Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone to the February 2nd, 2026 regular board of alderman meeting. Would everybody please join with me in saying the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please. Alman Pa here. Ty here. Go here. Awoman Sims here. Lock Miller here. G here. Harter here. Ottoman Sullivan I mean Erger here.

Mayor De have a qu. Thank you. Uh next up is approval of the agenda. Do we have any changes? Yes. Alderman Gold. I'd like to make a motion. Um hang on one when we get to it here. Um to remove item under new business item B. Is that right? Bill number 6589. Yes. Um yes. Bill number 6589. um remove it from the agenda tonight.

Okay. Got a motion and a second to remove uh new item B, bill number 6589 uh from the agenda. Uh any any discussion on that? Yes. Alderman Pluffka. Can I ask you why? Well, uh, after, um, we've done some some looking at the potential new, um, uh, program and analyzing what the needs are, we I think we need to take a little bit more time to kind of, um, think about it and, uh, and then potentially bring it back um, later. Any other questions? Not. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. I.

I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Uh, any other changes to the agenda? Any objection to approving the same U as amended by acclamation? Seeing none, it will be so approved. Thank you. moves us down to item four which is a uh announcements appointments and we have one item under that and that is simply uh uh when we made the uh the appointment of uh our new fire chief. Uh we we forgot we got we were so excited about uh Chief Bernie being our new chief, we forgot something very important and that was getting your consent. the mayor gets to the mayor gets to appoint with the consent of the board of aldermen and um we forgot to do that the last meeting. So, a little bit of a housekeeping. So, with that uh can I get a motion to approve my appointment of Ed Bernie as our new fire chief?

So, moved. Second. Uh any discussion on that? Yes. Alderman Pluff. I just wanted to say as somebody that sat in on the on the formal interview process, but also has been the head of public safety and has dealt with our fire department and the new chief on a number of occasions. I wholeheartedly uh support uh his elevation to chief. I think he's going to bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the role and uh continue the very proud tradition of our fire department. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Um, do we need a roll call on this? No. All in favor of the motion to approve the appointment of Ed Bernie as our new fire chief, please indicate by saying I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Welcome and congratulations again, Chief. We're going to keep doing this each meeting. Uh, okay. Next up is a public hearing. Anybody in the public care to address the the board of alderman? Now is the time to do so. All we ask is that you come to the podium right there. Just state your name and your address and you'll be given up to three minutes. Yes.

Dallas Gleason. Uh we live at 8312 Rosalie. And first of all, I want to thank you all for all that you do for us because we know you spend lots and lots of time looking out for us. So we appreciate that. Uh the reason I'm here um is uh because well topic would be lighting particularly in the industrial court and looking at our agenda today. We're probably late to the party but we thought we'd take our three minutes of fame anyway and maybe it'll make a difference to someone somewhere. Um I moved to uh my location there. It's like you come off of Hanley on Litzinger, make the right turn, that first row of houses overlooks the creek. And when I moved there in 1992, it was there was uh there from the street to the creek, we had brush, bushes, brush, trees, all kinds of things. Uh we now have a beautiful path. We do love it. We walk on it. Um but it took out quite a bit of structure and then now with the creation of the creek u I should say the shoring up the walls whatever you had to do took almost all the rest and so we now look across and we see the um more more obvious seeing of the industrial court. However, what I'm talking about is really more related to the lighting and that's at night. And when I moved there, I have to tell you the industrial port was not even a thing on my mind. Looked across the street, it was not anything to be concerned about. And it was the I'm sure it's the explosion of light that has come with LED lighting that has made a real difference. And now if you look across, it's just blasting with light. And also, we know that along Hanley, there's been a lot more uh businesses and things like that which also bring that same kind of lighting. But the industrial court in

particular, we have an ex we have one thing that really bugs us and maybe we should have spoken up sooner, but the parking lot for the carbaline um industry there um has two lights that are up on standards the and as are up on very tall poles and as you they just point right at us. So, as we see the light across where these two are just massive and um I mean I can take binoculars and look and I can count how many of the individual lights are within them. It's so directed. And so my um request of you all is that as you look at um different things that are being built over there. Honestly, we didn't go to the meeting about the new building because I was thinking what's a new building? That's fine. We don't care. There's a new building there. And then all of a sudden it was like oh my gosh, lighting. This could be more lights, brighter lights than ones are already there quite possibly. So, just would invite you to go down our street, take a look across and, you know, go on down. There are other businesses, other businesses and other parking lots that are not so bad. Maybe have the original lighting that from 1992. I don't know. So, that's my piece.

