Planning & Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

uh good evening everyone uh i'd like to call to order the city of fenton planning and zoning commission meeting for july 7th uh 2026 our first uh item on today's agenda is our pledge of allegiance so if everyone could stand if you're able Great, thank you. Next is our roll call and introduction of city officials. So Secretary Abbott, if you could call roll, please.

All right, thank you, sir. We have Chairperson Yeoman is here. Vice Chairperson Sherrill.

Hi.

Yes, Secretary Abbott is here. Alderman Harrell.

Here.

Mayor Marath.

I'm here.

Commissioner Wisbrock. Here. Commissioner Voorhees. Aye. Commissioner Glover and Nelson are both excused. And then Commissioner Bielicki. Here. And also we have in the audience, we have Mike Abbott, who is on our parks board.

And I don't see anybody else on the block. Other woman, Hules, is on. I'm not sure why it's not showing up on that screen. Oh, OK. Hi, Robin.

Great. Thank you. So next we have a few notices we'd like to read. First, our notice to the public and ground rules. If you wish to speak, please pick up a speaker request form. These forms are located at the sign-in table. Please complete the form and present it to Secretary Deb Abbott prior to the public comments section of this agenda. The chairperson will call your name during the public comments section of the agenda. Your comments and questions from the members of the public will be limited to three minutes. You will not be recognized to speak until you have filled out the form. Please address all comments to the Planning and Zoning Commission. If you have a question for a petitioner, please address that question directly to the commission. All questions will be referred to the petitioners at the end of the public comment portion of the agenda. The commission demands respect and courtesy for others during the proceedings. Inappropriate behavior will result in the forfeiture of the speaker's allotted time and may result in removal from the proceedings. Planning and Zoning Commission wants to hear what you have to say about the items on today's agenda as it relates to cases at present. Okay, we also have a few notices for petitioners. First, the next board committee meeting is Thursday, July 9th, 2026. And the next board of aldermen meeting and public hearing is Thursday, July 23rd, 2026. Finally, a simple majority vote of the commission shall be necessary to constitute a positive recommendation to the board of aldermen. Okay, that covers our notices. I'll move on to our first approval. We have the approval of minutes from the June 2nd, 2026 meeting. Did anyone have questions regarding the minutes? Okay, with no questions, I'll go ahead and move that we approve the meetings from the June 2nd, 2026, approve the minutes from the June 20, oh my gosh, please let me start over. I would like us, I'd like to move that we approve the minutes from the June 2nd, 2026 meeting. Can I get a second?

Second that.

Okay, we'll go with Secretary Abbott. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay, the minutes are thankfully approved. So we'll go on now to public comments. I don't think anyone submitted.

I do not.

Okay, no public comments tonight. So next is old business of which we have none. So we'll move on to new business. And our first case is 2026 SUP 06, a petition by Paul Riddell, I hope I said that correctly, of Hilliker Corporation on behalf of Windwater for a special use permit for outdoor storage at 2130 Bowles Avenue. The property is addressed as 1297 North Highway Drive in the Zone VP2 Business Park District. Amy, did you have a summary for us?

I do. This is a request for a special use permit for outdoor storage for a proposed new tenant that is Wind Water, which is part of the Wind Supply Organization. They are proposing to store materials necessary for the operation of their business, and those materials include waterworks materials and utility products. The materials will be located on an unstriped portion of the existing parking lot behind the front elevation of the building. The area will be enclosed with a six foot chain link fence. No blind fencing is proposed on the fence, but the storage area will be shielded from street view by the existing landscaping. So staff is recommending that that existing landscaping be maintained. Otherwise blind fencing should be provided to provide the necessary screening from the street. As previously stated, this area is on an unstriped portion of the parking lot that's not currently used for any required parking. But we did review the parking requirements for the existing and proposed uses and found that 328 spaces are needed and the site currently provides 406 striped spaces. So the proposed outdoor storage area will not adversely impact any of the required parking or drive aisles for the lot.

Okay, thank you. Anyone have any questions for Amy? okay uh is there a petitioner present for this one okay uh if you wouldn't mind having someone approach the podium we just have some conditions that we'd like to read into the record and make sure uh that those are understood so um and we do have a few people online so if you could speak into the microphone uh please for the record just give your name and address

Hi, I'm RJ Taylor. I'm the president of St. Louis Windwater. My address is 3830 North Morneberry Drive, Kansas City, Missouri, 64116.

Great. Welcome. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Taylor? Is that right? Yes, sir.

So, you know, I drove the site. Is the entrance to your building in the back of the building? Because I couldn't find 1297. So that... Sorry. So the entrance is going to be at like that right there. Yep. Right. Okay. In the, in the back, but on the side. Yes. Okay.

The lot is addressed as 1297. The entire lot. The tenant space is addressed as 21. Gotcha. 21, 80, 30 Bowles Avenue.

You know, as far as the blind fencing, you got the railroad in back. I don't think the railroad's going to go anywhere. The company to the side is still BNSF on that side. The landscaping, which is just weeds and that sort of thing, I don't ever think that would be developed. But if it was, then we may have to have some blind fencing. But I think this request is pretty straightforward.

I agree with that. Okay. Well, if you could just acknowledge these conditions as I go through them, and then we'll go ahead and move for a vote. First, this special use permit is solely for the outdoor storage of materials related to wind water at 2130 Bowles Avenue, as indicated on the attached plans dated June 16th, 2026. Yes. Landscaping shall be maintained or blind fencing shall be installed to provide necessary screening of the outdoor storage area or materials from the street.

Yes.

A separate occupancy permit will be required before the tenant space can be occupied. Yes. And compliance with all other applicable city of Fenton codes and ordinances.

Yes. Okay.

So with those conditions, I'd like to move for approval of Case 2026-SUP-06, a petition by Paul Riddell of Hilliker Corporation on behalf of Windwater for a special use permit for outdoor storage at 2130 Bowles Avenue. The property is addressed as 1297 North Highway Drive in his own BP2 Business Park District. Can I get a second? A second. Okay. I saw Commissioner Wishbrock's hand up, so... We'll count that as a second as well.

Mr. Chairman, can I have an additional question, please? Sure. So are you going to be a wholesale seller or? Okay.

Yep. Okay. So with those conditions and the motion and the second, Amy, can you go ahead and do a roll call vote?

Chairperson Yeoman? Aye.

Aye.

Commissioner Wissbrock. Aye. Vice Chairperson Sherrill.

Aye.

Secretary Abbott. Aye. Mayor Morath.

Aye.

Alderman Harrell.

Aye.

Commissioner Voorhees.

Aye.

Commissioner Billikey. Aye. Motion approved.

Okay. Thank you for your time.

