County Council - Regular Meeting

Did you watch the same game Saturday? No, I couldn't. But man, they were fun to watch. They went nuts, man. They they were It was kind of a closer game. I know. They scored nine points and 55 seconds. It was a boom. I mean, that kid that got California. Yeah. Done. He doesn't look like a He kind of reminded me of like Robertson. Yeah, it's at that. He actually played at St. Yeah. They're a lot more fun to watch than Missou Tigers. Uh yeah, I agree. Hey, they they are. And you know what's the sad thing about their coach will probably be gone after this year? You know, I hope not.

I hope not. But well, you know, he'll certainly have opportunities. You know, just whether Oh, I think he's fantastic. Yeah. I just Yeah, he put together a really good group of people. He's, you know, and you know what he did and everybody hopes for this, but you know, he brought in like seven or eight kids and you know, and and they all hit. I mean, they won't, you know, you know, everybody brings in seven or eight kids, but sometimes they don't, you know, they don't hit. Names, you don't call names. Well, you can like have

Yeah. How good they don't have the guys that score 30 points and then the rest five. No, they they truly have nine guys that they play on could be their leading scoreer that he's up. Well, that one point game four and then I watch two games two games. Now, he had been sick and stuff. Yeah. I hope they can I hope they can keep it out that be awesome.

So, this is so confusing because Let me bring that back to

Okay, we can always go back. Beautiful.

So, Joe's not going to be here tonight. Patty's on the phone. Hey Patty, can you hear us right now? I saw I hear Terry. They have you muted in the back. It's hot in here. Do you have anything to do with this?

Good job. pretty nice. I'm pretty sure

Hey, Mike. My Claire, can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Patty, can you hear me? Beautiful. Yes, we're all good. Okay. Yes, I can hear you. Okay, I'll turn it back off. Yeah, perfect. Thank you. Does he want a bigger version? Good. How are you? I can't hear any. Okay, now that I can hear you.

We can hear you. She's on the screen, isn't she? I'm going to turn my speaker off so you don't get any back flow. It's great. Oh, thank you, sir. Oh, yeah.

Good. Oh, I didn't realize she was Yes, sir.

There we go. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Monday, February 9th, St. Charles County Council meeting. Uh we are going to start tonight with our invocation from Henry Durst of Precious Seat, Inc. St. Charles. And our uh pledge of allegiance will be led by me. Uh if you would please stand and remove your caps. Put you in the middle. Oh, okay. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. Let's just take a minute first of all and thank the Lord for what we have. I' I've lived all over the world and I'm just so appreciative of this county and we have these these gentlemen and this lady to to thank for their work. Um it just when you think about all the things they have to become aware of it it really is a a a job and I appreciate that and thank the Lord for bringing them to us. The Lord tells us that to to ask him for wisdom. He's really clear in his word and I found to be true when I really submit my thoughts and my requests to him for a wisdom for for especially for important what appear to be important decisions. He always comes through it. So I just ask you Lord to give these these gentlemen and this lady the uh wisdom they need to continue the uh precedent that has been set in this county of of excellence for just so many things uh that that have been established and have been established I read today I've forgotten since 1811 this county this county has been operating in operation so thank you Lord for that and Thank you for this evening in the holy name of Jesus. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, David. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Thank you. May be seated. Please call the role. Councilman Swanson here. Ma'am. Councilman Brazzle. Councilman Hammond here. Councilman Elim here. Councilman Hollander here. Councilwoman York here. Councilman Baker here. Um Mr. Swanson. Yes. I'd like to uh request to amend the agenda to move resolutions to the first part of our meeting. I second that. We have a motion and second. All those in favor say I. I. Any um the resolution has moved forward. That gets us to resolution 2601. Go ahead.