Okay. Well, thank you very much for taking time out. Good evening.

I'm Michael Gleason. I live in the same house as she does. And because she's my wife, I agree with absolutely everything she said there. But uh I'm going to bring you a different issue. Um from uh the Litzinger Road bridge along Rosalie all the way to where the Leewind path goes into the woods. The there's a creek and on the other side of the creek is the industrial court. All the vegetation that's been taken out of there has left us with a fence that's about halfway up and halfway down. Uh that's a great You can drive by there and see half of it's gone. The other half is excuse me the other half is um torn uh falling apart. There's slats missing. There's uh sections of it missing. And uh so we get to see all of the parking lot that is over there. Uh, as you get to the end of that uh, fence, which is about twothirds of the way down, there's a um, I guess a storage yard with a tall cyclone fence around it. And that cyclone and in that storage yard there are uh, let's see, there are trailers uh, over the road and drop off trailers. Uh, there's orange cones, orange barrels, orange uh, panels for construct road construction. It looks like also there are stacks of steel uh nicely stacked but it's still steel. It's rusty and it is uh very visible when you're walking the path or when you're driving down Rosalie or when I look out my front door every day. And uh my issue would be is if you could uh take a look and see if there is any ordinances to get the fence rebuilt or and that uh yard that cyclones fence screened in some way so we don't see any of that.

Absolutely. Thank you so much. Okay. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Yeah. Um first of all, thank you for taking time out of your schedule to come down here and talk to us uh about this. Um, you know, I I tell people all the time, our residents are eyes and ears. You know, we do the best that we can to um make sure things are up to code. And I'm not suggesting this is or isn't up to code. I have no idea. But just by you bringing this to our attention, I can assure you that Whitney's department will go take a look at that. And um as far as the lights are concerned, I imagine she'll be taking a look at that as well. and you've got two terrific alder people who I'm sure will be following up or monitoring this thing for you uh as well. So, thank you again for uh for showing up. Uh anybody else have anybody online? Okay, great. Thank you. That brings us down to item seven, mayor and alderman reports. for the mayor's report. I was going to talk about the the response to the snow, but I'll No, no, go ahead.

No, I I I you you've you have all the the numbers handy, but I will just simply say uh just first of all, a huge thank you to all of our employees who participated in responding to the uh as I said last uh Thursday at our coffee with the mayor, the snow apocalypse. You know, we joke about snow events in St. blow us about how bad they're going to be and they never seem to live up to the the expectations. But I would say the last weekend or you know our last snow event it it did it probably exceeded our ex expectations in terms of the amount of snow that we had and um the the what really made it difficult is that we had a lot of snow. we were estimating like 9 and a half inches over a relatively short period of time about 24 30 hours coupled with the extremely cold weather. And the reason that's important is that the treatment on the streets really doesn't have any effect on it. So, you know, when we get snow and it's it's above 25 degrees, you can throw salt down there and that will start breaking down the the snow. But we didn't have that. We had singledigit temperature coupled with a lot of snow. But I'm happy to report, and I am starting to get into it already, but uh but I'm happy to report that we cleared about 44 miles of lanes. We are our our trucks drove a combined over 1,100 miles uh in responding to that snow event, which as I said last week, that's almost driving from St. Louis to Salt Lake City. That's how far that is. It's 1300 miles. Um, so they um they worked around the clock once again. They took time away from their family to stay here and to to clear the streets for all of us, clear the streets for our first responders. And um our first our fire department was able to use their new UTV uh a number of times instead of having to take the the fire truck out, which is

one of the really great benefits of having that. Um it's all-wheel drive and it's easy to maneuver. uh in these streets that have been plowed that that might not be as as wide as as expected or as normal. So, uh all in all, our public works department made a huge sacrifice in putting all that time in and um as did our police and fire for being here on on call the entire time. So, um other than that, I have no other report. Alderman Pluff, no report. Alderwoman Ty.