Yes, thank you. It's exciting to see a new business coming to Fenton. Thank you. Okay, next on the agenda, we have case 2026REZ02, a petition by Fenton Land Investors LLC to amend ordinance 4002 as amended to allow for additional permitted uses on lots one through seven of Fenton Logistics Park, plat eight, located within area A of the Fenton Logistics Park development. The parcels are addressed to 700 through 890 Elm Tree Way and our zone PID planned industrial park district. Amy?

This is a request to amend the master zoning ordinance, ordinance 4002, as amended to allow for warehouse distribution and light industrial on the remaining areas within lot A. within area A of the development. Currently, these uses are only permitted in area B of the development. A background summary of the zoning amendments for the development was provided in the staff memo, beginning with the initial rezoning of the property to a planned industrial development in 2009. In 2014, this ordinance was amended to approve the concept plan that established areas A and B and also established permitted uses within the PID. Since 2014, additional amendments have been made to the master zoning ordinance and approved by the board. And these included amending the concept plan, adding additional uses to both areas A and B, and amending the bulk requirements for lots in area A. The petitioner, Scott Haley, has provided letters stating the reason for the request to add warehouse distribution and light manufacturing to area A. and outlining efforts taken by the developer to secure users within Area A. Mr. Haley has prepared a presentation for the commission that he'll be presenting tonight.

Okay. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions for Amy before we move on? Did you say there's a presentation prepared?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yes.

Well, I'll go ahead.

You got my presentation, so he'll have another one.

Okay, all right. So, Mr. Haley, if you'd like to do your presentation. And if you could state your name and address for the record.

My name is Scott Haley. I'm with U.S. Capital Development. My address is 120 South Central, Clayton, Missouri, 60. I appreciate the opportunity to come back before this commission. Not the first time I've been here, as you all know. It's been a while, though, since I backed before this board. And so I am here tonight to talk about what my presentation has been. We've been involved with site since we purchased it in September of 2013 and have been obviously developing it for many, many years. And wanted to just talk about where things have, where things are from our standpoint, talk about the master plan who, as Amy identified, has changed, been amended at least nine or 10 times during that period I'm not sure if that's the exact number, but more than one. So I'm going to try and just kind of quickly kind of go through. I wrote a letter, but I kind of outlined some points, but I think some of the stuff I'll show you will help give you more color and understanding of what some of those points are. So remember, I'm old. I'm going to try and figure this out. So thanks to Amy, she gave me this pointer. These arrows, right?

Yeah.

All right. How about if we just do a hand signal? Touch the ear. Anyway, so moving on. This is just a quick aerial. You don't really ever get this perspective. It's showing stuff south of 44 and stuff north of 44, which is the Fenton Logistics Park. Moving on. What you see here is just kind of a conceptual plan that is evolved into the real plan that's been developed over the last decade. You see everything from the west side near Bowles with Fenton Fire District, Gray Eagle, Wally's, all the way to the east side along Fenton Logistics Park Drive where we have Hubbell, BASF, and many other tenants. And just to make sure you're familiar, we connected the center of Spine Road, which is Assembly Drive, which connects Bowles all the way to Benton Logistics Park Drive, which is formally identified as Mraz, or just sometimes currently named Mraz. So moving on quickly, I put this slide in here because you probably saw this slide. back in 2021. That's the exact slide I used to talk about where we started, where we were today, which is in 2021, which I think some of those same comments or majority are still relevant today, and how we would like to finish strong. Anyway, talked about where we started. This park is really nothing like what's in St. Louis. It's not your traditional industrial or logistic park. We're really totally different from that. I mean, we're really an employment center. We've attracted many, many users in that park, both locally and regionally, and some even nationally. Most are there for long-term, and many have already renewed. I can't believe we're getting to 10 years where people are renewing. That's been the past 10 years or more. You probably have heard me say we probably created 2,500 jobs there. Unfortunately, it's not the 6,400 jobs that were deployed over at the Chrysler plant. We always knew that we would try to bring new life with employment there, and I think we succeeded. I also talk about it took a long time for people to really understand what we were doing over there. A lot of times, they're like, what are you doing there? Sound like that one comedian. But anyway, the story came about once we were able to get all our infrastructure in and first three or four buildings got in. And I think it took a while for people to really understand that, especially in the retail side. But ultimately, once we had all the infrastructure in and a few of the landmark buildings, I think people understood what was going to occur. And I still use the term resounding success from all involved. I think it's been a benefit for the region. Benton, a lot of employers have came to the site, which probably over half were in the Benton market, buying two or three buildings, were able to come and stay in Benton. like Four Link, which is a basin. They came from a building in Clayton and in Fenton. Beckwood had two or three buildings. They consolidated and they have expanded. BASF had two or three buildings in Tree Court, not in Fenton, but on the other side of the river. They occupy one building now over time.

It's been amazing.

