December 19, 2023 — Meeting Transcript

Okay. Well, welcome to our discussion session. Welcome CCF folks. Glad to see you here. And I think we're looking forward to the conversation. So with that, I think we can just get started with it. Is it green?

You know what? There we go. Hello, I'm Alex Elmsett. I'm the executive director of the Clayton Community Foundation. And then behind me is sitting the... Sure. Then behind me is sitting, the executive members of the board of directors of the Clayton community foundation. So I have prepared kind of a deck for us tonight, but I also wanted to just make sure that that I don't talk too much and that there's time for ample discussion on all the different points, but I'm going to go through just kind of a few items. There we go. So the biggest thing that CCF kind of embarked on in 2023 was really our awareness campaign. We celebrated our 15th anniversary in 2023 this year. So it was really defined by kind of a time-bound strategic campaign kind of aimed at increasing awareness and visibility of the foundation and its cause, why it matters, how people can get involved and support CCF. You know, one of the things that I'm always telling folks is that this organization is 15 years old. So it really only has its driver's permit and it's still learning and shaping its identity. And one of the things we focused on was hosting salons in people's homes, cultivating the neighbors and the surrounding neighborhoods. To kind of again draw awareness to the fact of the collective impact over the past 15 years, and then also promoting what we have is our Clayton neighborhoods videos which correspond to all the different histories and characteristics of Clayton. We are also able to kind of showcase different completed projects. You know, some of the things that I always hear from donors is that, you know, oh, this is really great, but the city did. It's like, well, CCF involved in many, many different projects from Chapman Plaza to a pavilion in Shaw Park for the first mural in DeMunn to many others. And then we also kind of did really targeted and enhanced and increased advertising and campaigning, not only kind of showcasing through photography and otherwise kind of the assets that we have helped produce. The other thing that we just recently passed at this last board meeting was our fundraising plan. So this correlates to kind of our strategic plan, which was also updated and kind of outdated since it was adopted in 2019. But what this does is kind of project a three-year period of annual revenues from annual funds to grants to salons to what we call our Clayton Circle giving level of donors, $1,000 and above, corporate gifts and related activities. Again, one of the things that I tell folks is that CCF receives approximately 5% of of Clayton households. So again, only 5% that really accommodates up to about 400 plus donor households. There's approximately 7,500 households total in the city of Clayton. Now, not everybody is philanthropic, so it doesn't mean that they're all giving to charitable causes. But we'd really like to, over the duration of this plan, double that to at least 10% by the end of 2026. And that includes kind of different strategies such as more of these in-home salons, kind of that one-to-one relationship with the community and with neighbors. That's really where philanthropy and giving exists. So the other piece that I'll just kind of go through, but I'm going to pause and allow either CCF board or Board of Aldermen to just kind of stop me and ask questions as I go, is I've kind of divided this into our different four pillars. And this is kind of a combination of projects that have been either ongoing for quite a long period of time, or they're in the process of really moving forward and going into their next phases. So public art on Y Down Boulevard. This is really focused on the east end. We already have the Botero sculpture on the west end. CCF Art Committee has met about this frequently on site and public engagement. CCF won a regional arts commission, so regional grant public money to do community engagement work to understand what people don't want at that site, but also doing strategic communications as it pertains to those that live there, the neighborhoods, the churches, the schools, all on the East Wydown Boulevard entrance and kind of gateway from Forest Park into Clayton. And that'll be a new commissioned artwork. And part of the process is not only to develop an RFP for that, to invite artists both locally and internationally to apply, but then also to create maquettes and have community engagement sessions, to develop a commissioned piece that is integral to that community and integral to that particular site, which will be, we understand maybe around Ellenwood in White Island Boulevard where that turnaround occurs. But that's not necessarily defined yet because we don't know what the proposals are. So it'll be somewhere along that entry point. The other thing that I'll just mention and then I'll pause is the recent seasonal artwork in Chapman Fountain. This was always part of the original design, as I understand, to put a seasonal artwork because that fountain has to be shut off basically starting from November to March. So this allows that part of the fountain to be activated during those winter months with public art. It is kinetic. It does move. I'm working on making it move more with safety kind of factors allowed to it, but this is a site-specific piece, third-degree glass, which is also a vendor of the art fair and things like that, and then trocco fabrication to make it specifically for Chapman Plaza. So I'll pause to allow for... Questions on that.

So it does move, but it's not moving now, right?

It does move. It slightly sways in the wind. There's these little silver armatures in the center that are designed to sway in the wind. And that's a request of the Chapman family specifically is to have kinetics.

But probably just wasn't windy then.

On a more windy day, it's gonna move more, but it's also, it's a little bit of a safety thing is that you can't make it move too much. It's structured and sent into the fountain, but that's part of the design of the piece.

And is the light always going to be red?

No. Great question. I'm working with Parks on that in terms of just the LED lights. They can be so many different colors. The glass pieces are actually an amber color, and we did that because it relates to the fall and the autumn and things like that. But then it would also allow it to be transparent enough to play off the different LED colors that the lights already have in the fountain.

So it's just not, you know.

It's being programmed to the correct program to make sure that it's. So they're working on that with the lighting company. Yeah. Good question.

Alex since it sounds like the public art on why down is something that's, you know, moving forward. Did you feel like you guys got a good response rate there was that survey that went up did a lot of people respond and they were interested.

Yeah. So there was over about 150 responses which is pretty good for actually just a few pop up signs that we put up and email blasts and things. And we learned, you know, one of the biggest I'll say this one of the big key and I can send it to all the board here. One of the big key takeaways that we learned is not emphasizing the divide between Clayton and the city was a big kind of key takeaway. So not emphasizing that boundary. There were basic things like make sure that it's stellar piece of artwork and things like that. But another big key takeaway is that you already have, it's already done one of the most beautiful streets in America. So obviously you want to be careful about the changes that you create to it so that it should play off and integrate with the kind of park-like aesthetic that already exists. The nature came up a lot.

yeah i'm good i mean i'm glad you got a good response rate and i'm glad people are positive about it

yeah

isn't any comments or questions side of the room okay continue on

i'll continue on so um Another piece of the artwork discussion is really new loans that have been already really approved by the SLAM Collections Committee. And I've already met with the Public Art Advisory Committee on this. The sites are really to be identified per the Public Art Master Plan, but these are the two works that have been already approved by the Collections Committee at SLAM. This is really to not only partner, you know, we have A work right out front of City Hall. I kind of said in a meeting, I said, well, we have multiple works. We have one work from SLAM. This allows us to possibly have two more from a great institution. Additionally, it allows us to create more of a pilot run at starting to develop these relationships with these institutions. things like Lallmeyer. If we can do this right, we can do it properly, we can start at, they'll understand that we can do this process and they'll show that, you know, we can ask from Lallmeyer and do the same type of thing and then other institutions that also have public art collections that are sitting in storage and not being utilized. The young Siegfried on the on the left actually was installed in the Gas Gilbert building of the historic museum. So for a while, it was kind of in, I think and believe it was both inside and outside the Great Hall. So it's been installed in both locations. So it has an attachment to the museum itself, which is good. And then the Trova, which is an abstract piece, Ernest Trova is from St. Louis himself and has a presence here. And we have a Trova in Clayton. Just happens to be a different type of style with the silver man.

Are you going to get any public engagement about where to place these?

Yeah, I want to. One of the things that I'm trying to do first is make sure that any of the sites identified that SLAM is okay with. Because every time I say a site, like I've said, the sunken garden, they'll say, well, we don't want to do that because it's kind of too closed off for security reasons, right? That there's possible vandalism and things like that. Sites that I thought were safe, they've said the opposite. So I'm first trying to align it with that. Then I want to make sure that I align it with community interests and community input and things like that traffic signal boxes i know um are a discussion point so i'll i'll just i may be able to turn it over to michelle or david you tell me um

we can wait till the end for that or how do we want to

do it um

Why don't we move through your presentation? Okay. And then we've got this as a discussion point, and I forgot if there's another discussion point that we had identified.

Okay.

Oh, the Ralph Clayton portrait. So let's save those two nuggets for the very end. Let's just get through your presentation. Okay.