Um I would like to thank the uh fire department for uh the lots of training that they do. Last week they did some ice rescue training in Brentwood Park and um I have seen them do this before and every time I watch it I'm a glad that I um chose not to be a firefighter because you all are pretty remarkable to do the things that you do. Uh and then secondly, the Ways and Means Committee uh meeting for this month uh which is normally scheduled for this coming Thursday has been cancelled. Alderman Sims the report. Alderman go. There is a board 2 quarterly meeting on Wednesday, February 11th at 6:30 in the community center. Thank you. Alderman Lockwood.

Yes, we will have our public works committee meeting uh Thursday, February 12th at 6 o'clock right here. Thank you. Thank Thank you. Alderman Gold, no report. Alderman, no report. And Alderman Harter, no report. Okay, that brings us down to the city administrator report. We have three items. Uh, first up is a report on our snow event. Mayor Dimmit, I think you did such a fantastic job on on sharing what happened and and thanks to public works, parks, police, and fire. So, I'm just going to move on to the next item. Okay. Oh, please. to the snow. I'm going to the snow complimenting complimenting him. Yes. Okay. What was that? I didn't

nothing bad joke. Okay. Um Whitney is next um to pres Whitney and H3 are coming to H3 studio are coming to the conclusion of the commercial design standard um guidelines and before it goes to planning and zoning commission. um she's here to share some of the changes that have been made to that document with the board tonight. Thank you.

Give me a minute. Doesn't fit. There it goes. doesn't seem to be working. We tested it earlier.

Okay. So, we've had a number of meetings um and a public workshop and a couple sessions at the planning and zoning. So, we just wanted to go through some of the changes since y'all have seen it. And then we would hopefully go back at the February 11th meeting for final review and adoption of the resolution. And this is would be adopted as a subcomponent of the comprehensive plan. These are just guidelines for the planning and zoning commission to review projects against. Um there are a few text amendment recommendations that would be followed up at a later time. So,

what what are text amendments? Oh, that's where you actually change the text in the code to be consistent with the recommendations. Um,

so the the commercial design guidelines largely focus on the GC, RC, retail service areas, urban development, Manchester corridor, plant, not the Manchester corridor, the plan development overlay, and the light industrial. We did not include the Manchester corridor because those were largely discussed as part of that zoning district. and is incorporated in to the code already. Um the residential design guidelines were adopted so um back in August. So we're just continuing with the commercial at this time. So the major changes that we have is like we have a few of the small commercial areas that don't meet the current zonings and would not be able to support the current park minimum parking requirements. So the discussion has been um based upon studies of the parking and the use the planning and zoning may be able to wave the parking requirements in some instances so as to reutilize these buildings rather than having them sit empty. Um I won't go through everything. Currently the planning and zoning commission reviews commercial building projects. they can make a recommendation that a project is referred to the architectural review board. However, they haven't really done that in the past. So an optional architectural review discussion could be that if there was a project that was small enough and just architectural changes to a building that didn't really fit into the whole site development plan requirement staff or the planning and zoning commission could just refer it to the architectural review board without it having to go through a full site development plan review and board of alderman approval. it's would be for those smaller projects. So that is one of the

recommendations that a future text amendment may look at. You mind go ask a question? Um as it relates to architecture review board, h how is there anything in this that deals with mixed use where a building might be retail on the bottom or and um you know residential on the top. Correct. Or something like that. Is that covered in this or is that what this would allow for because obviously architectural review normally residential but