They gave it to me to read. Oh, aren't you Don't Oh, okay. You can. But ladies and gentlemen, our director of elections, Kurt Bar, is here for a very special presentation,

a resolution recognizing Celeste Kum as the winner of the inaugural St. Charles County I voted election sticker contest. Whereas on July 4th, 2026, our nation will commemorate and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And whereas the St. Charles County I voted election sticker contest was conceived to mark this momentous occasion in the nation's history. And whereas middle schoolers across the county submitted over 220 designs for stickers with finalists chosen based on creativity and how well they captured the theme of celebrating America's 250th anniversary. And whereas 12 finalists went head-to-head in an online vote to decide which art will appear on the St. Charles County I voted sticker contest for every election in 2026 starting with the April municipal election. And whereas Celeste Kum from St. Patrick's School in Wsville with her striking depiction of an eagle's face set against the handdrawn American flag accompanied by text celebrating the vote during America's 250th anniversary year was selected as the winner. And whereas in addition to being on the I vote sticker, copies of Celeste art will be displayed at every polling place in this county and the giant version will be posted year round outside the election authorities office in St. Peters and whereas all contest entries will be on display at the election authority office this year in the voting area. Now therefore be it resolved that by the county council of St. Charles County, Missouri as follows that St. Charles County Council hereby recognizes and congratulates Celeste Karum as the winner of the inaugural St. Charles County I voted sticker contest. Okay, Kurt, we're gonna I will read it again a little bit. Awesome.

So, come on up, Celeste. So, resolution number 261, a resolution recognizing Celeste Kum is the winner of the inaugural St. Charles County I voted election sticker contest. Councilman Swanson, yes. Councilman Brazzle. Councilman Hammond, yes. Councilman Elum, yes. Councilman Hollander, yes. Councilwoman York. Yes. Counciloman Baker. Yes. Congratulations. Let's get a picture. Come on up. Come on up. Here we can Come on down. There we go.

Thank you. Thank you. There you go. Congratulations. Good job. Congratulations.

Hang on. Hang on. Celeste. Celeste, do you want to come up and say anything? You don't have to. You're all good. I wanted to give you the opportunity. I So, hats off to the election authority and our election authority director for putting this together. This was amazing. to have that many entries was really cool. And Celeste, your artwork is going to be seen by more people than most artists get to see in their lifetime. So, congratulations on that and I wish you the best on your artistic career.

This is very cool. So, that'll get us back to our regular agenda. We're going to start off with the public hearing of Trailside Farm Community Improvement District. So, Rose Hats off to Mr. Swanson for moving that up so you didn't have to stay for the meeting.

My name is Rose Zuk. Do you need an address? No, ma'am. Um, this is from I can get it.

The traffic study that was on the agenda packet. If it turns on, it's up. It is. Okay. Can you actually see where they did the study at

from the Catholic Church? to the uh the Lutheran church, which is less than a quarter mile from one church to the next church. Um I know they have crash data, but did they only take it from the Missouri Highway Patrol? Did they get all the other municipalities like Windsoil, Lake St. Louis? And I'm not sure that I saw that, but there's so much data to look at. Um, something that the study also talked about was another exit. Oops. This is Perry Kate. This is all the businesses that they're planning on. They required a uh second egress and they came back with right here. Right there is Boone Trail High School Middle School to do a ride in right out. And that looks like this. Here's the stoplight right here. Here's the right in right out. So if this is only a quarter mile from here to here, what is that? An eighth of a mile. So with all the subdivisions that are being built, you have to know there's Harvest that has 328 homes. And I don't have to read them all, but that's a total of,900 homes. So, we're talking about Autumn Hollow, Harvest, Host Farms, and a new one

that's just coming into a Fallon for Cabello Farms. 1,900 homes, two cars per home, talking about almost 4,000 cars daily on that road. Not everybody is going to go up to um Highway 40 if they want to go to Winston. So, they're going to go down to 70. Sorry. Z to 70. That's a lot of traffic when the when the highway end hasn't even been fixed yet and won't be for four or five years. We're just asking for better um better growth decisions and halting or even not high density with four homes per acre.