I'll try to move a little faster because I know it's already 10 till 11. 630 here, the historic markers. I mean, so we we really celebrated two really important African-American identity sites. We not only opened up the Attic School marker on Bonham, which was the second to serve African-Americans before Brown versus Board of Education. And we had a really great turnout from the school. Merrimack came out and celebrated and then also a a former Attic School student who is, you know, I think she's in her 80s now. Doris, Dr. Doris also spoke with Cordell and others. So it was a really successful event. And then in partnership with Task Force, a community remembered, and I kind of zoomed out so we can see this incredible location sitting in the kind of right front and center of this field of Centene. off of Crandallet, which recognizes African Americans and their displacement due to rezoning and other policies of the city. So if you haven't seen those two, be sure to visit it. And then that actually relates to the historic Hanley House. Some of the enhancements, you know, we have a lot of these historic homes not have the original slave quarters intact the way that ours are. So it's actually pretty important And I've been communicating with donors and others to make sure and parks to make sure that we are properly enhancing that particular area there and also commemorating the Jackson family Lydia Jackson, the original slave of the Hanley's but also then her, her daughters and siblings as well. that were enslaved and lived in not only the kitchen and house there. So that will have a historic marker that not only commemorates the Hanley house and the sites and things like that, but also recognizes the untold story of the Jackson family. I'll keep going since I know since I'll get through the deck here. Ralph Clayton portrait, that'll be our discussion point. Autocast app just to remind everybody that we have this incredible resource that I know our board has talked about kind of updating and getting up to speed that provides walking tours of both the historic and art places of the city of Clayton. it gets more usage than you might think. And when we promote it more, it gets more usage. So that's one thing. And then a lot of these homes and buildings of Clayton are going to start turning a century. So this century plaque program will start being more relevant. This is something that we'll start to fulfill more to make sure that we get these plaques up onto buildings. We've kind of changed the design a little bit actually to mimic that of the national registrar to just be more language-based. Those that have historic homes don't want a bunch of clutter on their house. They want it to just be recognized in language with the dates and things like that. Remembrance Park, I know that we're getting through some of the weeds of electrical and utility lines and things like that. But that is a project that I'm hoping that we can start to close out, you know, if not this year, by early next year to start celebrating this. Not only the first green wall, which we have sold every table, we have sold every tree, we have sold everything but the fountain. You know, so that is our next stage with that park and it continues to happen. A lot of those tables are going to be chess tables in which the chess club will come with a grand master and teach and engage folks with chess, which is pretty cool. And then the library has agreed to give you Wi-Fi. So it's already a great asset and it hasn't even been built yet. The splash pad is something that Parks has said will have, so that's using the pre-existing infrastructure of and adjacent to the treetop playground mimicking the same design, but also elevating it to just the sputters of the water when it was first built to align with something that matches Clayton's needs, which is a little bit more better. So That'll be up by summer 2024. I also think there's a lot of pavilion and shelter naming opportunities. We have the Nussbaum in Oak Knoll, we have this new pavilion that was built in Oak Knollo. I think the shelters could be named. I think those naming opportunities haven't been talked about necessarily in terms of recognizing folks in Shaw Park or Oak Knoll. These places are historic, people live here, they wanna be recognized, they want family contribution gifts. Shelters are a great place to do that or pavilions and then also working with parks to identify various different needs water bottle filling stations seating and other items such as that. Electric vehicle charging stations. This federal administration is very into that so they have a five year federal program in which we can apply hopefully we will get the grant the first time. And if we do, we can subsidize it with additional private funding as well to start in charge to start installing public infrastructure in both public parks parking lots, but also for the municipal garage because this service is public. And then if we laid the lines down correctly, we can expand them and we can just continue to build the chargers as many as we want because the hardest part is building the first part of it. And then planting trees, you know, we are Tree City USA and really promoting that type of opportunity through our parks is something that I'm trying to do more. This just provides you kind of the snapshot of it in, you know, a pillar project form, kind of what I already went through. And then these are our approved projects from 2022. So I'm going to shut up. And then you tell me where to go or what you have questions about.

um and just an overall comment that um i just want to recognize the hard work that continues to go on behind the scenes at ccf and just all of the great additional amenities that the city has benefited from over the years into the millions of dollars we really appreciate you guys we really appreciate the work that you do and You know, we're just, we're I think lucky as a city to have a private partner like this. So, and thank you, Judy, for coming up with the idea. Yeah. So does anybody have any general comments? And now we can talk about the electrical boxes. Okay. Let's talk electrical boxes. You want to throw that slide back up? Yeah. How many boxes do we have that are already painted? Anyone know?

Andrea, did you give me a number of 20-ish around that?

And some of them still look pretty good. Those two look pretty good. I mean, just quality-wise, you know, paint-wise. But what is CCF and the pack? And I know Jake Reby has been thinking a lot about this over the years. So what is the thinking that you guys have right now, if anything?

You're posing this question to me, the art guy? OK. Or any

of your compatriots.

What I would advocate for, and let me start off by saying what I also believe would be fundable is something very innovative and interesting. So this image was actually pulled from the Regional Arts Commission's website, which I think is great. They're promoting that we have this public art in Clayton, et cetera. There are utility box programs and murals and things like that, that think about it just beyond kind of the recreation or an outlet or things like that. Though it's fun and quirky, you can do things that kind of push the boundaries a little bit in terms of, you know... There's some that make it into an optical illusion to where you look at it, it both blends the landscape of the trees with the sky or something like that. You can provide, I've talked about this with others, you can also think about it as an equity opportunity thinking about how you can gauge this opportunity to serve and provide the opportunity to those that might not have it. So minority artists and things like that, you could focus on something like that. That's the fundable angle, I think. The other is to paint them and think about it in terms of beautification, but not necessarily art. So it's just an enhancement maybe that's easy on terms of a maintenance level. So there's benefits in that as well as making it kind of easy and not involving an artist whatsoever.

I guess one of my question really is, and maybe liaisons to CCF, comment to um are you all but is there is there um either a recommendation or some thinking that's been done by the foundation in a direction or are you looking for us to really brainstorm and and come up with that

I would answer it this way, Mayor, is that if we were to charge it, if we were to take the charge of it, then I'd want control of the direction, the artistic direction. In terms of the process, this is what we're doing with White Island Boulevard. There's quite a bit that goes into public art as it pertains to similar to what the city does with RFQs and RFPs. It's the same type of thing. You wanna make the opportunity open and available because it is an opportunity that you're going to attach a dollar sign to. And it's also public work that is giving the artists a platform in the city of Clayton. So it's actually pretty great. And I'd want to be able to, what I would, I'd want us to do is control that process from soup to nuts.

I was going to add, I think that right after the art fair last year, Stacey Wiffler, who was chairman, I think still president of the board, called me and said that they were thinking about something about those boxes. And I think it was preliminary information. the idea of taking, since there have been 25 plus years of the art fair and every year they pick the best piece of art and that becomes the poster, that there might be a way to make that the theme of the of the boxes or alternatively since the art fair has you know competition for young artists so i guess at this point i think the main idea i have is that we ought to be talking to the art fair and seeing if there's a way to tie it together um and i think where we left i think i mentioned it the mayor at the time and just said to stacy well let's see where this goes and somebody will probably circle back to you and see what you all are thinking so that still seems to me that a good way to go on this

well I I guess I just wanted to understand the traffic signal boxes just from like just process wise like are you So is that, is that something that you guys have identified as something that you want to fundraise for? Like, or is that something, I mean, I'm just trying to understand or, you know, cause if you're going to fundraise, I mean, the wide out thing is a big project too. So I guess, I mean, maybe the signal boxes are lower hanging fruit or, I mean, just trying to understand the.

I would say if I was to prioritize it, it would be Y down, slam artworks, signal boxes. And I would also say that anything that we kind of focus on, it detracts from the other in terms of just not in terms of dollars, but in terms of just bandwidth and focus. Yeah. Now that said, this idea Gary that you mentioned about partnering with a cultural organization that's already here that does the fair. That makes a lot of sense, you know, with the Chapman Plaza and having third degree there, there are, there are an artist that is in the art fair so if it benefits the city as in terms of showcasing the art fair and the organization that headquarters here. That makes a lot of sense. Or Art St. Louis is another example, right? So you have two of those organizations here.

Yeah, I guess. I mean, I think it would be nice to have them painted. But I also think it just kind of depends on, like you said, Alex, painting them for utility purposes. no pun intended, but paint them just so that they're colorful versus painting them like this, which requires some real effort.

We've also discussed this idea of historical wayfinding, so you can use them for that. It just kind of depends on what you want to use them for. I know that some of them have Susan Hanley not Susan Hanley, but the Hanleys and others on Ralph Clayton, et cetera. So you can use this as kind of historical wayfinding if that's the direction you wanted to go, you know?

So I guess then it's kind of deciding, you guys deciding as an organization the route or the way that you want to go with it. I mean, designing.

Again, I would say if you put it to us to be the main fundraiser, then I'm going to tell you that I'll probably want to fundraise with some degree of control. Now, if Arts St. Louis or if the Art Fair, which also are fundraising organizations, is willing to foot the bill or if there's willing to be some type of partnership as it pertains to that, that's interesting too. And it makes it maybe a little bit easier because it's involving another partner and organization. It kind of creates a different level of awareness.

Right. Okay. Thanks.

did you have a comment or a question yeah i think i'm trying to figure out as much left after bridget's question and your very good answer um kind of on the priority and it sounds like and it makes sense that if we do this it have something that the minority artists the young artists uh partnering with the art fair something like that a purpose beyond just having pretty pictures on the boxes i also wanted to share that and probably it's not just me but it's not just the updating the painting. I know I've been approached that we need to update some of the images to better match our mission as it is today when we get around to this, and the people who have raised that had a little more urgency in getting that done. And then I guess the question for that that leaves me with is if we're trying to figure out um whether we we talk with another partner or a ccf is that something if we were talking to another partner who does that is that something that our that the board decides what direction we're going then staff approaches them or what does that look like i think

it can look

like how we'd like it to look yeah and

this staff that's what we're trying to out because we do have some the the condition varies from box to box we have some that need to be addressed we have some with with figures that we've addressed other places in the city, but they're still on traffic signal boxes. And we don't have anything budgeted as far as going in and incrementally doing these or doing them all at once. And so for us, that guidance would be helpful as well. If it's going to go through a nonprofit organization to figure that out, that's great. If it's gonna be on the city end of things, then we need to figure out and put together a plan for how we replace these. And then as we go through that process, at what point do we involve the Mayor's Commemorative Landscape Task Force or PAC or any of these other groups in the city that are typically involved in these decisions. So there's really two different pathways and neither one is clear at the moment. We just know that we do have somewhat of a need to address it.

And I guess the last thing I'll say too is certainly I understand that you all have to stay within your capacity. Whatever you're doing, you do really, really well. There's a real comfort in the things that CCF handles because picking up on the mayor's statements is that the work done is very well researched it's everything about it is a comprehensive look at what will serve our community so I think we all really appreciate that

OK, Becky, you've had a comment for a while.