right the architectural review board would normally be residential um for a full redevelopment such as that. I really feel like that's important for a site plan review at the planning and zoning commission because that would be a whole complete redevelopment of a site and ultimately your approval. Likely enough, two of the three architectural review board members are on the planning and zoning. So, they have provided a lot of that continuity. But if at some point in the future um on those smaller projects that maybe only the architectural review board really needs to review, it would allow that kind of of flexibility within the code. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. So, um, another change was, um, to allow for Ephus or exterior insulation facade systems to be a permitted minor material. It was originally proposed as a prohibited material. However, some of the members of the planning and zoning commission felt that it could be appropriate on a very minor scale. So, we can building design continuing Um for the discussion of doors for commercial and used storefronts including offices, eating and drinking, clear deck glass doors may be used. However, there were some instances they felt that a solid door of wood or metal could be complimentary to the overall design and therefore it should be allowed on a case-byase basis. Large windows display So, and billboards would not be permitted when they're currently not permitted. Get into specific building design. Um, having the building closer to the street. It's a large that this picture on the right um of Clayton Road is the example. It was originally thought to be 25 ft, but when we look back at the overall design, the uh sidewalk in the is part of the public domain. So, the front yard setback was then reduced to 20 ft to be more in characteristic with this layout. So, and then on corner lots, it was originally proposed to have a corner element that was higher than the rest of the building or roof emphasis. and the planning and zoning commission felt that

that wasn't always necessary. So that has been stricken from the proposal. So um you know we propose landscaping zones along South Brentwood Boulevard where there currently isn't any. And then um we get into the lighting. We're currently in one section of the code. It had we lowered the lighting standard to 3,000 Kelvin. Under the uh MC district, it had it at 48,000 Kelvin. So, we are striking that to be consistent throughout the code.

Can you speak to um what that relates to in a in a in a layman's term? The Kelvin is the is the if I remember correctly the brightness of the light color temperature color temperature of the light um where it was recommended by the sustainability commission to go to 2700. However, we um the board chose 3,000 due to the Amarind standard that does not currently allowed to go to 2700 Kelvin, but it it helps with the migration of the birds and um and it also would help with you know industrial areas maybe shining too correct

bright of a light or too not really brightness but uh intense um color correct temperature. So, we will certainly go out and um look at the residents um issues. However, that area is largely pre-existing non-conforming. So, we'll have to see what we can do on that. Correct. Okay. I just want to make sure point on that. Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, I was gonna jump in here because if I'm reading correctly in any pre-existing non-conforming is one thing, but in the future bullet three like all fixtures shall have directional correct

type of shielding. So some of the omniirectional lighting will not be allowed in industrial going forward if they put in new lights once this code is put in.

Correct. So like if you remember with the kindare sorry if you remember with the kindare we did look at the lighting not to be spill spilled off. So any new development requires a lighting plan and a lighting study. So um the other major is designs was that again the 25- ft front yard was reduced to 20 ft to put more in line with the real world example of Clayton Road. Um that would then and we have the 20 foot in providing and that you know in front of the buildings there should be a pedestrian zone um to provide cross pedestrian access along all of the building frontages. Um, so that's again under the yard and setback requirements that would be reduced to a front yard set build two line of 20 feet for frontages on Brentwood Boulevard and Hanley Road. Um and then um this gets into the discussion where in the comprehensive plan the disc the light industrials talked areas generally to talked about converting over to office mixed use developments. Um so in order to promote that um it's we're looking at increasing the number of uses that's in the light industrial but that would be a much more detailed discussion during the text amendment phase because that may get into more of looking at these on a case-byase basis. There are industrial uses you may not always want next to um multi-use residential or office uses um due the noise impact. So we would look at that further as part of a future text instead text amendment.

So and those are largely all of the changes. Okay. So, thank you. This is simply an update, right? Yes. What's the next step? So, the next step is we'll be back at the February 11th Planning and Zoning Commission for final review. Um, and then adoption of a resolution and a public hearing. The resolution is to adopt it as a component of the comprehensive plan. Great. Thank you. Yes. have one more um thought that I remembered uh during our ward ward meeting, one of the residents had brought up um the the idea that

several applications recently have um included some nicely designed wall features where there's just kind of like you know a mural, let's say. Um and and he recognized that they're seeing that as a trend in other cities as well and it can be kind of nice as an additional. Did you all discuss that during this process in any way? I know that we we prohibit billboards. Um but was there what would that look like? Was there any discussion about those type of design treatments that you're that we're seeing? And then what would it take or would we want to not put that in at all for

we did not discuss that because we were getting into the architectural style of the building. The code does allow for outstanding features and site design to allow for site coverage bonus which we generally get into as part of that review. Um and so that's discussed at the planning and zoning commission for each project that wishes to propose something like that. But these guidelines wouldn't um prohibit somebody to come in and and propose some nice mural or something correct that they want to do for whatever reason, but it would just be reviewed at that time. Correct. It would all generally also be reviewed as part of a comprehensive sign plan.