So Strive, which was a company out of, California has expanded, take another space. So from that standpoint, very, very excited that that's came about early on. I think a lot of people had different ideas, maybe not Benton, but people brokerage, the brokerage community and all that. But I think since, We've got where we are and we have always been focused really where I'm at tonight is on the retail component. The first phases were largely done on the area B, which makes up a lion's share of the entire development. And I'm really kind of focused on what my request is tonight is you're going to see what what the city has done what we've done and tried to accomplish some of the early intentions of all but the ordinance and what the retail and and all of that so. Let me move forward enough on the history of that but. The rationale and support for modifying the request, as Amy outlined, a lot of it is we tried to project what the future was going to be in retail in 2014. I think since that time even, I mean, it was a challenge there. I think a lot of, even before we bought the property, just for historical sake, I think there was large retail developers trying to, pursuing, maybe even had the property under contract to do large-scale retail. That never came about. We came in with a different strategy and tried to carry on what was occurring largely across the street and the access off of 44 that would support other parts of the state as well as the center corridor into the south portion of St. Louis. Also some of the components that really has affected, not just this site, speaking about this site is really what the changes in evolution of retail has been occurring, but really came to effect in 2019, 2020. And it's really kind of changed how we mostly my wife, most people shop is, you know, either online doing home deliveries, Food deliveries, a lot of ghost kitchens has been hurting, not even say hurting restaurants. It's just a different way how food is being prepped. People are consuming it either at home or their businesses rather than going to specific quick serve restaurants or even casual dining. And speaking of casual dining, I mean, that whole industry has really been disrupted. Not just with new restaurants, but closures of what I would think are Titanic brands, not just locally, but nationally. The Red Robins has closed. We have Buffalo Wild Wings. Several of those have closed, just to give a few. So all of these are contributing factors, which has made it difficult, the advancement of the retail market. our site. Also, and this is nothing new when we bought the site, but we have four regional commercial nodes that surround us in the middle. Not that we were ever going to be any of these, but it's part of the equation when over the last 10, 12 years, how the retail chain gravitated or tried to stick around more of these anchor-based centers. You know, the Stallworth Gravois Bull House, everybody knows that, has been, you know, to the south, Kirkwood Commons, and Sunset Hills shopping to the northeast. Even Manchester Highlands has their large anchor there at 141. During this process, you'll hear me talk about, as we talk about further steps of what we've done, you know, We retain the services of what I believe are the two largest retail tenant rep brokers in the St. Louis area. We've faced properties for two or three years and in location realty for the last year and a half, two years. We've tried to market both locally through ICSC, which is a shopping center convention out in Vegas that gets in front of many new types of users as well as national. And also during this process, we also tried to focus on non-traditional users and try to met the provisions that are identified in the code. Everything that recreational entertainment users, things that were just kind of on the periphery that would work or destination type facilities, but it just hasn't resonated for a variety of reasons. So that's a little bit of the rationalization and I'll talk about things that we have done. I mean, many, I guess the mayor and Ms. Abbott, I think probably the only two people probably been in this room that, really day one. A lot of you have been over the last several years, and I appreciate your service. But let's talk about, all right, here, Amy. Yeah. Thank you. This is, uh, some of the things we did, what we, we have done personally, obviously bought the ground and we did a lot of infrastructure planning, blah, blah, blah for, you know, the first two or three years. And then we were building or telling, starting to tell that story from the first time we put a shovel in the ground for the first building in January of 17, up to 2021. Um, In that time, we were still marketing the retail component of this, but difficult because it was just something that people couldn't get their heads around. When I say people, either users or brokers, per se, based on a lot of the factors I was communicating, among other things. But the important things that I think we've done is that we always tried to figure out ways to improve the asset to attract and spend time, money, effort to do such. In 2021, we had an open storm water drainage design throughout the entire park. We made the commitment to, we had the ability based on our capacity levels to bury those swales and put pipes in make it more aesthetically enhanced, you know, enhance that aesthetic around this area. We also, it was my pet peeve from the day we got this, was the coming in off of North Highway Drive westbound was like going from zero onto a high-speed raceway. And so we worked with the state of Missouri to add a acceleration and deceleration lane for people coming in and out of that park to have a chance to speed up and join into that fricasse or be able to slow down safely to get into the development. So those are things that were prompted by comments, our own thoughts on how we can take the next step.

Maybe in the next 50 minutes.

I'm sorry, I just talked about those. So if you would, that was just an example where you can see the open swales and stuff like that back in 2020 when we made the decision to go ahead and do that. And it's dramatically changed what the appearance and how that looks like as you went through this development. Thank you, Amy. The next ones we were, you know, we proposed to take the lead and try to build a building out there, kind of a spec retail building. It was actually about a 12,000, 15. The plans were like 12,400 square feet to do a building. We also got approvals. Amy, would you go to the next one, please? Thank you. This is that area with the pipes all buried and got approved this body and ultimately the board of ultimate proved a pylon sign they also approved a um that building i was just referencing the next one so there's a pylon sign that got approved but not not constructed we used that as a marketing component that really didn't resonate as an amenity or a feature that would help get somebody to latch on to Next one is just a quick snapshot of the building, the inline retail that we had approved by this commission. Alderman, we actually have full plans, but never got any real traction enough to warrant taking the risk to build this building split up to five or six of an tenant base. Thank you. You know what? I can stop here. Is there any questions as I talk about these? Because I'm throwing out a lot of stuff. We can take a pause on that. Anybody? Next components, as part of that last phase, we divided that area into smaller lots. We also, as part of that smaller lots, Constructed is highlighted. We built an internal drive and brought utilities to each one of those eight lots. Just as another enticement to say, hey, it's ready to go. Not that it was ever ready to go. I mean, that was never say, hey, if you guys are ready, we can't do it if you're not ready. It was just trying to take away every barrier we could to address it. Unfortunately, we did actually execute a lease. This is after we switched brokers from Case Properties. I'm not downgrading anybody that I'm talking about. It was a tough job for them. They understood it, and both of these groups, very professional, and they did everything in power because they don't like to fail either. But Wendy's, we executed a lease. Location Realty did not rep them directly. They had a strong relationship with the franchisee, the Bridgman Group. They have like 600 or 700 facilities, Wendy's and others, probably 200 or 300. One of the largest franchisees of Wendy's in the But anyway, we send a lease. We spent like nine months getting our plans, not the nine months, getting our plans approved, but getting that, building the roadways, getting utilities, all that. And somewhere around December, we get the call. This is after Wendy's came before this body. It wasn't here that night. Probably recommended, approved it. Gone, rocking and rolling. And they say, we're not going to stop it. I think they're stopping for a variety of reasons, not just us. It's just part of those components I was talking about before. Anyway, that was a real kick in the gut. Again, I think we kept saying if we can do X, it'll get somebody else. It's just to the point where even having the road and all their site braided and everything just didn't matter to a rent is minimal. I mean, rent is not the major cost to operate a restaurant or one of these labor market shares. Variety of things. They stopped and we've been pushing hard over the last six months trying to figure out where we need to be. And so we're, you know, This idea didn't just come up last week and we made an application. We've been kicking around ever since, probably end of January, February. And so we're making this request for a variety of reasons. I just don't, I really think, even though we have Wally's, I truly believe, and I was a big advocate Wally's early on in our company. I always thought, if we get Wally's, this is going to be like, just line them up, let's go, and that never, ever, ever happened. Which I'm still, even though I'm not a retail broker, I don't play one on TV either, but it's been mind-numbing how that has not been a real catalyst. Some of the brokerage communities say, well, We have so many options there.

Why would they want to do that?

But also, to me, that doesn't make sense. When you put a McDonald's, Burger King wants to go next door, the Taco Bell or whatever. We're figuring out we get a Wendy's or somebody else that's going to kind of foster that. It just did not. So we're here tonight. And I love Wally's. And I know the gentleman who operate those and helping them elsewhere just contextually with my thoughts on other locations where they're opening across the country those guys are from St. Louis I look at it as I think we're pretty lucky that they are from St. Louis and this is an opportunity to build here I'm not saying they wouldn't have came but I'm just saying I mind thank God they did build here And we're lucky to have them. Needless to say, they haven't been able to carry the weight for themselves anyway. Anyway, so moving on. Amy, I'm talking way too long. So if you go out there today and look at a bird, this is what you see. This is the roadway, the internal drive. We've got the utilities there. And even after it's been sitting there for a year and I've stood out there in the cold with brokers and users, it just hasn't been out there in a variety of ways forcing people to get me on a tour, make sure that they stop in Benton here to see a variety of things, even if it's a one-acre lot user or some other larger retailer service user. you know, peddle our wares here and convince them to be part of that last part. So, moving on, that slide. Next one, please. So, I'm sure there's questions or comments or thoughts, but I'm really here, hat in hand, respectfully requesting that this commission

and support and recommend the inclusion of these users into the ordinance or the area.