And that was it. Thank you,

Arie Doff. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the county council. My name is Hern ACO, county public advocate. First of all, I'm shocked, dismayed, not understanding why in the world the Trailside Farm Community Improvement District, formerly known as Menchi Farms, is on the agenda. This is highway robbery, taking advantage of new citizens and new residents to our county or other parts of our county that are not going to have fair and ample notice uh under the law in chapter 67.140 through 67.1571 in the creation of a community improvement district. Now, I take pause and action that this council or the somebody on staff is alleviating or leaving out vital instruments and vital information that should be disclosed in a transparent fashion to our county as a whole. If you go to other parts of our city or our our county, municipalities all give hundreds to thousand thousands of pages of documents, contracts, and information. But no, this county council for some reason in its per purview decides to keep the information and the petition on file in the county register's office rather than attaching for convenience of our county residents who are here at this public hearing to see exactly what the petition says, what it entails, how much money they're asking for, how long the duration, and how we're asking on the backs of citizens to pay for vital infrastructure that should be paid by

other businesses across our county. It's they're going to make double profits in this endeavor for Trail Farms, formerly Men Menchi Farms, and it's an atrocious atroive use of the community improvement district process. This process of a community improvement district is used for business economic development opportunities where it's hard or there's a hardship or it's impossible to designate and to develop a piece of property with infrastructure with the uh from funding from a bank or a financial institution for the owner's process. So therefore, they're charging uh a fee which is collected by our county collector. Now, it's my understanding that there have been amendments in past days or the past week that has not been disclosed to the public. And I feel that the amendment under chapter 67.142 subsections 5.1 and 5.2 and maybe 5.3. you didn't give ample notice to the public and therefore this entire community improvement district could be up for administrative judicial review under a riddamis in our St. Charles County 11th judicial circuit court. Now these owners for some reason don't want to pay for the infrastructure out of their own pockets. They're asking for $6.86 86 million or more. And um they're going to uh put an extra tax that our county collector is going to be mandated to tax. $1,550 per year on each residential lot and $5,000 per year for any commercial lots. It looks like they're going to be in business for at least 27 years, which is

the maximum allowed by the state statute in chapter 67 of the revised state statute. Again, this is another tax, another issue. It was tried in Oallen, but miserably failed before the city council and went down to defeat by over majority by I believe the vote was nine to or one to nine. Uh, and this was in the cobblestone subdivision owned by McBride Sons on Missouri Highway P uh between Ofallen and Josephville. This is really abusing the law because they're going to be hiring a financial administrator. They're going to be hiring uh an administrator of the district, an attorney to the district. Of course, the directors are going to be paid stipens and and information or I'm sorry, stipens and benefits. It's going to pay for engineering uh and all architects for this uh endeavor. the roads, the sewers, the water lines, the gas lines, the electric lines, all the electric infrastructure, landscaping, highway improvements required by the county highway department and MDOT, Missouri Department of Transportation, sidewalks, ADA accessibility, uh, green space, water detention and retention, clubouses, and other amenities. And it's unbelievable that this is being sought out. I understand the sponsor is Joe Brazzle. Uh Councilman Brazzle, he's not here tonight. I did reach out to Councilman Brazzle. Haven't heard back to him why he's sponsoring this for private development on the backs of taxpayers. None of us when we built our house, none of you when you built your homes did the county pay for your foundation, for all your infrastructure, for your water meter tap in, your sewer tap in, and all the other tens of thousands of dollars that are needed to build your structure.

I believe that this is a sneaky tactic before you as council members and I ask you to resoundly defeat this resolution, this ordinance for the creation of a community development uh district. There are many elements that have not been required elements that have not been met such as a five-year plan. I have not seen that five-year plan. The estimated cost of all the items that I stated need to be transparent and clearly disclosed to all the members of our community and the county and specific limitations on borrowing and taxation. The petition may be legally deficient in terms of some of the information. If you look at the definitions under chapter 67, uh this is highly um uncommon for this to be used in residential districts. I called the state auditor's office and they can't think of one single source. The only one that came up was one in Fallon and that went down to defeat the residential collection of a CI community improvement district has been successful or used across Missouri. It is mostly according to the uh auditor's office and chapter 67 used for entertainment districts which would be arenas, amusement centers, uh audi uh auditoriums, athletic facilities, bars, hotels, motel, concert halls, convention facilities, music venues, nightclubs, restaurants, and other entertainment facilities that would generate needed sales tax to run and operate. our ever growing St. Charles County. You know, I could go on and on. I've I've spoken this afternoon to many members of the general assembly, both state senators and representatives of our St. Charles County contingent.