Uh the courts have ruled that artwork is a form of signage, so it would be reviewed under that standard as well. Great. So there's a process for it. Yes. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, thanks Wendy. If you have any comments or want to make further suggestions, feel free to let me know. Yep. That it for the Okay. Uh we're going to move down to the consent agenda. Do we have any uh questions about any of the items on the consent agenda? Any request to remove any of the items from the consent agenda? If not, the chair would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Any discussion? Roll call, please.

Plus, yes. Autowoman Ty, yes. Autooman Gold, yes. Autowoman Sims, yes. Lock Miller, yes. Alman G, yes. Awoman Harter, yes. Urgger, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Uh, we have no old business, so that takes us down to new business. We have three items. First up is bill number 6588. Could we get two items now? Two items. Removed one. We still have three. Yeah, there there three on there. Um, it's the employee handbook stuff. Uh, bill can we get a first read of bill number 6588 by title only, please?

Yes. Bill number 6588, an ordinance granting site development plan approval for a new building at 350 Hanley Industrial Court.

Thank you, Whitney. Good evening. Um, Carbalign, um, if you remember last year, they came through for the renovation and site development plan for the building at 350 Hanley Industrial Court. However, after over looking at the structural integrity of the building, it was determined that it wasn't feasible to make the upgrades necessary that they were looking into. So they have come back. They will have to tear down the existing structure and build a new one um in its place. A new 15,10 square foot two-story building with a onestory 1,875 square foot storage building um to replace the existing structure. It will meet with the front yard setback requirements with some parking in front. However, they al did have to get a variance that was granted at December 3rd for the rear yard setback um to be able to connect to the existing structure that connects all of the buildings and that was granted. The planning and zoning commission recommended approval at its meeting on January 14th and so they're here for your approval.

Okay. Thank you. I have one question and that is the the I was at a ribbon cutting for Carboline when they did their fire building. Is that part of the building that's coming down or is that separate from That's a separate building. Okay. That's adjacent to it. Okay. All right. Yes. Alderman Lock Mueller Wendy. I guess it's so embedded in the uh industrial area. I guess it didn't reach the 500 feet into the residential areas as far as well it's only 300 square uh 300 feet. Um, but I don't remember if where that went to, but it was it's for all of the properties within 300 feet of the this building

and no issues from We have not heard anything from the residents. And then the rooftop um what type of mechanics mechanical HVAC or whatever on top of there is there compared to what they have now? I know this is a tear down, a rebuild. Going to be any noisier, let's say, than the Well, they have rooftop screening um to protect for the noise per the code, but it is just the HVAC. Do you want to Tyson Pile? He's with the architect with Arc Tourist.

Good evening. Uh I'm Tyson Pile with Arc Turus on behalf of Carbaline. Um 701 Market Street um 63101 sweet 1300. Um yeah, so this is the pardon me, I'm also getting over sort of the bug that everyone's going around. Um this is the culmination of multiple phases of reinvestment that Carboline has been spending over these last few years to um after their facility flooded in I think early 22. um that uh from their corporate headquarters, it's now decided that they want to actually tremendously reinvest in what's going on here at uh at Hanley Industrial Court. So, this is a class A office and um laboratory space that is uh it is a tear down of two existing buildings as you can see there. Um but it's um it's going to be fully within except for our one variance within the new zoning requirement. So everything that we are going to or we have been proposing to date has been I like to call it down the middle of the fairway. Um including um as I think we heard a little bit about lighting concerns um all those will be addressed and we will have lighting that conforms with city standards. We have lighting design a lighting designer on staff. Um, and as Whitney u alluded to, so even from a land um sustainability standpoint, it's better to have fixtures that control glare and spill. Um, and so our fixtures will very much be um conforming to any any concerns and I'm happy to provide all of our lighting calcs to to back that up. Um, but for the specific question about the rooftop equipment, the architectural design is intended to help in uh incorporate that and fully screen it from public view as well as mitigate noise. There's no there's nothing uh um out of the ordinary in terms of the tonnage that's on top. It's mostly there just to heat and cool the building. It's not the same scale as the