No, I just have an idea that I'd love to share and have you consider. There's an organization called St. Louis Artworks. Have you heard of them? Yes. So it's like youth apprentice apprentices who apply and get into this program. And they're led by like creative artists who are actually professional artists. um and they've like unveiled art this just this fall um in the slam exhibit the culture celebrating 50 years of hip-hop um they also um did some work that was commissioned by the gateway arch parks foundation downtown so um you know so they're doing a lot of like cool stuff um and that would be i think an interesting if if there's a decision to do a project like this it strikes me as like an ideal opportunity to partner with an organization like that and create real opportunity um for youth in our city that are interested in art and visibility and all that jazz so that's my

yeah good i remember you talking about that before yeah yeah great gary you've kind of oh yeah absolutely

A lot of work is needed in these structures.

other than just cleaning them off, which we don't do on a, on a regular basis, it's, it's going in and who's, who's going to touch these up. So I've seen traffic signal boxes that are done in other communities where it's almost like a vinyl wrap, like where you wrap cars and other things. And they're using that type of material versus paint. I don't know how the durability is versus paint or if it's more color fast, but those that are in condition where they need to be addressed here, they're there. they're faded or, you know, just the elements have gotten to the paint on them. Outside of that, there's not much maintenance required. No, it's nothing like that. We just have some that have been, they've been faded by the sun, faded by the elements. We have some where the content is probably something that needs to be addressed, those types of things. But the boxes themselves are incredibly durable. We don't

I mean, I think just based on my past discussions about these, I think we would have to go and Matt would have his public works would have to put a primer on them before they could be painted again, you know, stuff like that. But other than that, yeah. That's

interesting, though. I wonder if vinyl like would hold up longer. You know, I mean, I would think you could create a piece of art that you then print on a piece of vinyl and then wrap it. And I'm just wondering what would last longer.

It's just like how they wrap cars. It's the same, and it does. It lasts way longer

than

paints. Oh, yeah. Because it's tightly wrapped. It's professionally done. It lasts long term.

Or expensive, too.

You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised I mean there's a lot of companies that do this or collaborate with artists to do this. This is why it's also important to kind of vet it through a professional arts organization or artists so it lasts as long as it possibly can. But it's back to this equity piece. It's like, do you, you know, with a, with a, an idea like this, Becky, you can achieve that by partnering with that organization through that opportunity. So you're giving that opportunity through the organization rather than in a sense, the city or the foundation trying to coordinate an RFP and do this and that and the other. There's a lot of partner organizations that I know as well. I mean, contemporary art museum and their youth program, COCA has a youth program. So they probably be more than willing to say, Hey, I have this opportunity. that they'd come in with their youth artists and develop a proposal. And you might be able to get all of this stuff all in kind, you know, if you look at a long-term trajectory. And maybe that's the way you could also do it too. You could run it through like a competition, not only necessarily between artists, but between arts organizations in St. Louis, which would be kind of fun.

Okay. Okay.

perhaps I'm just relatively low on the learning curve and don't know what's already been discussed about these things, but it seems to me that this is a great opportunity. That's looking for some directions, some constraints in a solution. And so as a result, um, I'd love for us to come up with something that says, here's the universe of the boxes. Here's how many have already been painted. Here's how may need to be redone in your opinion. Here's how much it costs to do method A and method B. And then we can give some feedback in terms of general direction, but I'd prefer to stay out of the art business. I mean, there's people that have expertise in that. And so I would prefer us to give you some kind of general direction about this and then have you report back on how you're going to implement it.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I think that's a good suggestion. I mean, I think essentially this project needs a plan. And so what kind of a group we put together to create that plan, I think is something we should maybe offer up tonight if we have ideas. I mean, I think we ought to get together just a broader group than just Alex and some CCF folks to think about that. I think it should include Matt from Public Works and maybe someone from the Equity Commission or, I mean, I could think about that. But yes, PAC, yes. And maybe even someone from architecture review board. I mean, just to put together a little team that would think about this, do a little research on some of these organizations that have been mentioned. Matt will certainly understand about costs and that will help us decide, you know, I don't know how much it would cost to just, if we were to take on hiring somebody to paint these boxes, what would that cost? So I think that's what we need to do. And maybe what we could do is ask you and the liaisons for CCF to spearhead getting that group together and then we can start moving forward. Does that sound reasonable to everybody?

I will do that and I will put together probably a bones before I start to, you know, think about all these different committee members just as a sampling of kind of, you know, what is possible, like understanding the costs and things like that. So, yeah.

I mean, I think that group coming together ought to, ought to, um, think about what, what's the objective here? Are we just beautification? Are we trying to say something, um, or, or what, you know, um, do we, or is there, is our, our objective to give youth an opportunity to do a project? I mean, what is our purpose and how do we want to fulfill it? So. I think we need to think a little deeper about it and then get back to it. So we'll depend on you to kind of spearhead getting that group together. David, you can help with who should be. Okay, great. Thank you. So now I think we need talk about Ralph and where he can live. I unfortunately you guys I have been talking with the library here in town, and you know the Clayton branch and I think they are very interested in housing this exhibit for a while. They have not gotten back to me definitely so I apologize about that. But just assuming that either that could happen or not, it could maybe be housed somewhere else temporarily while we prepare a spot within our city properties but I think at some point it needs to have a home in in our city one of our city locations and so um i'd just love to hear what people are thinking about that and um you know maybe give us a little food for thought on what we might look to down the road because i think then we would need to kind of research dimensions and how we would attach it and what we would actually put there and all that good stuff i'm i'm i mean i kind of have you've seen the display that was at the center and i kind of have in my mind that would be something kind of like that but if you've seen the in the police station uh on the stud family and the architecture there it's a nice but kind of a permanent just you know uh diorama of of all the info there and recognizing them so and recognizing that this is a painting that has some value. So we can't just put it out in the weather. Okay, I'm open to ideas.

Does it? Oh, it's a lot. It says a lot. It's not a plaque, it's some...

like foam core boards that tell his life story, essentially. And the actual exhibit was called The Place, The Man or something like that. And it was like some information about Clayton in the early days and then how Clayton came about and then more about his life personally and what he did for a living and the fact that he was a slave holder and all this. Yeah. And it had his portrait.

Yeah. I have a question strictly on the value of the art, which you alluded to. Is it actually a piece of art that is considered to have value from an artistic sense? Was the painter someone well-known or... Any of that? Do you know?

I'll say that it wasn't appraised, but I'd probably further answer that it has more value to the city of Clayton than it does on a national level or scope.

Yeah, like it's not something that would be of interest to anyone necessarily. To a

museum, probably maybe the History Museum, perhaps because of the county seat. So it's possible that it could be a part of their collection. It's never been considered or thought of.

I think, I'm stretching my memory, but the painter or the artist, I think it is, you know, this isn't the only portrait they ever did. I mean, they were somewhat known regionally for portraiture. And so it has some wherewithal. And we did invest in restoring it as well to clean it up and fix it up. So, right, it has more value to Clayton.

I thought the exhibit at the center was great because not only did it include the portrait, but it also, it was a very full-bodied, full-throated discussion of Ralph's pluses, minuses. He was a slave owner. There was all of that. And so in many ways, I think it was great if the kids who went to the center ever looked at it, which you never know, but You know, I think it's an important part of the history of Clayton. And I've shared this anecdote before that my granddaughter and her friend when I took them home had no idea why the city of Clayton was called that. Thought it had to do with clay in the soil. Now, I don't know if other kids are so unaware of Ralph Clayton. But the whole story of Ralph Clayton, I think, is fascinating. And, you know, I think if we could put it at the library, I think that'd be wonderful because it'd get a lot of visibility. I said, I guess, two and a half years ago when we started discussion, I still think that some part of that display belongs to City Hall. This is, after all, Clayton. And there's this little, you know, very eight by ten sort of photo down on the on the shelf that nobody ever comes to because they don't pay traffic tickets anymore so it seems to me there's a great wall right outside when you turn your left here we have two nice floral portraits which of course have nothing to do with clayton you know i'd love to see some aspect of the clayton history on this wall and i don't think it has to be you know you can have a copy of the of the portrait it doesn't have to be one place or another but There's a great story to tell. And like I said, I think it's odd. I've been to a lot of city halls. There's nowhere in this room that you have any idea except for right here. It says Clayton, which nobody sees except for the people who sit here. So I think it's time that some part of the display show up at City Hall. But if it could also be at the library someday at Hanley House, all of those are great places for people to see it and understand the history of Clayton.

My memory of the exhibit is, and the impressions that left me of Ralph Clayton are less illustrious than yours, Gary. I appreciated the context that it provided, like what I felt was like a breadth of information about the circumstances. And it was like, I don't know how many years ago now that I read it. um so I might get some of this wrong but my takeaway was he was a rich guy who wanted his name on something which is awesome like we benefited from that as a city and a county um and and like the idea that at one time in our um community and our country, wealthy people thought about that kind of thing and looked at how they could give their resources to their communities certainly I think is a very interesting lens and worth celebrating or remembering. But not that he himself was actually like... something to celebrate outside of that, I guess. Like he didn't have a civic interest. He didn't have a like government interest or, you know, like service interest aside from obviously this generous gift that he gave. So I don't have a lot of opinion about where it goes as long as what I would like to see is that that context remain in place so as not to give any misrepresentation about what he did and how he did it. And so that's, like I said, I don't really feel like we need to decide that as a board. I said that at the time that we voted on this in the first place. I don't feel like we need vote on where it lands in the end. It doesn't feel necessary to me. But that I would like it to the story to remain in context as it was developed by all of our experts in history who put it together.

Yeah, I mean, I agree that the context certainly has to follow the portrait. I mean, I would never imagine that we're just going to hang it the way it was hanging before. But I do agree with Gary. I think it should eventually find its way back here. I think it would be great if it's in the library, but we just don't, we're not a huge city. We don't have a lot of like government buildings. So we either hang, I'm not sure it belongs at the center of Clayton. I don't think it belongs to the police department. So I don't know where else we're going to put it. So, I mean, I think finding a wall in here where it ends up landing and yeah, we don't have to be the decision makers, but I don't know who else is going to decide where it goes. So, so that's kind of, that would be my thought. Thank you, Bridget. Anything, Rick, anything

from you?

I don't feel strongly about it other than to say, I think it should be prominently displayed. I think it'd be a great idea to rotate it over time and have it in different places because there isn't any one audience that goes through it at any point.

Yeah.