They're very upset that this county council is entertaining this type of atmosphere, this type of corporate welfare, giving away uh these type of things on the backs of new residences that aren't going to be aren't going to know and be given fair notice, if at all, being known at the title company that they're going to be responsible for such high assessments that are mandated to be collected by our county collector. If they don't pay those assessments within three years, guess what? They're going to lo lose their property to some venture uh go-getter that's going to come in, swoop in, and take their property just like they take it from senior citizens and disabled uh at our county tax auctions, our sales that are held in August. I'll tell you what, council members, if this passes and you give this type of corporate welfare to these individuals that want to build this institution or these this neighborhood, which is highly controversial, the mayor of Wville is highly against it. The alderman are highly against it. That's why they don't want to annex it. And the traffic study has now become available. I'm going to be really upset and I'm really going to lose credibility, honesty, and transparency in this council. And I think there's going to be other people who are going to be running for your positions because guess what? You don't own these positions. They're owned by we, the people. And so I ask that you humbly and kindly turn down Trailside Farm Community Improvement District. They have not met their obligation to ask for another tax, another fee, another collection by the county collector on the county tax bill. It has not been wared. They have not proved a hardship or where they're going to pay return on investment to our county as a whole in terms of economic development and increased sales taxes and other taxes on behalf of our county.

As I said, the state auditor, it has not been used across our state. And if this passes, I may be filing my $130 fee down at the circuit court to file rid of mandamus against this county council to ask a judge to resend and negate the approval of the CD, which is taking advantage of of residents and citizens of our community in buying their new home. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'll entertain any questions if anybody has any. Thank you, sir. Next speaker,

Drew Weber. Good evening, members of the council. My name is Drew Weber with Hamilton Weber Law Firm. I'm here on behalf of the applicant and uh petitioner for the Trailside Farm Community Improvement District. I hear a sound every time I hit the button. Maybe that's not There we go. All right, I'll use this. So, I I'd like to start by going through an overview of the property. So, uh, the Trailside Farm Community Improvement District is proposed for a future residential subdivision in the county. Now, the the it's a big property. So, in order to make the map more readable, it's flipped on its side. So, to orient yourself, Highway N, which is on the north side of the property, is actually on the right side of your picture there. And so, the far left is the south side. So, the proposed community improvement district um for this property is going to help support multiple public improvements and amenities for Trailside Farm. I'm going to detail those uh throughout this presentation, but I just want to highlight and overview them now. So, as you go from the right side, so the north, there's going to be dedicated rideway for the future expansion of Highway N. Uh there is a traffic study in your packet which we'll talk about later in this presentation. And if there are questions about the traffic study, I have Shawn White with CBB here to help answer those questions. Um, as you go further south or left, um, on the property, there is a proposed war memorial that we've been in conversations with the historical society and other groups to have a war

memorial uh, on the site. There's trails throughout the project. As you go even further south, again to the left at the very far end, um you'll see there are multiple sports courts uh on the property. There's there's going to be there's currently a historic uh red barn on the property, which the goal is to repurpose that, move it to the southern portion uh near the sports fields and a community garden. So all of these uh are meant to be amenities and benefits for the residents of Trailside Farm. And then obviously the the road improvements and expansion of Highway N is a benefit to the county more broadly. And then the perhaps most significant improvement is the extension of Perry Kate. So Perry Kate Drive is it's hard to see there, but it's at the bottom right corner. So, Paricate Drive currently uh intersects on the north side of Highway N. So, we are adding a a fourth leg on the south side of Highway N to eventually uh connect southeast on the property with a hope of connecting with Deer Road as future parcels develop um to provide another point of access to and from this part of the county. All of those things are going to have uh be supported by funding from this community improvement district. So, what is a community improvement district? Well, a C community improvement district is also known as a CI or a SID. It's a development tool that's created to finance and manage public improvements and ser and services within a specific area. I I mentioned some of the improvements that are going to be funded either in whole or in part by this district. Broadly speaking, it includes things like streets, parks, playgrounds, parking, utilities, generally public infrastructure and services. A C is formed by an ordinance of the county. So that's what's before you tonight for first reading is an