uh furnace um that was back in 2018. It's not that u not that intense. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes, go

first. I love what you guys did on Lit Singer. That building looks fantastic compared to where you started. So, thank you for that. And then thank you for uh considering the neighbors concerns regarding lighting because I know that's um I know two spoke today, but I've heard from a few other people about similar concerns with just the way trees are coming down. So, thank you for considering that. I I'll certainly even though some of the concerns are out of the scope of what this project is, I can certainly convey those concerns, use my position with the client to let them know that there that is raised. Um and so I I will communicate that back.

That'd be wonderful. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Well, we're going to take this up at the February 17th meeting. There is no meeting on the 16th because that's President's Day and I know it's not mayor's board. I will not be at the 17th. U be down at Jeff City for Missouri Municipal League legislative conference. So Alderwoman Ty as the president of the board or whatever the title is will be running the the 17th. Okay. So thank you very much. Uh next up is bill number no resolution resolution number 1578. Who is presenting on this? Tangula or

you don't mind I'll take it.

Okay. Thank you. Do we need a reading on this resolution? Nope. Okay. Go right ahead. Bola.

So, um Ways and Means spent um a lot of time, several meetings um considering the vehicle commuting policy. um they asked staff to take a fresh approach to it and in consulting with the city's um labor council what you have before you is um a completely new uh vehicle commuting policy. So, um, this policy now has removed positions that no longer exist in the city, positions that no longer receive vehicle allowance, and we've added positions that are new to the city's organizational structure. For instance, the major of commuting policy, major of administration, and the K9 officer to reflect the city's current structure. Um and one that was removed because we no longer have that role is the Drug Enforcement Administration um task force. So this policy um outlines the insurance requirements um use vehicle and personal vehicles on city business, who is authorized as drivers of city-owned vehicles, how you use equipment such as radio and the communication system and your cell phone. And what are the requirements for operators? Um, your driver's license has to be in good standing. The city checks that annually. You also check that when you are a new employee of the city and we go as far back as 10 years in in checking your driver's license record. Um this policy also includes the general operational policies um how to report accidents um when you are involved in one hopefully not as much and inspections and the compliance with IRS regulations. So exhibit A has all those who are allowed to take home a city vehicle. Fire chief, police chief, assistant fire chief,

police major of administration, police major of community community policy and the K-9 officer. And then exhibit B is the vehicle policy employee acknowledgement um that we ask staff to sign off on. So um policy for your consideration. Well, I want to thank Ways and Means for taking a look at this. This is something that has been needed to be reviewed for quite some time. So, thank you all. Yes. Yes.

Oh, I was going to reiterate what Bola and now you have said is that the the uh four members of the Ways and Means Committee looked at this over multiple meetings, really went in depth, uh asked a lot of good questions, and I think we're at a really uh strong solid policy that um protects our um city and our employees. Thank you. Anybody else? Motion to approve resolution 1578. All right. Thank you. We got a motion to approve resolution 1578. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? We need a roll call or voice. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Uh the final item under new business is resolution 1579, which is tied into 1578. This is an amendment of the employee handbook that allows us to roll in resolution 1578 into that document. So 1578 was the new policy. 1579 is putting that into the employee handbook. Correct. Wonderful. All right. Uh any discussion on that? If not, can we get a motion to approve resolution 1579? So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Brings us down to the final item on tonight's agenda, which is citizen comments. Once again, if anybody in the public cares to address the board, now is the time to do so. All we ask is that you come to the deis and state your name and you'll be given up to three minutes. We have anybody online? No. Wonderful. Well, seeing we have no further business tonight, this meeting is adjourned. Thanks everybody.