Again, the current ordinance, which has been modified multiple times, this does not impact any of those same users. We're just adding the users to give us, I guess, more bullets for what we can do. I stand here saying, I don't know what the real answer is if we don't have the ability to be able to track some others. When I say that, I'm honestly telling you what my heart is telling me to tell you. I'm happy to answer any questions. I always didn't swear to tell the truth before, but I always will. Thank you.

Thank you for that background and presentation. I'll just open it up for anyone who has questions before I ask any of my own. Does anyone on the commission have questions for Mr. Haley? Secretary Abbott.

My question is, how many other lots in that development over there, all that whole area over there, You have a lot of other space that could be warehouse or whatever. Am I correct or no?

There's no more spaces on the property that we...

This would be the only space?

Yeah, this is the only... This is our last... As I said before, it was kind of our third phase back in 2021 when I was before this body. Can you go back to the slide two or three, please?

We had a lightning strike here. That's why our systems are kind of messed up.

While we're waiting there, I did catch some air weeding. We're getting close.

Was it, did you have one on your presentation?

But to your point, I'll, I'll, you know, yeah, so.

There aren't a lot, it looks like there's a lot of empty space over there, or is that just parts of the lots that belong to?

Correct, and, and, Yeah, we don't have anything other than that 13 acres you could put anything on other than maybe some small accessory building or something like that. Yeah, here, that's perfect. So my pointer's not really gonna work if you're not looking at the screen, but as you can see, the phase area is not controlled by us. That's Burlington Northern Railroad. If you're looking at the screen to the far right, you'll see the four buildings. That's buildings one through four. um building five is the one across the street first forum then amazon then gray eagle and then 6a 6b and 6c um those are those are all what we have available wendy's obviously flanks er that's thank you yeah and

So I have a question on that building 6C is first form. Is that right? We own it, but we have a lease with, yes, with them.

Okay.

And Amy, am I correct that that's the building that is also in area A and we put some conditions on there being an element of retail in that building?

That's correct. That's lot E3 that's referenced in your staff memo. There is warehousing in that building, but 35% had to be dedicated to area A uses.

Right. Does anyone, either you, Scott, or Amy, know if any retail has, in fact, gone in?

No. I mean, the building is like it has been for two and a half years after we completed it. I don't want to speak for Silas or Sal or Andy, but communication with Sal, not weekly, probably, but that building, I think that building was designed to build specific, they occupied, they're our largest tenant in the park. In building five, they're at 190,000 square feet. In B, they're at like 100,000. And since they've evolved in their company, it's unbelievable what has been accomplished in 10 years. I look back where they were in Green Park. Sorry for drifting here. But it's such an amazing story. They were in two or three small buildings. what they've done from there to here. I'm not saying because of us, because of them. We just gave them an avenue to do that. But they've created their form energy drink, which is now just being distributed by the other 400 spray eagles throughout this country as their vehicle to distribute, not from Building 60. So they're not using that building for what was originally Now, there were some conditions on there. The buildings is still vacant inside. Some improvements have been made.

And the retail is one of the reasons why, because they Is that a fair statement?

Their business plan changed. When they got into the drink aspect of it, their business plan changed. They're still paying rent on that building.

But it's not like the conditions we imposed and the failure to find retail.

No, I don't think that's definitely not. I think that they were obviously... Going back in time here, they were, you know, I think their intent was, hey, we're going to have some related businesses to ours, you know, either supplement superstore, they might have like some type of pre-meal whatever or whatever, you know, yoga class or some type of something that would complement who they are, what their culture is. Right. But that could have been open for anything, but I think that was the original intention.

Okay. The other question I had was Wally's has what appears to be sort of open square footage kind of on one wing of that building. And I never understood if that was intended to be a potential retail tenant or if that's just the design of the building. Or maybe that's where the restrooms are and the way that building was built, it just looks vacant from the outside. There's no intention for Wally's to actually have retail space.

They got 12 pounds. Well, I know that. I know that.

Yeah, no, I just, it always seems to me, I don't know if anybody else noticed, when you walk in, the wing of that building looks like it has open square footage.

So if you walk in the front door to the right are the coolers, restrooms, the cleanest restrooms I've ever been in, by the way. The left side is all apparel and knickknacks that you can buy.

There was never any intention for there to be other tenants sort of sharing that building. Okay, I just don't know. Curious about that. They're full.

They don't have any empty rooms.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Then that's just my misunderstanding.

And there's no area on their site to do that.

Okay. Okay. So I think my only other question, then I'll certainly let others have the floor. But I mean, you've spoken to some of the potential reasons why it's been hard to find retail. You also gave us the Wendy's example. Are you at liberty to share sort of if Wendy's gave any specific reasons why they backed out?

I don't, if I didn't, I wasn't clear when I answered that question or when I was talking about them. I think for them, it was partly this. I mean, building a new facility when existing facilities were closing, not just here in St. Louis, which they've had a number of stores in St. Louis close. And, you know, elsewhere, I mean, the Wendy's brand has really decreased in value. And I don't know how to really describe that other than what their stock had done over a long period of time and about two weeks ago went up 30%. But I guess if you go down long enough, anything, amount going up. But this, I will say the Bridgman Group, the largest, one of the largest Wendy's franchisee groups. So we were very, very confident on, hey, we got somebody who knows what they're doing. They're not opening their third Wendy's. So it was unfortunate. And so when you have like Goliath do that, I could see closing underperforming stores and then backfilling them with something that, you know, we would believe or communicate as a class A opportunity. really just was a kick, honestly. Yeah.

Okay.

It wasn't like, hey, we're just not going to do this one and on. I think it was kind of a St. Louis thing, but also nationally, I mean, the brand has been not as strong as it used to be.

Yeah. It is, I mean, it's a curiosity to me that given the highway, exposure and ability to access that area. You would think that at a minimum, fast food locations like Wendy's would have an interest in coming in. I could see where maybe other retail may see that as less appealing if they don't think there's consistent highway traffic to support whatever they're doing. But, I mean, is it really just the draw from the other nearby retail providing an alternative, you think, that's making this so hard? I guess it's... And maybe we're not going to ever be able to really know the answer, but it seems still a little unclear to me, like, why retail's not more attractive in that space, given the highway exposure.