So rotating it will at least expose

it. Okay. All right, so I think, and I can talk about this with the Landscape Task Force too because I know they have good thoughts about stuff like this. Susan, you have something to say? Yeah,

just picking up on what Rick said, I wonder, too, if wherever it becomes displayed, I think we should consider not, well, what is the story of Clayton, not just of Ralph Clayton? To have that portrait just with his story on a wall is very different from having This is where our city began. This is the context of that, and this is who we are today. Yeah,

I think that's a good build because it can be more about the history of Clayton, of which he is a major part. Okay, I like that.

Mayor, I mean, I'd recommend that, you know, the exhibition was for the Center of Clayton. Obviously, there's a lot of... There's too much text, in my opinion. But keeping that context with the portrait, you're able to kind of create or redraft what's known as an extended wall label, right? So we see this in museums where it's basically just a paragraph. So trying to take all of that content and... edit it down to a paragraph and contextualize it and can stay with it this is what the history museum does is what the art museum does and that can be done that could be a great task for the task force to take all of that content that that those panels have had and like try to edit it down into a paragraph which is it's difficult to do um but important

okay um i think i will yes oh judy do you have something to say yeah Can we do the mic? Do you want to come up and speak in the mic? That way we got it down. You're formal.

You know, I'm all about telling stories and history. And to me, that's what's important here is not him or who he was or what he looks like or how he's been restored, which is lovely. But I think we need to tell the story about our community and the founding of our community and what it was like then, how we've evolved, what we prioritize now. And I think that has really value to young people who really have no clue what life might have been like in the 18th century. 19th century. So I wholeheartedly endorse the landscape task force, taking a look at that, coming back with proposals. I will tell you the exhibit in the police station was very expensive. It's really well done, but it was costly. So perhaps CCF can look for a funder for something like this when the time is right. I think we might be able to help in that way.

think we're just adding you to our task force for this project as well oh thanks so much yeah thank you okay uh okay so i'll i'll kind of start weaving this into the task force work and we'll still see if we can get it over to the library for a while yeah so all right very good well it's just a little before seven and any other comments or questions for the ccf group Or any questions from CCF for us? Oh.

Another thought. The light boxes. I just want to emphasize something Alex said that when we prioritize our energy, our first priority is wide end public art. And I don't want, you know, there are only so many who can divide and conquer. And I want to be careful. that we're not diverted in too many directions. So I just want you to know that.

Yeah, I think it's going to take us a while to figure out exactly what, why and how on the light boxes anyway. So yeah.

Can I ask one question? Yes. First, I think, Cordell, your term is coming to an end. Is that right this year? You're wrapping up your time as president. So thank you for your service. And I was curious if you could remind all of us what the board will look like next year.

Jennifer Volk is sitting right next to Cordell. She will be the 2024 incoming president. Wonderful.

Yeah. Great.

Great. There's other officers, executive committee, but I won't say all their names just for time.

Thanks. Thank you all and thank you for your partnership on the historic plaques that you're doing with the landscape task force that is appreciated. Mayor, can

I add one thing? Of course. under this heading of arts, something that I think Alex has talked to and I think he's talked to the mayor, but I think something the city is very interested in is not only the traditional art piece, but performing arts and how we can somehow get that into the city. And I just would acknowledge, I know from Alex's background, connections to the city where most of the historical, most of the theatrical venues are in the St. Louis metropolitan area that I think we should keep in mind to the extent Alex has time to be a resource for us, that it would be very helpful as we try to bring some performing arts into the city, particularly small theater, that type of thing, which I know you're familiar with. So I hope that's something that

we can look at. Great point. Yeah, great point. We might be expanding our kind of our definition of art going forward, which would be great. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, guys. And there's Ira. All right. Welcome, everyone, to our December 19 meeting. And we will start off by calling the roll. Alderman

Berkowitz.

Here.

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

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

Here.

Aldeman Rick Hummell.

Aldeman Hummel.

Here.

Mayor Harris? Here. City Manager David Gipson?

Mayor Harris? Here. City Manager Gibson?

Here.

City Attorney Carr?

Here. All right. Now's the time in our agenda to ask for public requests and petitions. If anyone here in our audience or online in our audience would like to talk about something that's not on our agenda tonight, this is your chance. I don't see anything from anyone here or from anyone online. So we can move on to the first item on our agenda, which is a public hearing for the planned unit development on South Merrimack. I will open the public hearing and request proof of publication.

Thank you, Mayor. This is a request for review and consideration of the rezoning and related plan unit development for proposed mixed use development. The rezoning plan unit development and subdivision plat are being addressed together in this report, though the plat and land use elements entail separate ordinances on the board's agenda this evening. The project received architectural review board approval and the plan commission recommended approval of the site plan, subdivision plat, rezoning and development plan on November 20th, 2023. The 42,800 square foot site includes two parcels located at the Northwest corner of the intersection between North Merrimack Avenue and Bonham Avenue. The properties have a zoning designation of HDC or high density commercial. The Southern property 121 South Merrimack Avenue contains an 11 story office building previously occupied by St. Louis County government and is often referred to as the World Trade Center Building, the World Trade Building or Seven Up Building. The northern property, 111 South Merrimack Avenue, is currently vacant. Adjacent land uses include residential, office, retail and government. The project consists of the partial demolition and renovation of the existing structure, partial vacation of an east-west alley, the rezoning of the site to PUD, the consolidation of the two lots, and the construction of a mixed-use commercial development on the site. The proposed development measures 21 stories and a total height of approximately 244 feet. The structure would contain 298 apartment units, 2000 square feet of retail and restaurant spaces, 158 on street parking spaces, Under separate previously approved lease the development also has the right to to 200 dedicated parking spaces in the adjacent city on garage. City standard streetscape will be installed along the project limits on bottom avenue and South merrimack avenue. The proposed development is a mixed use pod and a mixed use pod must contain a reasonable ratio of areas devoted to distinct land use categories as determined by the board of aldermen and the exercise of its legislative discretion. With only one commercial tenant space available for lease, the operation and characteristics of the tenant are important. Staff are of the opinion that occupancy of the commercial tenant space should be a priority and should be achieved within six months of when the occupancy permits are issued for the residential portion of the development. A PUD must provide public benefits to the surrounding neighborhoods and to the city above and beyond what can be reasonably achieved by application of the zoning provisions of the original zoning district. The Board of Aldermen may approve alternatives to the zoning regulations, subdivision regulations or design standards applicable to the property proposed to be rezoned to a PUD in exchange for developer provided public benefits. The number of requested modifications to the development standards drive the number of public benefits that the developer is required to provide. All PUDs shall provide at least one public benefit or combination of public benefits that total at least 10 points beyond those additional points required for any desired code alternatives, even if no code alternative is requested. After the minimum 10 points are achieved, the developer shall provide a public benefit or combination public benefits totaling at least five points for each code alternative requested. The total number of public benefit points required to be achieved for this project is 30. A table was provided in the report that outlines the public benefits identified by the applicant and staff. Staff analysis of the proposed benefits is included in the table along with a recommended point value. The plan commission voted to recommend the staff point analysis to the Board of Aldermen, totaling 37 benefit points. Staff and plan commission are also of the belief that the project meets the criteria for PUD approval as it relates to conformance with the Downtown Master Plan and surrounding environment stormwater landscaping driveways sidewalks utilities lighting circulation parking and overall design. Staff recommends the Board of Aldermen approved the rezoning and plan unit development for the required development commitments set forth in the ordinance exhibit see the shop you D document. Staff also recommends that the Board of Alderman approved the subdivision plot with the conditions set forth and the ordinance for adoption. We have the applicant here this evening, as well as on a crane, our director of planning and development services. If you have any questions.

Okay. Thank you very much. All right. I'm going to open the discussion and I wonder if. I think we can just, it's been through ARB and everything. I think we could just go and have a specific questions and comments, unless anybody among us want to have a, a full review of the development. Okay. And anyone in the audience, is there anyone here in the audience other than the developer who would like to address the board on this development? Okay. So, and none online. Okay, great. So we'll go and we, a lot of times we go in order of seniority. Hi, Chris. And so we'll do that starting with Alderman Berkowitz. Do you have any comments or questions? And maybe we'll need to have you guys come on up to the podium probably. You want to, Chris, just introduce yourself into the microphone and all that.

Yes, I'm Chris Cedergreen, design architect on the project. Michael Knight, the developer, is in Kansas City and on Zoom. He came down with the flu, so decided not to come. And then Tim Sandwig and Bob Neely from LJC are here as well.

Very good. And yeah, one of our aldermen has the flu as well. So Ira, go on. Do you have a question or comment?

I do have the flu, but I've managed to be here. I'm sorry that your developer could not make it. He's

on Zoom. He's on

here. Well, good. All right. All right. Cool. So congratulations to both of you. This is a very difficult site to deal with. And I know that for a fact, because I've kind of followed through all the different machinations of different developers trying to go through it and make it work. It looks like you found the right combination. And I think you should be congratulated for the work you've done. I've got only a few questions. And the one that I think will surprise no one has to do with the six units that you have, that you decided to allot as affordable units. I understand the formula used for that. My only question is it doesn't seem to indicate which units size of the units that we're talking about. And I will preface my question with I am hoping like heck it's not going to be six of the smallest units in the

building. Good evening. That's a good question. I was supposed to fly in last night for this meeting today, and then lo and behold, I got A and B influenza, which is great.

Yeah,

I got both. I thought I had COVID. Turns out I just have A and B.