ordinance um to approve the CI. A petition of the property owners was submitted and that's a normal process. A petition is submitted and a public hearing is held to form the C. Now one of the speakers uh spoke about taxes. Uh I I just want to be clear there are no taxes that will be imposed by this C. There's special assessments on the property owners within the district, but no other county residents are going to pay any taxes or any other fees. Um, in fact, this district in its petition doesn't even have the authority to levy taxes. So, there will be no taxes. It'll be solely funded by special assessments within the district itself. It'll be managed by its own board of directors as well. So, what are the benefits of the CI? what's a dedicated funding source. So, it's a reliable funding mechanism to support the improvements that we talked about previously. There's also local control. As I mentioned, there will be a board dedicated to the management of the CI, the the uh reimbursement and maintenance of the improvements as well. And then C offers in this circumstance the ability to provide a a higher amenities package combined with public improvements than you would see in your traditional subdivision. It's also worth mentioning that this project has a decreased density from what was previously approved. Now, I know there's a separate um final plan that's on the agenda tonight, and I can talk about that uh during public comments, but the original uh approval for this project was 531 lots, and now we've decreased that to 470. So, it's over 60 uh dwelling unit decrease. As you know, the county council recently

adopted criteria for the approval of a CI. So, I wanted to examine each of those criteria to see if Trailside Farm meets those. So, the first is there must be a five-year plan that sufficiently details the CI projects and improvements to be made and the same are consistent with will promote will be designed to align with the current countywide master plan. Well, there is a five-year plan. It was attached to the petition. It's in your packet. It's one of the exhibits to the petition. So, it was submitted back in December with the petition. So, that element is met. Further, the future land use map in the county's master plan identifies this area as uh low density develop, excuse me, low density residential at 1 to four units per acre. What we are proposing is approximately 2.16 units per acre. and the extension of Perry Kate Boulevard is consistent with the county's thoroughfare plan of providing an extension south of Highway N through the property. So, the first criterion is met. The second criterion is that the 5-year plan must sufficiently detail any prop any proposed special assessment to be levied by the CI, including but not limited to different classes of real property within the proposed boundaries. Well, exhibits C and D to the petition outline the methods of the special assessments. So, there's a maximum special assessment for residential property and a separate maximum special assessment for the commercial lots uh in this district. So, that criterion is also met. Third, the CD project will support a vibrant, connected, community focused development consistent with the current countywide master plan. So vibrant communities. Well, there will be walkable trails and shared public spaces such as sports facilities, a war memorial, playgrounds, community garden

that'll foster daily interaction among residents and a strong sense of community. Then community focused development or natural features and trails and improved infrastructure ensure growth is accommodated efficiently while promoting the natural resources and reducing long-term public maintenance burdens. Then lastly, connected communities. Again, there's trails throughout the development. There's transportation and access improvements that'll support this housing growth while maintaining efficient connections to employment areas, services, and regional corridors. Now, th this there's a long list of uh improvements and amenities that'll be supported by the C. I summarized it briefly here, and we've talked about them in some detail. I just want to reiterate again uh fallen soldiers memorial, road and traffic improvements, lakes and water features, a trail network, parks and playgrounds, community garden, relocation of a historic barn, recreational fields, and other infrastructure enhancements. But perhaps the most important part is again the roadway and traffic improvements which we've discussed. The primary access, as I mentioned, is going to be a new connection on the highway end at Perry Kate Boulevard. Perry Kate will be extended through the trailside farm development, and there will be a new ride in ride out access connected to the commercial parcels along Highway N. And importantly, there are churches on the east and west sides of this property. So, Emanuel Lutheran of Wville is on the east side and St. Giana Catholic Church is on the west side. Currently, both of those churches connect directly onto Highway N, but now we're going to have a cross access connection that they will both be able to access to Perry Kate at the signalized intersection on Highway N. Uh, which is important for obviously the morning and evening rush hour, but specifically school pickup and drop off for those schools.