No, I mean, believe me... That thought has been through my mind 10,000 times. Sure. To the point where I think people thought it was crazy, but I still, my mind thought it would be, and then ultimately kind of like come to reality, obviously. But let me, I have in my hand, I mentioned that I had Pace Property previously in their location, commercial, represented us, and these are, this is, I'm reading from leasing reports that they give us, and basically they say, active, feedback pending, and no interest, you know, kind of like dead deals, and so I'm going to, to your point, I want to, these are not my words, these are what they're hearing from either national brokers, local brokers, or the users themselves. I've just highlighted a couple. I'm not going to name the business, But these are things saying, this one's food, is focused on pad sites by big box retailers, secondary properties within a half a mile of these stores. Here's several others. I'm going to put this one larger for me to read. So this is another food one. Back filling a closed Hardee's. another town around here. They were going to take a dirt cheap spot and rebrand. Um, not enough homes. Another comment passed. They see this as a tweener. Um, another food one that's very strong nationally interest of interest, really looking for retail synergy and need class or a plus sites. They do 100 years of deals a year. So If they're going to do a deal in Missouri, it has to be a slam dunk. Pass. Another one that's, this one's got three or four locations. Recently in St. Louis, they need more density. And the ones I know of, they're around closer to, I'm going to say mid-intersection. The Clarks and Manchesters. others where you got people are driving by on their way, you know, easy to run out and grab something to eat if you're two miles from there. It just feels a little too isolated. Yeah, it's, I mean, I always told people, people are like, how, this is early on, how in the hell do you get to this place? I said, well, frickin' Wally's opened up and a million plus visitors show up every day, so somebody's figuring it out and it's, that phone usually helps you, right, so. Anyway, I don't, I mean, those are the types of things that's hard to overcome.

Yeah, those don't seem right.

Yeah, I mean, so I think you've heard enough about, I'm happy to answer any other questions and be as forthright as I can, but I think I've been thinking the term, what I should say, I want to say, I'm calling uncle. I'm asking you to call uncle in some fashion. Now, what I do believe, though, I mean, I think the bigger user, it's tough for us to go out and build a 60,000-foot building for a specific user, like a warehouse showroom that we can do. They have a showroom, they sell windows out the back or whatever, or something that would be Joe's jungle gym where we have 1,000 kids through there every Saturday and Sunday and Tuesday nights or whatever. You know, it's tough for us to go out and spend a bunch of money to do that and take the risk. It may not be sitting there just like we did with the smaller retail buildings. It just never got traction. So anyway, that's kind of, it's tough for us to convince our lenders when they see leasing reports like this to say, hey, yeah, go spend four or five million dollars or go do that on a small building. So anyway, any other questions? I'm happy to tell you.

I'll open for other questions from the commission.

You haven't had the road, that road and utilities in for a year. It hasn't been a full year yet.

We started right after we signed this, probably the fall of 2020. Yeah. It says fall of 25. Yeah, because we turned it over to Wendy. We signed a lease, and we had to deliver what we said, and we had to buy the max. And so once we got the lease, we finally said, all right, why don't we just build a smaller road? Let's just get it in. And I'm like, guys, let's just. I don't want to get into internal conflict. Just build the whole damn thing with the money to do it. If we get one, it'll all come. I'm not here because of that. It's just one of those things where we progressed over every year trying to figure out what else can we do.

I have to ask this question. do you actually have a tenant in the warehouse light industrial or distribution space fairly well lined up? And do you think there's a high likelihood that you would have someone ready to go quickly if this were approved?

I do not have anybody lined up now. Do I believe that I could have somebody lined up?

Certainly.

But I also think that, um, What this market has is an opportunity. They answer the question, no, I don't. I have not been out marketing like this behind the scenes. It just doesn't seem fair to me or to you or whatever. Now, I've had people call, I mean, all the time, but no. The point I have, I want to make here is, Most of the tenants, the sweet spot in Benton for these types of users is not, I mean, like first form, I mean, Andy Priscilla said, hey, I've said, hey, what about this building? This one here. That's hardly ever when you're going to take 190,000 square feet. Day one. But he did. Most of them are the sweet spots between 30, 40, or 50,000 square feet. Like in the first building, we had 30, 40, 50s. to 30, 40, 50. Now, some of those, when somebody moved out, everybody expands. Almost everybody who's been there has expanded with the opportunity to do such. The ASF would love to have more space. Everybody out there, we're so lucky that we, and I said this early on, that we have a park that we're not having dying businesses. We have businesses that fostering. I think we were able to be the catalyst to do that. But to your point, if we built a building, I think we're not going to build something where somebody's going to come in and take 150,000 square feet. What I think it does is if somebody comes in and takes 30,000, they have a 40,000 square foot that could be that warehouse showroom scenario because we already got an opportunity. But That may not come in. But I do feel confident based on what we've done that we're going to continue with the employment center opportunity where, again, we're not moving. It's not forklifts and a bunch of lifts. We're actually pretty lucky that this park and the other ones to the south are all pretty much value-add type businesses. providing skilled labor opportunities for people in and around this area as well as the surrounding counties from the south.

More traffic for Wally's.

God love them.

So I might put you on the spot here, Joe, because I know you were around when sort of the original plan came together, and I didn't know if you wanted to speak at all about kind of the city's position on retail on that strip.