I've

got A and it's enough. Yeah, okay. So Tama flew in fluids and get some sleep, but the fever is the worst part. But to answer your question, the math on this project only required two affordable units. When we had our public outreach with our neighbors at the Park Place Tower and some of the other folks, and I had a nice lady who actually sent us an email and actually tracked me down in Kansas City and called me. She asked us if we could do better than that. It's a fair question. So we came up with the six affordable units because one of our neighbors asked us to do better. And I said, what do you think is fair? Four? She goes, I think it'd be better if you did six. And I said six it is. And that's how we got there is just by kind of engaging our neighbors. And then to your point, it's not six studios. It'll be a one bedroom here, a studio here, a two bedroom there. They're spread throughout the building. Matter of fact, one of the units that I've designated for affordable is on the first floor. It's a two bedroom, two bath kind of double master suite. And it actually has its own courtyard. So it has its own like little backyard courtyard. So yeah, we're not just shoehorning those in. They're not going to be six studios. They're spread throughout the building and all the different floor plan types. And we've even tried to Ask our property manager if there's a way we can get creative with those affordable units where we can. I don't know. You got to make sure we stay compliant with any kind of fair housing. But can we do a lottery system? Can we do something where it's like, you know, where we can maybe first responders or school teachers or something to try to, you know, see how we. get people in there, but that's how we got there. That's how we got the six units and the floor plan types are going to be all different types all throughout the building.

Okay. Is that, is that part of the, I mean, is that somewhere in the plan? Cause I, I didn't see it. So it

just, it just is, it's in the plan that we're just doing six units and it's, I mean, I guess nobody's telling me I have to do it. We're just doing it.

I hear you. Well, it's part of the PUD now. It's part of your point system. So it is part of getting passage tonight. So it's in the deal. If you

want to add some language that just says something like the six affordable units will not just be six studios, I'm totally fine with it.

Okay.

Well,

David, what do you think?

Yes, we can add that to the exhibit on page seven of the documents, page 26 of the packet. There's a condition there, E, that talks about the six housing units and 80% AMIs. So Stephanie and I can quickly come up with some language to add there that it's a mix of units within the building.

Okay, very good. Very good. Section

three of the ordinance as well.

Good. I didn't notice, and I'm sure you got them. I talked to the mayor earlier. You have bike racks in this? Are we putting bike racks in?

What we have is actually, we created an internal bike storage room for the resident bikes. So we didn't, I think that's how we got there is we didn't need the bike racks out in front of the building, if I'm correct. Tim's there with LJC. He'd probably know better, but I think when we were initially talking about it, we were doing bike racks. And then they were like, well, you could just create a bike storage room. And so that's – I think that's what we ended up doing.

And we have bike racks at the public plaza, the public

park. Oh, yeah. There you go. Oh, you do have them outside? Yes. Oh, okay. All right. Because it's kind of hard to assume that everyone is going to be taking their bikes into storage each time. So – and then let's see here. Let's see. Were you

going to ask about charging stations?

That was one other question. Yeah, I think I did read about the charging stations. You had those set up on the property for your tenants. I know that much.

We have 10 charging stations with the ability to expand that to 20 charging stations. That includes charging stations in both garages under the new construction and under the existing. And that also includes charging stations for some of the ADA spots that are located in the building.

Okay. All right. That looked fine. Now, you're expected to have your commercial equipment. whatever, whatever tenant you're going to have for the commercial should be moving in. Do you have any ideas as you sit here today? What is it we're looking at? What kind of commercial, I guess, retail are we talking about? You know?

So, I mean, the brokers that we've been talking to, I, Cushman and Wakefield's pretty much the team that we've been working with since day one. That's who we've, I work with pretty exclusively. I've told them I want something cool, creative restaurant, something along those lines. They, to date, the only thing somebody brought me was a bank proposal. I didn't think another retail bank sounds like anything anybody's interested in. They're pretty bad tenants anyway. The other part is, I don't want to, I'm not going to say anybody's name out, but there's a local restaurant that used to have a really good following in a different location that was displaced. And I have met with that gentleman a couple of times and He's a little out there, but he does a really good job, and it's a really cool place with really good food. That would be the perfect fit for this spot where it's got cafe seating, kind of a hip vibe, good food, very friendly atmosphere. You know, that would be what I would like to see there. And it turns out our timelines overlap perfectly, so that would be something – That would be this working. The stipulation on the timing of the commercial tenant was a condition that was added to make sure that we just don't forever have a vacant space. And as I shared this with the ARB and the PUD board, you know, our driver for that space. Excuse me. Hold on a second. Sorry.

Take your time.

I got my herbal honey to you here. I'll drink to that. All right. There you go. So the driver for this space is not revenue by any means, shape or form. It's a little over 2000 square feet. So we are trying to find the right partner. That's a good fit for the building. That's a amenity for us and the neighborhood. So if we've got to offer reduced rent or up the TI dollars, totally fine with that. I just got to get the right partner on board. And obviously that's a little hard, but with the things in the market happening, I'm hoping that's going to get a little easier.

Would you be opposed to us putting in a restriction that the retailer could not, cannot be a bank?

Yeah, I don't care. I'm not going to put a

bank in there. When we say retail, it doesn't mean a bank unless we allow a bank. Did I miss?

When we made the adjustment to the ordinance, we... We stated commercial use rather than just retail. We broadened that definition and left it basically up to the board's discretion to determine what appropriate commercial uses could go in there. So that would include banks.

Right. And I'm asking if we could exclude banks, is that is that possible?

It sounds like we have the right to do it and I would support it.

Mm hmm. And it sounds like you'd support it too. Yeah,

I have no opposition to a prohibition against a retail bank. Okay.

All right. That'd be great. David, can you put that in there?

Yes, we'll work on that as well.

Okay. Yeah, no opposition here. Very good. All right. Those are my questions. And thank you so much for showing up, even by Zoom. It's not... if you're spending time in bed, like I have, it's, it's a lot to get up and just even turn on the zoom. So.

Yeah, I actually, I went and took a shower and got out of bed. I was going

to say, you don't look sick. Neither of you look

sick. Well, we've, I did the same thing. I even shaved. I was like, yeah. Okay. Well, all right. But thanks. Thank you very much. And congratulations. I hope you feel better. Thank you. You too. Same to you.

Bridget, do you have some comments? You know, I was obviously at the long presentation that Michael and Chris and your team gave before the Planning Commission and Architectural Review Board. And I'll just comment that the Planning Commission Architectural Review Board was very in favor of the project, was certainly complimentary of the architectural details that will go into you know, redesigning the current building and then creating the new tower. You know, I think it also has some really interesting art features. Obviously there's the sky art, which was talked about a lot at the plan commission. The art canopy too, which is, it is self-contained in the building. So it's kind of by where their pool deck is. So it's not really available to the public, but it is, you know, It projects pretty high in the air right at that corner so certainly when the sun hits it there'll be reflections from our canopy on the sidewalk, so I think the public will feel the our canopy even though it's not necessarily going to be available. The public, I mean the people in the building and Chris you obviously comment if i'm incorrect but. you know, the people outside of this art canopy or people who don't live in the building can't really walk under it. But they will, I think, experience it if they're walking on the sidewalk. So but I think that's a really nice addition to the building. You know, but it really was, you know, well received by the plant commission largely. So they gave a great presentation there. And everybody was pretty supportive of the points that they requested. So

Okay, great. Susan, anything from you?

Yeah, I appreciate bringing this project to Clayton. It looks good. It's a use of a space that, again, from my amateur viewpoint, it's creative, it's sustainable, it's all those great things. When I'm looking at the criteria in the downtown master plan, we're in the midst of It's two comprehensive or master planning processes, the livable communities as well as our comprehensive planning. And one of the issues that repeatedly comes up even though we don't have a final product yet is that people drive their cars very short distances because biking and walking is not that easy. So when I look at this project and the bike racks that Ira brought up with the bike storage, it was a little unclear It sounds like you're close to what the city typically requires, but because I guess it's a storage room plus racks, are you getting the same space at least for people to store their bikes as a city code would have, the ordinance would have required of you?

That's correct. Yeah.

It kind of just switches out. Okay. Because the other part of it is I would hope because you are, This is the high density multifamily, and you're right by the Metro link. And then you've got the park over here. You've got a school on this side, a school on that side, residential, residential. So you really can be a linkage in all directions. And as the utilities are moved to the roofs and everything else is opened up on those sidewalks, there was a comment in here that some of the opened up space could then be used for additional street parking. I would propose that whether it's a city or you as the developers look at it more as pedestrian walkable bikes, whatever. Because again, the park is right there and the businesses and everything else, everything's right around you. And that is something that's come up in our master planning processes that these are comments that we get over and over again. So something to think about as you do that. I was a little bit confused on the EV The charging stations, are any of them open to the public or just to tenants and tenant guests? MR.

They're really just sort of the tenants and the tenant – the tenant's guests that come into the building if they're available, how that gets – how they end up being able to use those as a guest. But as public parking, they're not available to public parking because we don't have public parking in the podium of the building where that existing parking is.

MS. for the public benefit part in the assignment of points, I don't know. Is there any way? I don't know if there could be parking. It seems like there should be something available for a public benefit.

So we have guest parking, tenant parking and the visitor parking that can access that press our ADA space, our ADA spaces and the new construction can also access those charging stations. And like, previously stated, we have 10 and we're going to expand that to 20 as EVs become more popular. That's the point.

All right. But it's for people visiting the building or residents of the building only?

Correct. If I come to the restaurant, can I park in those spots or is it only if you're tied to a tenant, a residential tenant?

Well, actually the benefit would be is that if you're coming to the restaurant, you would park in the city garage and be a paying customer in that garage.

So without access to the charging units that you're planning on putting in?

Correct. That was part of the previous new parking agreement is that the building would utilize less parking spaces and then reuse the existing parking spaces on site to kind of open up the public parking garage to have more spaces accessible to the public.

Right, so what I'm looking for is how to get the public benefit to charging stations. I mean, that infrastructure is what we need across the country. Is there any way that that benefit can

be made? Yeah, I'm not sure. That was just how it was put into the application. And I think we were told that on previous projects, those benefit points were given for EV chargers, regardless if they were public or private.

Oh, I think typically at a re... There's a public access. You want to help with this, whether it be along the street parking or something else?

