the livable communities master plan and we need a representative from the board of aldermen to be on that steering committee so just want to see if anyone's interested the first meeting will be i believe september 8th is what they're targeting that date may move a little bit If you don't want to make a decision tonight, that's fine. We just need to know here fairly soon with those dates coming up.

I'd be happy to do it. I would too, but I'd probably rather have an alderman than the mayor, I'm assuming. I'll defer if you want me to. I'm okay. Susan's on sustainability. That's probably good. Go ahead. That's terrific. I can always come and sit in. Absolutely.

Great. Okay,

great. All right. Well, I think that's everything. So thanks everybody. And we'll take a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That's a deal.