So I was going to speak eventually, but I wanted to let everybody else have an opportunity. And Mr. Haley's right. I've been around for like a long time, since the 1980s. I don't think some of these guys were born in 1980, but nonetheless. So yeah, I was here when half this industrial park was undeveloped. We had Chrysler. That was a booming business. It was just... So when the Chrysler plant left, There's two ways that the city, and this is for informational purposes, there's only two ways the city is spent and makes money, retail sales and 5% gross utility taxes. The last year that Chrysler was here at full swing, our take was like $1.43 million. I guarantee you that site doesn't even come close to that. It can't because they were high energy users. And I think Mr. Haley will attest to the fact I was one of the few on this commission, this board and with the city who bought not against this development, but I didn't want to change the zoning. I wanted us to try to lure a high energy user. Fiat wanted to retool that plant after Chrysler left. But the federal government had control of that property. What I think is interesting, and I think we have to go back and look at the history, and I think it's admirable on the part of Coleman's property at the time, This 295 acres, if I would have been smart enough, I would have looked at this, but Coleman was the smart one. That 295 acres, and these are records from St. Louis County. They paid six, and these are going to be approximate numbers, they're not exact dollars, but $16 million for that property. They sold 125 acres back to BNSF because there's a rail spur back there for 13 million. I think my numbers are right close because it's all factual in St. Louis County. So, I mean, kudos to them. So roughly about $3 million for this developed area here today. And on top of that, they got a TIF from St. Louis County to help with the infrastructure. So when I look at this, and Mr. Haley is exactly correct, there have been a lot of amendments, changes made by the city to accommodate the development here. Case in point, lots 6A, B, and C, that was all part of the A where we wanted to retail, figuring that was the entrance to our city. When you drive down the highway, that's what you see. But they made the argument and the commission and the board agreed, okay, since it wasn't directly, it was off Meraz Lane, we'd go ahead and eliminate A and B. And then the situation came up with the flex use on C, which we know is first form. And again, as we mentioned, that didn't materialize at this point. It may, it may not, I don't know. So that left us with 13 acres. And as far as I'm concerned, out of 295 acres, 13 acres is just a small pittance. I mean, Wendy's, I don't know what happened there. I drive up and down the interstate I go to the farm and out in Eureka, they just built in all these and one of the most God forsaken places to get to. And on the north side of 44, there's not a whole lot of people. You have to travel to get there. I drive into the city and there's new developments there. So I just, and just to kind of touch on, I think we were more focused on what you see developed here and not so much the area. So to say that 10 years is, it's been 10 years since that development, we haven't gotten anybody. I think the focus was on what you see here. And again, then COVID came along, I can't discount that. But you're starting to see a resurgence. For instance, I've read in the business magazines, Target is refurnishing because they're in line. They're going to start luring people back. You have a new generation of younger folks who want to come in and see their stuff. That trend is changing. I think it's too soon. I think that let's give this a little more time. As a matter of fact, I have to tell you, there's been a couple of businesses who have told me, that they attempted to go in there, but the prices are too higher for the property. They can't afford that. Now, that isn't my business or their business, but those are just things that I hear. I've heard there's a couple businesses here that need additional warehouse space that are currently here. And if you allow these three different amendments, your A is gone. There's no longer an A here. component to this. And again, 295 acres, we're looking at 13. I'd just like to work with the companies to see if we can't lure some more people here. I don't know what the bottom line is, but I think we're premature if we do that. And again, that's with all due respect to what this company has done. What other notes did I have? Yeah, again, I think 13 acres. And you know, Wally's had a million people traffic through that. And I think if you got the right marketing people in there, Wally's would be a draw for some of these. So those are my comments. I really don't have any questions.

Thank you for that. it is good to know the history and the motivations behind, um, the area. Amy, I just want to clarify, there aren't any conditions. This is just a text amendment, if I understand it correctly.

That's correct.

Okay. But like any other vote, we're just a recommending body on this particular case. It's not like because of the special nature of this, it's like an automatic approval or anything.

Correct.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay. Other questions for either Mr. Haley or the city? None.

Okay. I don't have any questions, but I do agree with Mayor Morath on it does seem a little too soon. Or like Haley said, call Uncle Yet.

I also think we're doing some stuff on the other side that may enhance people to come.

You know, FedEx is going to be going in. Looks like maybe they're getting that hotel started. So there might be some other things. So I think it just seems a little too early to give up on A.

Okay.

Okay.

I agree. I agree. It makes me nervous to think if we would authorize this that we could have warehouse. You know, a warehouse is going to come and never have the possibility to retail over there, which is what the initial plan was. And I don't know if I could ask this question or not, but I'd be interested when you're

standing out there in the middle of winter with people looking at those lots.

What are they saying? Why that? I don't think we want to do this. Is it the access or anything like that? I mean, I know that your company there does most of that. But if you're out there talking with any prospective people, what's wrong with it?

I think what's wrong with it, I don't want to know if it's the access. The visibility is great. It's, you know, when they, as I mentioned before, they're either going to go around those more centrally located retailers. I mean, I'm not talking about Wendy's. I mean, for anybody, I mean, I hear you on the Target. I have not talked to Target for the 13 acres because it wouldn't, they're going to be somewhere where they're going to be and then have 12 stores on one side and 12 on another. I mean, it's going to, that's not what this is. I mean, I know it's the one-off type scenario where there are going to be. We've got Wally's right here. We're in the shadow of somebody with 1.1 million people coming every year. Yeah, coming every year. It's not like, hey, I can't get to it. It's just there's not enough. The rooftops are within direct reach.

It does seem like retail is coming in. Jimmy John's just came in on one side. We talked to Jimmy John's.

They wanted to be on the home side.

They actually wanted to be on your side.

No, they did. We talked to Jimmy John's, and they ended up going on the south side. Other than the 2,500 people there and people using the North Highway Drive, you don't have the daily route. passing on the south side where you got home.

That goes against all logic if you're talking about Wally's bringing in a million people.

Right? I understand the logic. Believe me. I've got a million people there. Why can't we get anybody else? We can mark it I think, you know, I think we've done everything we can on the marketing side of things. It's tough to say, hey, we're going to put a gun to your head to do it. But I understand the point about having you got Wally's a million is counterintuitive. I don't know what percentage is Wally's not, you know, what percentage actually local is. people going to Wally's. I think a lot of, we have a lot of construction people from the region going there in the mornings. And I know that people in Fenton or the surrounding communities go there. I don't know the answer of how many people going from Springfield to Chicago are stopping. What are the pass-through through interstate traveler?

Have you had their fish sandwich? It's excellent. I see a lot of our neighbors go there. They go for the popcorn. They go for the food, the pulled pork. They don't want you to stay there. it's, it's a, it's a great marketing. There's gotta be, somebody has to figure out on area a here, some type of retail business that, that Wally's would help draw. There's gotta be, gotta be.

Well, I mean, I'm not disagreeing there because every year their sales grow and it still has not been the emphasis for five years.

Yeah. Yeah. But, and again, you know, like we were talking, like we've tried to do this for 10 years. I, again, I don't know that it's totally been 10 years because we focused on Wally's. We focused on BNSF or BSAF and Hubble and, and these others. I, I think we need to really, really focus hard on that a area. And I guarantee you they'll come.

What come, what was your, if you would have said, or I guess, Did you have a forecast as of now? How much of that property would have been filled? Would everything have been filled by now? I was just curious, do you know how far behind you are? Is this just a reaction from the Wendy's? Four years ago, we planned this should have been filled. One, I'm just curious how far behind you are. How do you compare to other areas that are open for retail? Are you so far behind another area like you mentioned? I think you said somewhere in Clarkson. Are they getting businesses faster or quicker? Two things.

I think, you know, even before Wally, you know, we actually had went to the targets and everything, the big box users. I mean, we have actually a plan on that front portion, and that didn't get, and that's what kind of broke our heart when Bass Pro, who we went to directly, oh, we were going to build a lake farm to go put their boats on. Seven years, eight years later, they're buying the shopping center up at Sunset Hills and refurbishing that. It's not the same size of what they would normally do. But the difference between what I was, let's say, using Manchester, Clarkson, I wasn't going to name names, but malls, the little hamburger thing. They're at, you know, they looked here, but they got Clarkson and Manchester, I mean, that area, even though it's as far west in St. Louis County as you pretty much can, other than getting to Wildwood. I mean, that's what they're, those types of guys are looking for that component. And for us to have the opportunity to go put a warehouse showroom

that you can't get some sales tax.