It's been covered for a variety. Our last two PUs have had more public-focused uses, like a hotel. So those garages would be more come and go from the public compared to this garage. But, for example, for Sophia Condos, they had EV charging stations within their garage, which would, similar to this, would be restricted to the residents or their visitors that would access that. idea for EV charging stations and still providing benefit points from a staff's perspective is that more EV charging within a community increases the availability of EV just to our general community. And so that again is hitting on our sustainability goals. So while providing these chargers would not generally be accessible, so somebody just driving through Clayton wouldn't come and use this EV charger. but they could use a publicly accessible ev charger elsewhere while a resident of this building would not take up that publicly accessible charging station because they would be accessing one within their residential building so that was that was staff idea of why we still afforded uh public benefit points here

okay i struggle with that i don't know if there is a way to get an ev charging station available to the public whether it be along a street parking area something invested in the public garage or something else that's getting like benefit points i you know maybe early on we were doing i don't remember that recently for a uh non-public use getting the credits could either you know as it continues to develop by helping them in that direction.

Yeah, the public or the chargers within the right of way is something that we are still working through with Public Works because as you guys can see these charging units pick up space within a right of way and they also have the lines and other plug-in utilities that are associated with them which make them not ideal for placing in our streetscape to attach to a parallel parking space on a street. so we haven't quite figured that design out yet which is why we didn't recommend shifting these proposed charges out to the street parking but again this is benefit points or your legislative decision as the board so

is that something that could be worked on with this project or is there a way to make it accessible or another approach whether it's garage or otherwise

i as far as on the street i don't know that we're ready for that just yet, or that we have anything designed as far as, like Donna said, as far as layout or anything else. As far as something internal to the project, I have to defer to the developer on that. But as far as a public-facing charging space, we don't have anything designed and ready to go for the parallel situation. There's always the question of what side of the car is this? is the port on those types of things.

We're

just struggling with the fact that they work better in garages and service parking lots than parallel spaces at the moment.

That's something we need to address sooner than later. Okay, I'll move on from there. Another question I had is the permeability. impermeable surface at 97 i know you are going gold so i assume everything is great but how does that work if you have a building that especially with the weather patterns we've been seeing i don't know how your neighbors feel about 97 impervious

yes well you know that existing podium we're not changing that they're actually adding more permeable space along both bottom where there were utilities there And then the other area is just to the north. There's a sliver of space. There's not much there. But it was all hard surface to begin with. We met all of the requirements. And then from the LEED standpoint, the goals standpoint, we're using a lot of other initiatives to achieve the point to be LEED certified, LEED certified. So, I mean, the permeability, if that's really the issue, we have maximized the permeability on the site from the existing condition and enhanced it slightly.

Okay. And is there anything that you're needing to do infrastructure-wise to capture the rainwater or anything? Or this is something that...

Yeah, there's nothing that we're doing infrastructure-wise other than what's required by MST.

And the other question I had is the light art and everything sounds fascinating. I'm curious how that fits with concerns with – I don't know if it's an event or if it's constantly there and how it fits with light pollution and how it fits mit migratory patterns and things like that.

Right. When we had our community meeting and the Parkview Tower people there, they had that same issue at T12. And the solution was for all the lights to go off on that upper deck at 10 o'clock. And it's pretty traditional that most activity on open decks, pool areas, they shut down at 10 and we do something that's accomplished that. Probably would be 10 o'clock from the standpoint of migration you know that's something that certain times that you do have to turn that off because the migrating birds they all know what the arch and other events around town you've got to be aware of that when you can when you can't have the lights on so is that after your

so your plan is you'll have a 10 p.m similar time when they go off at night And then for the migration patterns, the spring, those two migratory times you plan to, what's it called? Lights out, whatever it's called, comply with that. Definitely comply

with,

yeah.

Okay. That's what I've got. So I've got...

Okay. Thank you. Great. Good questions. Moving on.

Yeah, I have a question, I think, for David. The addresses South Merrimack and the intersection is listed as North Merrimack and Bonham. What is up with that? Is that a typo or are we confused about our address and street names?

On South Merrimack here.

See what the part I'm seeing in your report. On the background, there's two parcels located at the northwest corner of the intersection between North Merrimack Avenue and Bonham.

RFPA. Okay.

That's all. I just wanted to be clear about that. And then just positive feedback. I like to see us using a building where it's possible instead of always demolishing and rebuilding. So appreciate that. Comment in general or for our director, Anna Crain. is to think about like i don't think reuse is the same as architectural significance and i know we're rethinking how we talk about um what were what value and what we'll give point for um so you know maybe we get actually like more explicitly incentivizing like uh reuse or minimizing demolition as something we look at in the future because that feels like a benefit in general or could be considered a benefit Love that you're going lead gold. We often see silver. I like what you said about affordable housing, not just being studios. And it's great. Thanks for your work.

Thank you.

I was in the audience when it was in front of the Plan Commission, so I saw your full presentation and I thought it was excellent. And as Alderman Berkowitz said, this has been around for a long time and been hard to develop. And so I think it's exciting to see the six units that are being provided. It's a very positive thing. It's more than we've had in other projects. And to me, it's more than a token. I mean, it's still a small percentage, but units is of some significance. I think that's great. I do like the provision that was added in here, putting a deadline on the timing of the commercial space. It sounds to me like from what I've heard that the ownership is going to try very hard to get the best space and we'll do it expeditiously. Nonetheless, in other PUD projects where the commercial stuff just languishes doesn't have a time requirement and we're not able to really get them in there. So I think that's a positive. All in all, I'm very supportive and excited to see it happen.

Thank you. Great. Thank you. I was hoping you'd be willing to share perhaps some of the challenges you may still face in bringing this to a reality. And what I'm thinking about there is that we're aware that many projects have faced challenges due to rising construction costs, challenges regarding financing, and that I'm just curious about site conditions. There's a lot of challenges with doing what you're doing here. So I'm more trying to do it in the context of anticipating what what could go wrong or what do you worry about that might cause you to come back to us

well i mean that's that's a very realistic thing and i know most developers will tell you they've got it all figured out uh they're super optimistic um nothing's ever going to go wrong they're smart experienced and they've done this and you should trust them uh you know there's always a a reasonable amount of skepticism. There's always some doubt. There's always unforeseen things that can occur. You're right. We've seen demand in the labor market rise. We've seen increased construction costs. We've seen interest rates. We've seen constrictions on lending markets and equity markets. A lot of that, I think, had to do with over panicking. People tend to worry about the tsunami a little too late and they start running when they see the wave instead of when the water's going away. But I think just from what happened in the last couple of weeks with the Fed announcements, we already have construction terms in place for this project with the lender, but just what we've seen in the last couple days if not the last week with the Fed announcing lowering rates in the next year The financing markets have already opened back up. We've already seen the 10-year drop below that in the four mark. And things have just already opened up to the point that I've already gotten a bunch of emails and phone calls. Hey, have you found a construction lender? Hey, do you have all your equity lined up? So people kind of panic quickly on those things and adjust a little too quickly. Yeah. people are reactionary they don't usually look at the long term I think our thing here that's different is it's a very long-term approach to this project uh from who we do the project with who our team is and so on um also some of the other things that we're seeing is material costs in the market have actually started to not only Plateau but things like lumber and steel studs and you know, your base material costs for electrical wiring and so on. We've seen those things start to dip and come back to reality. So something can always go wrong. And we're carrying a large contingency on this project from a financial standpoint. Something could go wrong. The good thing is I think we have a good team, a good contractor, a good architect. We've got a great structural engineer. Everybody's coming together on this thing. It is An existing condition building where we're utilizing what's there. The issue that might have existed with that building at one point in time is being mitigated by diminishing the size and structure of that building. The new construction tower, in all fairness, that is probably the most straightforward part of this project. New construction tends to be less tricky than adaptive reuse or historic development projects. So that part seems to be the easier part, believe it or not. Even things that we've tried to make sure how we use our cranes and our buck hoist and even our window wall assembly, how that can be installed from the interior instead of the exterior. Just things like that that mitigate risk and or inconvenience to ourselves, the project or the surrounding public. So, yeah, something could always go wrong. Uh, but, uh, we've got a really good team. Uh, and I think that's, what's going to make sure we mitigate those, uh, issues and contingencies, uh, as by making sure we have the right team on board from the beginning. And everybody's sitting there from LJC to para construction to who's in case our structural engineer, these guys do this stuff all across the country. And I think, uh, The best way you can mitigate those risks and concerns and contingencies. is to make sure you do your homework on who your team is first. And I think we have a good team.

Very good. Anything else from the board? So, you know, you guys brought up some great points and I want to just, again, compliment you guys on putting this project together, really creative reuse of what's there. And really you're solving a problem that's been out there lingering for at least a decade, two decades, whatever. It's been an eyesore and you're going to fix it. And that's just fantastic. I also want to tell you, I'm super thrilled about your skyline art. I've been talking skylines for a few years now and a lot of our buildings, they're beautiful buildings, but they don't, put a mark on our skyline really that's unique and um you know significant so this is really a great idea I really appreciate we really appreciate I appreciate it especially um and I also want to just compliment our staff the idea that you know you guys have pointed out yeah this is going to be a really dense residential area perhaps the most dense in our city at least to date and be ever. And so really important to get the best possible thing in your very, very small retail space. I wish there was more room for retail space, but I know the constraints. I just can't emphasize enough how important it is to get something that engages the community, that makes the street more lively. that's really accessible to a lot of people. And while I'm at it, I'll just throw in another thing. You know, if you want to put some entertainment factor in there, that would be great. You know, from listening to our board meetings, we have been looking for that everywhere. So that would add a lot to the quality of life in Clayton. And so just to underscore. So anyway, thank you very much. Yeah.

Thank you. And just Just a good point that you bring up as it relates to the staff. Working with the staff has been great, very knowledgeable, very informative. They've helped us through this process. We definitely didn't do this on our own. So this has been a very good working and collaborative effort working with the staff on this application and beyond the application. So it's important to point that out. We've appreciated that help and guidance.