It's difficult for us to go build up a building and kind of hope that somebody's coming to that, even though we've talked to all those different users, both nationally, regionally, and locally who want to do that. But the sales tax on that, I mean, there's nothing that's going to generate anywhere close to what the city lost back in 08, 09. We didn't buy this thing until the buildings were

okay um are there any other questions all right uh seeing that there are none i think we'll go ahead and um i'd like to make a motion for us to vote on case um 20 26 res 02 um So I think the motion needs to clearly state that we're seeking to amend ordinance 4002 as amended to allow warehouse light industrial and distribution as additional uses on lots one through seven of Fenton Logistics Park, flat eight, located in area A of the Fenton Logistics Park development. Can I get a second? Did I read that appropriately? Okay.

I'll second.

Okay, so we have a second. Let's go ahead and do a roll call vote.

Chairperson Yeoman?

Aye.

Vice Chairperson Sherrill?

Nay.

Secretary Abbott? Nay. Mayor Morath?

Nay.

Alderman Harrell?

Aye.

Commissioner Wisprock? Aye. Commissioner Voorhees?

Nay.

Commissioner Billigay?

Nay.

Motion is not approved.

Okay. So our failure to approve it, does that stop it from going to the board? No. No. Okay. So it'll go as a nay recommendation to the Board of Aldermen, but it'll still be up for consideration by them. Understand the challenges that you're going through. Hope that we have some better luck as the market continues to shift.

Thank you.

Okay, that takes us to the next case. 2026 SUP 07, a petition by Gravois Bluffs 9B LLC on behalf of Aspen Dental for a special use permit to operate a medical dental office at 695 Gravois Bluffs Boulevard. The property is owned C1 Commercial District. Amy. Amy.

We do not have a petitioner in attendance tonight. I can give you a staff summary if you'd like.

Sure.

Wait, wait, wait.

I just want to be useful of our time. Sure. Don't they have to agree to anything?

They would have to agree to conditions of approval, but it would be included in the ordinance, approving ordinance.

Okay. So we'd read them into the records still.

Yeah. So last month, request for site plan review for a new commercial building in Gravois Bluffs was approved. The building will include a Chipotle restaurant in the southern tenant space, and then the northern tenant space is proposed to be occupied by Aspen Dental. That is considered a medical office, and it requires an SUP. The tenant space will be approximately 3,500 square feet, and it will be addressed as Suite 102. According to the site plan, the lot will have 61 parking spaces. The code requirements for parking would be four spaces per 1,000 square feet for medical offices or four spaces for every doctor and one space for each additional employee, whichever is greater. So at a minimum, based on the floor size, they would need 14 spaces for the medical office. The restaurant would require a minimum of 20 spaces, so it's estimated that this lot will have... sufficient parking for both uses. However, staff would verify the parking requirements are met, including any accessible spaces in conjunction with the occupancy permit.

Okay, thank you. Does anyone have questions for Amy? I mean, should we interpret their absence as anything other than just they didn't have someone here?

I did send a petitioner a reminder. It could be that they just forgot.

Okay. Does anybody have any questions or concerns about a dental office going in? I don't.

I'll just make a comment. I find it an odd mix, a dental, whether it's Aspen or anybody else, a dental in a restaurant. I don't think I'm going to get my teeth fixed and go next door, but... One of the concerns that I have had, and I've raised this before, and I think Amy's put together some information. Again, these are our retail spaces. We've got to be very careful. I'm not suggesting that we try to turn this down. At least my vote won't be like that, but I think we have to be cognizant of how many office, medical, dental, come into our retail spaces. Again, Two ways we make money, retail sales and gross utility tax. And I see both of those dwindling as we move along here. So just a thought.

Isn't Aspen Dental somehow partners in Walmart? Wouldn't the Walmart in Kirkwood have an Aspen Dental inside of it? Maybe that's why they

just guess i'm not i'm not sure no i i agree with comments from others it seems a little bit of an odd placement for a dental but like as i as i look at the conditions i can't think of an obvious like sort of clear reason why I don't think it causes substantial injury to the value of adjacent parcels. I don't think. I'm not sure it's a business decision I would make, but I don't see a zoning reason to say no. I agree.

Not at this point. Again, if we get to the point where Every corner has a bank or in our retail space has a bank and a medical office that detracts from that retail. We may have to look at that.

Yeah, I guess, Aaron, can you speak to that a little bit more? Because I know that this topic has come up in the past and you've kind of cautioned at times whether or not the revenue generating capacity for the city is an appropriate means for us to consider a request. So it'd be helpful to get a refresher on that, given that it's come up a bit tonight.

Correct. I mean, this is, sorry, it is kind of an obvious, the board of aldermen specifically are allowed to consider economics and that thing. The zoning and planning really are supposed to more consider whether it's compatible to the district and to the surrounding areas. Now, the one thing we have talked about for specifically your commission is the kind of when you have a district with your purposes have to mix uses and that you do want to look. And if you, start having a concentration of banks or any kind of certain use, then you might want to look at that and say, maybe we do need to limit it because then we're not actually meeting our purpose of the district anymore because we're not having banks.

Yeah. And I understand, Mayor Morath, what you're saying in that area, in general. I'm not, top of my head, I'm not aware of another dental office in the Gravois Bluffs

Yeah, there is a dental office kind of in front of Target in one of those smaller.

Okay.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, if you want to cross 30.

No. No. No, there's a chiropractor. Yeah, that was the chiropractor office on that site.

He took up another area. So, you know, a potential retail area went to medical. But you understand my point.

Yeah, I do too as well. Go ahead. I agree with you. I don't.

Yeah, I guess this issue of like concentrations was particularly a little concerning or frustrating about this. It's like it's new. new square footage coming online and it's going to not be used for retail and this is intended to be I think a zone that has a meaningful amount of retail so but it's both right it is yeah the

Planet Fitness or Club Fitness.

Again, these are retail areas. Okay.

Yep, yep.

I'm just sending up my own personal little flag.

I get it. I get it. Okay, well, just keep us moving. I'll go ahead and move that we vote to approve case 2026, SUP 07, a petition by Gravois Bluffs 9B LLC on behalf of Aspen Dental for a special use permit to operate a medical dental office at 695 Gravois Bluffs Boulevard. The property is zoned C1 Commercial District. Can I get a second?

But the conditions?

Oh, thank you. Sorry. The conditions are, first, that approval of the special use permit is for Aspen Dental to operate medical office at 695 Gravois Bluffs Boulevard, Suite 102, as indicated on the plans provided with the application and dated June 12, 2026. Second... That minimally an occupancy permit will be required before the tenant space can be occupied. And third, compliance with all other applicable city of Fenton codes and ordinances. So with those conditions, I will move for case 2026, SUP 07 as read to be approved. Can I get a second with the conditions? I'll second this one. Okay. Amy, can we do a roll call vote?

Person Yeoman?

Aye.

Vice Chairperson Sherrill?

Aye.

Secretary Abbott? Aye. Mayor Morath?

Aye.

Alderman Harrell?

Aye.

Commissioner Wissbrock? Aye. Commissioner Voorhees?

Aye.

Commissioner Bielicki? Motion approved.

Okay, last we have case 2026, TXT 05, consideration of amendments to the zoning code to amend the definition of public park and to add the same as a permitted use in the IP1 industrial park district. Amy.

This is kind of a housekeeping matter. Recently, Great Rivers Greenway held an open house for a proposed pedestrian bridge that would span the Merrimack River and connect Unger Park to Green Tree Park on the other side. That project is really not expected to move forward, but it was noted that two of St. Louis County parks are... Portions of them are located in the city limits of Fenton and in the IP1 district. So public parks are not currently in the land use matrix as a permitted use. So these are considered non-conforming uses. So staff is requesting to amend the land use matrix to add public park as a permitted use to bring these areas into compliance. Additionally, the zoning code defines public parks as those areas set aside only by the city and does not include St. Louis County. So noting that these parks as well as George Winter Park are St. Louis County parks located in the city, we're just requesting to also include St. Louis County in the definition of public parks.

Okay. Seems straightforward. Any questions for Amy?

I just have, it's not probably to Amy, maybe, or anybody. How did it work out that the soccer park is not included in Fenton, but yet Unger Park is? I guess I'm, okay.

Well, it's not all of Unger Park. It's just that part there along the north side of Merrimack.

Right, that's not the soccer park here? Yeah, soccer park's not in Fenton.

It is not?

Yeah, but that's not in Fenton.

No, but not of all of Unger Park is either, just that portion. That's almost...

didn't understand. Nobody knows. Okay. I was just curious if we knew why.

I don't know.

Totally. So St. Louis County attempted to give us, they didn't want to give us, uh, soccer park at the time but they wanted us to take over Unger Park like really it floods yeah that much more we've got a you know more upkeep like oh I don't think so okay but you know nobody'd give up soccer park at the time when Anheuser-Busch owned it I don't think they would now that's a money maker yeah I was just curious sorry totally off topic sorry

Okay. Are there any other questions? So I'll go ahead and move for approval of case 2026 TXT 05 consideration of amendments to the zoning code to amend the definition of public park and to add the same as a permitted use in the IP1 industrial park district. Can I get a second, please?

I'll second it.

Secretary Abbott seconds. Can we do a roll call vote?

Chairperson Yeoman.

Aye.

Secretary Abbott. Aye. Vice Chairperson Sherrill.

Aye.

Mayor Morath. Aye. Alderman Harreld.

Aye.

Commissioner Wissbrock. Aye. Commissioner Voorhees. Aye. Commissioner Billike.

Aye.

Motion approved.

Great. Thank you. That concludes our new business. And so we'll move on to announcements. And first is our report from the Community Development Department.

Reminder that the August meeting is moved to August 11th instead of August 4th because August 4th is the primary election. So because it's been moved, we have not yet met the deadline for the August meeting. That is this coming Friday. I haven't received any applications, but I expect to get several in before the deadline.

Okay. Anything else?

That's it.

Okay. Next is a report from the chairperson. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I was out of town, but I'm sure we celebrated strong in Fenton. I don't have anything else to report. Next is a report from the mayor.

So I try to come up with something that is more planning and zoning related, and I don't know that I have anything because you're a part of this. The one thing that I will tell you is I finally met on site with, we have two new hires. One is a Parks and Rec supervisor who is gonna be in charge of different programs and so forth. And she came from the city of Herculaneum. their parks department, and she's got an array of background in various things that'll be beneficial to the city. We also hired, I'm at Liberty now to say, because he's working for us, the farmer groundskeeper for 30 years for the Rockwood School District. Um, so he came to work for us and, uh, met with him today and he's got all these crazy ideas. And I think that, uh, you know, being, having a background in that he's, he, all of our parks, he feels like we just need a little kick and some upgrades in the turf and this and that. Um, we're actually going to talk at the committee meeting Thursday about adding, uh, some AstroTurf to fields one, two, and three. which will enhance the playability when it rains and so forth. Um, so those are just kind of some of the fun things coming up. And again, don't forget to, uh, tune in. I don't remember when the next, uh, food truck is. Deb might, but, uh, there'll be, you know, it's, it's a lot of fun if you haven't been 17th. Okay.

So. Great. That's all I have. Great. Um, you know, to the, conversation that happened earlier about tax revenue, it does occur to me, you know, I was thinking of, I knew that that topic would come up tonight because of all the pressure on some of the retail. And we don't, within this group, have a forum to really sort of talk about what the city's tax revenue looks like compared to what our expenses might be. And I don't know if that would be an appropriate thing to include in this part of the agenda, you know, like if...

I honestly believe that, you know, I mean, it's out there. It's public record.

Sure.

But we can certainly, you know, give you, have the finance department give... Everybody, you know, an understanding like a $12 million a year is what we generate and what we spend. Yeah, that is out there. I encourage people to look at that so they know where their money is working, where it's coming from and where it's working.

Yeah. So would others have an interest in that for the benefit of our sort of decision making? Just understanding, like, is that is that OK? I saw you shaking your head.

OK, OK. I really encourage that. I think I think that's prudent to do. OK, then you can kind of get an understanding of why we do and say the things that we do.

yeah i personally would appreciate that and if we can just include that as sort of one of the reports that we do next month if that's enough time i mean it i don't think it needs to be anything fancy yeah that's okay great uh we'll look forward to that then uh thank you um next is the report from the planning and zoning liaison

Mr. Chairman, I was not here for the board meeting last month, but we spent a lot of time talking about this tonight. The building in which the Chipotle and Aspen Dental was case 2026, SPR 04, and it was approved.

Okay. That's all I have. Okay. Well, that concludes all of our reports. As Amy mentioned, our next planning and zoning meeting is going to be Tuesday, August 11th, 2026. So make sure you got your calendars updated at 7 p.m. here. And coming to the end of the agenda, I will move that we adjourn our meeting. Can I get a second?

A second.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, meetings adjourned.