Very good. It's nice leadership, really, to find out these really important strategic things about our downtown. So it's good. If there is nothing further?

Mayor, if I may, and I know in the particular case, the developer is asking for both readings in one night. You only have one meeting here in December, and I'd like to keep going right away. So I just wanted to point that out.

Yes. But are we closing this public hearing and opening a new one? No,

you only required one public hearing for.

This

public hearing is covering both. You'll need to pass two ordinances though.

So

either of those items could be discussed by the public at this

time.

I don't know if any of the attendees have a hand up or not.

Okay. Nobody has a hand up right now. So in that case, help me out. So instead of introducing the bill, would like to, and instead of closing the public hearing and introducing this bill, do we want to move right into the subdivision plot and discuss that? Or do you want to have the vote on that? We

actually wrapped it into the report. So at this time, if you'd like to close the public hearing for both of those items, you'll need to take off each ordinance separately.

Let me ask this. Is there any discussion about the subdivision plot? Okay, so we can close the public hearing for this planned unit development and the subdivision plat. And we can take an introduction of the bill from Alderman Berkowitz.

I'd like to introduce bill number 7001, approving the rezoning and a planned unit development for 111 and 121 South Merrimack Avenue to be read for the first time by title only.

Second. Any discussion? Okay, Ms. City Attorney. Just by the way, do we have any changes to the ordinance based on the amendments we've been talking about here or is it just the

Yes. So on the, with respect to the first change, which is the affordable housing provision, that it shall not just be studios and a variety of units shall be afforded or it should be available as affordable housing. So there's gonna be a couple of changes. The first one is to section three of the ordinance itself in the table of public benefits. And that is the second from the bottom under affordable housing. So that change will be made. And then also it is to... Section E3E of the PUD document, which is Exhibit C to the ordinance. So affordable housing units must be located in different parts of the building and with varying unit sizes and number of bedrooms. And then in addition to Section E36, or I'm sorry, E through G of the PUD document, which again is Exhibit C to the ordinance itself, we are going to provide additional language that clarifies the commercial tenant space shall not be occupied by a financial institution.

Okay. And so do we need to say we're introducing the ordinance as amended?

I don't think that it's been amended because we're doing that prior to the, we did that prior to the introduction and the first reading.

Very good. Okay. I will get Rob's rules down in my lifetime. I don't know. Okay. So we've had introduced and we've had a second. We have no discussion other than that. I have not read it yet. And Mr., yeah, I just was going to repeat what we've already said just to summarize. So now it's Ms. City Attorney.

Okay. An ordinance providing for the rezoning of certain property located at 111 and 121 South Merrimack Avenue to a planned unit development district to be known as the Shaw Planned Unit District, providing for the change in the zoning map of the city of Clayton, Missouri, approving a planned unit development for the subject property and other actions related thereto. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? All right. Alderman Berkowitz.

I move that the Board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill No. 7001 on the day of its introduction.

Second. All those in favor. Aye. Any opposed. Let the minutes reflect the Board has given unanimous consent.

I'd like to introduce bill number 7001, approving the rezoning and a planned unit development for 111 and 121 South Merrimack Avenue to be read for the second time by title only.

Second. Any discussion? Okay, the city attorney.

An ordinance providing for the rezoning of certain property located at 111 and 121 South Merrimack Avenue to a planned unit development district to be known as the Shaw Planned Unit District, providing for the change in the zoning map of the city of Clayton, Missouri, approving a planned unit development for the subject property and other actions related thereto.

Alderman Berkowitz?

Aye.

Alderman McAndrew? Aye. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Alderman Patel. Aye. Aldermen Gary Feder. Aye. Aldeman Rick Hummell. Aye. Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you.

Alderman McAndrew? Aye. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Alderman Patel. Aye. Aldermen Fader. Aye. Aldeman Hummel. Aye. Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you.

Okay. With regard to the subdivision plat, you don't need to read anything. You already did that. So, Alderman Berkowitz.

I'd like to introduce Bill number 7002, approving a subdivision plat for 111 and 121 South Merrimack Avenue to be read for the first time by title only.

Second. Any discussion?

The

city

attorney.

An ordinance providing for the approval of a plat to consolidate certain property known as 111 and 121 South Merrimack Avenue and a portion of a vacated alley in the city of Clayton, Missouri. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? All right.

I move that the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of bill number 7002 on the day of its introduction.

Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Let the minutes reflect the board's given unanimous consent.

I'd like to introduce bill number 7002 approving a subdivision plat for 111 and 121 South Merrimack Avenue to be read for the second time by title only.

Second. Any discussion?

City Attorney. An ordinance providing for the approval of a plat to consolidate certain property known as 111 and 121 South Merrimack Avenue and a portion of a vacated alley in the city of Clayton, Missouri.

Alderman Berkowitz.

Aye.

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

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

aye

alderman Rick Hummell

alderman hummel

aye

mayor harris aye

congratulations i forgot to mention that i like the name the shaw that's really that's cool like

thank you very much i thought it was tells everybody what it is and where it is right

yeah absolutely um so we go ahead i'm sorry i

was just gonna say i was just gonna thank you very much uh we appreciate it uh and uh Thanks for getting us on this agenda and everybody just have a wonderful holiday season and happy new year. Then you feel better. You feel

better. Okay. So we're going to go into consent agenda. You can have a seat. I know we have the vacation of the alley still, but that's part of the city manager report. So, okay. Consent agenda.

We have minutes on there and disposal of records are the only two items this evening.

Okay. Any discussion about any of that? All right. Alderman Berkowitz.

I move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

Any discussion? Alderman Berkowicz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Aldermen Patel.

Aye.

Aldeman Gary Feder.

Aldeman Fader.

Aye.

Aldemann Rick Hummell. Aye. Deer Harris.

Aldemann Hummel. Aye. Deer Harris.

Aye. okay um bill number 7003 mr city manager

yes within the block bounded by carondelet avenue bonham avenue south brentwood boulevard and south merrimack avenue there are two public alleys one alley runs east west from south brentwood Boulevard to south merrimack Avenue and the second alley runs north to south from carondelet avenue southward towards the east west alley The World Trade Development has now been approved for this block, and as a result, multiple parcels have been consolidated through approval of a consolidation plat by the City. Given this project, a portion of the East-West Alley will no longer be necessary. Staff recommends that the eastern portion of the East West Alley be vacated. This portion lies between South Merrimack Avenue and the North South Alley and is shown as shaded on the attached Exhibit 1. It should be noted that City staff is recommending that the North South Allay be widened by four feet the developers agreed to dedicate an additional four feet to accomplish that staff recommends approval of the ordinance vacating the portion of the alley

okay very good any discussion okay see none alderman berkowitz you're muted

I am, um, okay. I'd like to introduce bill number 7003, approving the vacation of a public. Ali and approving conveyance of a portion of the vacated right of way. The to the joining property owner to be read for the 1st time by title only.

2nd,

any discussion. The city attorney.

An ordinance vacating a portion of a certain alley right-of-way, which was previously dedicated to the City of Clayton and is not necessary for right-of- way or for travel by the public, and authorizing conveyance of a portion thereof to an adjoining property owner.

Okay.

All those in favor?

Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Alderman Berkowitz? Aye.

I'd like to introduce bill number 7003, approving the vacation of a public alley and approving conveyance of a portion of the vacated right-of-way to the adjoining property owner to be read for the second time by title only.

Well, we have to do the unanimous consent one first. Oh. Introduce that one.

Which one was that?

So the board give unanimous consent to consideration for the adoption of Bill number 7003 on the day of its introduction. So I just read it. Do we have a second? Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. That's correct, right? Yeah. Okay, good. Sorry, I got distracted. No, that's totally okay. But I thought we'd just keep moving. Let the ministry feel like the board is giving unanimous consent. And now it's your turn to read this one.

Which one am I reading?

Second reading. Second reading. I got it. I got it,

I got it.

Second reading, sorry.

I'd like to introduce bill number 7003, approving the vacation of a public alley and approving conveyance of a portion of the vacated right-of-way to the adjoining property owner to be read for the second time by title only.

Second. Any discussion? The City Attorney.

An ordinance vacating a portion of a certain alley right-of-way, which was previously dedicated to the City of Clayton and is not necessary for right-of- way or for travel by the public, and authorizing conveyance of a portion thereof to an adjoining property

Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Aldermen Patel. Aye. Aldeman Gary Feder. Aye. Aldemann Rick Hummell. Aye. Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you. Okay, the construction

Alderman Berkowitz. Aye. Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Aldermen Patel. Aye. Aldeman Fader. Aye. Aldemann Hummel. Aye. Mayor Harris. Aye. Thank you. Okay, the construction

parking management plan.

Yes, over the past few years, the city has been experiencing unprecedented development, especially in the more congested areas of the city. Heightened levels of construction are expected to continue for at least the next few years. The associated road closures and temporary elimination of on-street parking are straining the available convenient parking for retail, restaurants and commercial businesses. The current parking circumstances are not sufficient to accommodate the needs of residents, businesses and visitors. Staff believe it is necessary to implement a new construction parking policy and enforcement ordinance to ensure that those responsible for construction activity provide adequate parking for construction employees. Staff recommends implementation of a construction parking management plan or CPMP policy. The policies highlights are as follows. First, projects with values of $2.5 million or more will be required to submit a plan for construction parking with either the first of a building, so the initial building permit or demolition permit. In addition, lesser value projects may be required to submit a plan with their permit applications based on area conditions as determined by the building official. Secondly, the policy holds the property owner and general contractor both accountable for CPMP development, implementation, and enforcement. The policy dictates that on-street parking is not acceptable as part of or in lieu of a CPMP. And finally, a tiered filing system is included to ensure compliance. Following a fourth violation, a stop work order can be issued for a project. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve the ordinance establishing a construction parking management plan policy. Very good. Mr. Gary Carter is here this evening if you have any questions about the document.

Okay. I'll open the discussion. Let me just go around. Ira, any questions? Okay. Bridget?

No questions. Gary, thank you for getting this going. It was definitely needed. Yes.

Susan, anything? You guys, anything at all? Gary?

So I just want to, in the enforcement section, I realize this is always a challenge whether the the fees or the penalties are sufficient to actually deter violations because builders may find it's easier. It's actually more economical to blow off the penalties, pay them than it is to comply with them. And I realize we have a potential for a stop work order, but I know there are situations where People who live nearby would say, well, I don't actually want to see him stop. They just want him to do this thing properly. So I assume that what we've got here you think is as workable as we're going to get to actually put some teeth into this.

Well, Alderman Gary Feder, I agreed with you and I had much originally when I drafted the original proposal. um policy that had much higher rates than kevin reminded me of missouri law so um but i think the most important piece is the potential of a stop work order um regardless of any dollar amount for the penalties it's really that um if you want to get to a construction project it's any delay so to answer your question that is that is the amount that our city attorney recommended

Well, Alderman Fader, I agreed with you and I had much originally when I drafted the original proposal. um policy that had much higher rates than kevin reminded me of missouri law so um but i think the most important piece is the potential of a stop work order um regardless of any dollar amount for the penalties it's really that um if you want to get to a construction project it's any delay so to answer your question that is that is the amount that our city attorney recommended

So the stop work order is really the hammer.

Absolutely. All right. Any other questions or discussion? Okay. Alderman Berkowitz.

I will introduce bill number 7004, approving a construction parking management plan policy to be read for the first time by title only. Second.

Second.

Any discussion? All right. Ms. City Attorney. An ordinance amending Chapter 350 of the Clayton City Code to require and enforce construction parking management plans for certain construction projects in the city. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay. I move that the Board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill No. 7004 on the day of its introduction. Second.

Second.

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

I'll introduce bill number 7004, approving a construction parking management plan policy to be read for the second time by title only. Second. Oh, sorry. Any discussion?

Okay. The city attorney. An ordinance amending Chapter 350 of the Clayton City Code to require and enforce construction parking management plans for certain construction projects in the city.

Alderman Berkowitz?

Aye.

Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Alderman Buse? Aye. Alderwoman Patel? Aye. Alderman Gary Feder?

Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Alderman Buse? Aye. Alderwoman Patel? Aye. Alderman Fader?

Aye.

Aldermen Rick Hummell? Aye. Mayor Harris?

Aldermen Hummel? Aye. Mayor Harris?

Aye. OK, the use and maintenance agreement with the library.

City of Clayton is preparing to begin construction at Remembrance Park located at 7811 Maryland Avenue. The city met with representatives from the St. Louis County Library District, which adjoins the park property to the west to review the construction plan and agreed that parks and recreation staff and contractors would need to have access to their property to provide proper care and maintenance to the park that will adjoin the St. Louis county library district's mid-county branch property. To that end, the city would require that the St. Louis country library district enter into a use and maintenance agreement to clarify responsibility for ongoing use and maintenance of the property. The attached agreement details the arrangements and identifies the limits of the park property that is covered by the agreement. Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen approve the ordinance authorizing a use and maintenance agreement for the property located at 7821 Maryland Avenue, contiguous to Remembrance Park.

Very good. Any comments, questions? Okay. We can introduce this bill.

I'll introduce bill number 7005, approving a use and maintenance agreement with St. Louis County Library District for the right-of-way adjacent to Remembrance Park to be read for the first time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion?

The city attorney. An ordinance providing for the execution of a use and maintenance All those in favor?

Aye. Opposed? I move that the Board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill number 7005 on the day of its introduction.

Second.

All those in favor.

Aye.

Opposed. Let the Minutes

reflect the Board

has given unanimous consent. I'll introduce bill number 7005, approving a use and maintenance agreement with St. Louis County Library District for the right-of-way adjacent to Remembrance Park to be read for the second time by title only.

Second.

Discussion? The City Attorney.

An ordinance providing for the execution of a use and maintenance for right-of- way adjacent to Rememference Park. Alderman Berkowitz.

Aye.

Alderman McAndrew. Aye. Aldeman Buse. Aye. Alderwoman Patel. Aye. Aldman Gary Feder.

Alderman McAndrew. Aye. Aldeman Buse. Aye. Alderwoman Patel. Aye. Aldman Fader.

Aye.

Alderman Rick Hummell.

Alderman Hummel.

Aye.

Mayor Harris. Aye. Okay,

the use and maintenance agreement with the gathering.

All right, I'll save you all some time. This is much like the last one, but on the other side of the property, this is a use and maintenance agreement which is located at 101 North Bemiston and staff recommends approval.

Very good. Any

discussion?

Okay.

I'll introduce bill number 7006, approving a use and maintenance agreement with the gathering for the right-of-way adjacent to Remembrance Park to be read for the first time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? Ms.

City Attorney.

An ordinance providing for the execution of a use and maintenance for right-of- way adjacent to Rememference Park. All those in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? I'll move that the board give unanimous consent to consideration for adoption of Bill number 7006 on the day of its introduction.

Second.

All those in favor. Aye.

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

I'll introduce bill number 7006, approving a use and maintenance agreement with the gathering for the right-of-way adjacent to Remembrance Park to be read for the second time by title only.

Second.

Any discussion? Ms. City Attorney.

An ordinance providing for the execution of a use and maintenance agreement for right-of-way adjacent to Remembrance Park. Alderman Berkowitz.

Aye.

Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Aldermen Patel. Aye. Aldeman Gary Feder. Aye. Aldemann Rick Hummell. Aye. Mayor Harris. Aye. Okay. The Plot

Alderwoman McAndrew. Aye. Alderman Buse. Aye. Aldermen Patel. Aye. Aldeman Fader. Aye. Aldemann Hummel. Aye. Mayor Harris. Aye. Okay. The Plot

Group, Inc.

Since 2021, the city has contracted with Flock to provide license plate recognition or LPR camera technology to the city. The number of LPR cameras in the city has increased from three in 2021 to 11 in 2023 with a 12th camera on order. Many of the municipalities in St. Louis County also use Flock safety LPR cameras. When the city initiated services with Flock safety in 2021, contracts were renewed annually at a cost of $2,500 per camera. In October of 2023, the city was notified that flock safety would maintain the annual cost of 2,500 per camera if the city agreed to a five-year contract. If the city continued the annual contract renewal program instead, the cost would increase to $3,000 per camera. By entering into the five year contract with flock safety, as opposed to the one year annual renewal program, the city will realize savings of $6,000 annually and $30,000 over the life of the contract. Staff recommend approval of the resolution authorizing execution of a five year contract with Flock Group Incorporated to provide access to flock services. And Chief Mark Smith is here this evening if you have any questions about the network or the contract.

Hey. Hi, Chief. Anybody got questions or comments? Yep. Ira, no? Okay, go ahead. I'll just go in order. Ira, anything?

No, not right now.

Okay. Chief, I just was wondering, you know, I feel like these companies, you know, things are constantly kind of changing. If the company gets, and maybe this is a question for Stephanie too, if the company gets bought out or like If the technology really changes, will the contract kind of keep up with that, I guess? Sure. Like cost-wise, if the cameras, like the technology changes with it? Yeah,

it mentions in the contract upgrades, but we've had it for over two years now and they're constantly upgrading their software. So we're getting... So that was

just the software updates they talked about in the contract. Okay. Okay. And I know you gave us a great presentation about this, but you really feel like, because it's not a cheap cheap date with flocks so do you feel like it continues to provide good um crime um It's a good crime deterrent and also just a good way to keep our communities safe. Sure. As

I mentioned, we get a lot of hits for stolen cars. And often we can't pursue those cars, but we can try to pull them over. They go elsewhere a lot of times. So we've thwarted a lot of crime with these flock cameras. I mean, we're getting hits for stolen cars daily. There seems to be a spike in the last couple of months on stolen cars. And as I mentioned before, we had a brief discussion about our unfortunate homicide on Y-Down. The flock cameras actually, they provided us the leads we needed to identify the suspects and make the arrest. Thank you.

Susan, anything?

Yeah, just real quickly, it does seem the cameras are a great evolution and a great tool for law enforcement. The only caution I would have is just privacy concerns, and I'm hoping that this contract has been looked at and that whatever, and I don't pretend to know, but whatever the best practices are with respect to contracting and protecting the information that's generated i hope it's incorporated in the contract so i don't know has this been looked at by a legal counsel or uh

mr o'keefe did that yes

okay great okay

that's it thanks over on this side comments questions no no yes

Chief, just curious. I know we've only been involved in this for a short time, but I'm wondering, have we experienced any vandalism or downtime with these cameras?

Oh, no. Yeah. So there has been one of the cameras started. It wasn't producing good images and it was failing. And that's part of their contract. They came and replaced the equipment. And so right away, no vandalism yet.

Okay. If that's it, then we can introduce the resolution.

I'll move to approve resolution number 2023-36, a contract with Flock Group Incorporated for the License Plate Recognition Services.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, very good. I'm going to suggest in the interest of time during the holiday week, that we forego the roundtable, as much as I'm dying to know everything you guys did the last two weeks. And we are gonna go into closed session, so if there's nothing further here, let's go ahead and make the motion to go into closed.

I move that the Board of Aldermen hold a closed meeting with a closed vote and record as authorized by Section 610.021, Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri relating to legal issues, real estate, and or personnel, negotiation of a contract pursuant to Section 610.01, Part 12, and or proprietary information pursuant to and or information related to public safety and security measures pursuant to section 610.021, 18 and 19 of the revised statutes of Missouri.

Second. Alderman Berkowitz?

Aye.

Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Alderman Buse? Aye. Aldermen Gary Feder? Aye. Aldeman Rick Hummell? Aye. Aldemar Harris? Aye. Thank you. Okay.

Alderwoman McAndrew? Aye. Alderman Buse? Aye. Aldermen Fader? Aye. Aldeman Hummel? Aye. Aldemar Harris? Aye. Thank you. Okay.