the traffic study. I I I'd like to read a part of the traffic study that specifically talks about um those enhancements because I do think it's important. This traffic study was conducted in January so recently and focused on morning and school dismissal and evening. So all the relevant time frames for this stretch of Highway N when all of those schools open, close and then during normal rush hour. So the traffic study found that providing a cross access connection from the Emanuel Lutheran School to the signal at Perry Kate Boulevard provides significant improvements to the delay for patrons exiting the school. Additionally, the delay along route end would be improved if the left turn movements at the school driver shifted to the signal at Perry Kate. The provision of cross access to the signal for adjacent churches is expected to significantly improve operations on Sunday during service times. And in fact, the approaches at all the intersections were to improve and most of them will be at the levels of service in the 2030 build conditions. So in short, this CD will be a good tool uh we believe to finance and manage the public improvements and the amenities for this development. Um, again, the amenities proposed here are beyond what you see in normal subdivisions, and that is in part because of the enhancements of the CI. I'm not going to name the improvements. Again, we've mentioned them multiple times, but they are listed there, and we would ask that you approve the Trailside Farms Community Improvement District. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. And again, I have Shawn White with CBB, and then also, um, Caroline Saunders, who's the attorney for the district,

Mr. Baker, Drew, did you mention how much the total SID was going to be? Did you? Uh, I did not, but I have that estimate if you give me one second. It may take more than one second. Six. Uh, the estimated cost as of the date of the petition is $6,855,274. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Elman. May I inquire of Mr. Weber? Yes, sir. Um, no TIFF, right? Correct. No chapter 100, correct? No chapter 353. Correct.

Okay. And and the previous criticisms we heard are of taxpayers funding development. And the county's problem with all three of those has been has always been the fact that we don't get to decide. Somebody else gets to decide and to take future revenue and fund this. Okay. Right. Uh I think the last year I was in the legislature, I supported this whole CID concept. And the idea was to help develop it, but not to take future revenue from all the other jurisdictions, right? And not to um just have the taxpayers, you know, pay for uh some of these improvements,

right? but to allow the people that live there that own it and develop it and later the people who buy the lots, they are the ones being taxed. You you suggested, you know, there's there's no tax revenue. It's a it's an assessment. That's correct. And it's assessment on only the people that live there, not the people that, you know, that that that visit there. Just the people live there are I I don't even think is there a a sales tax element? Nope. There's no sales tax at sales tax cuz you know you could have asked uh if you had a you know commercial there you could have asked for the people who shop there to pay right

so the only people paying for this are the people who own it now or will own the individual lots later yes that's correct okay just want to make sure everybody's understood that any other questions seeing none thank you next speaker is there anyone else that wishes to speak for the public hearing. It's the final speaker. Oh, come on up.

Good evening. Kenton Marsh. I'm Wville resident. Can you slide over to that middle one? Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Kenton Marsh. I'm a Wville resident. County St. Charles County resident, not city of Wville, sorry. But I believe I'm the second largest continuous land owner to this property. I've seen a lot of developments from here all the way to Wentzville happen in this county. And I wish they all looked as nice as the diagram that we saw up there. Almost every lot backs up to green space. They're not sandwiched in there like postage stamps. And if I have to have this as my neighbor, I'm loving it. water features, trails all over the place, leaving plenty of woods, and if I have to pick a neighbor, I'm happy with this. So, there's a lot of people speaking against it, but you can take a drive out I70 and you can see it could be a lot worse. This is actually a beautiful layout. So, I'm here to give thumbs up. A lot of my neighbors have said the same thing because there is another alternative and we're getting the best side of it. So, I just wanted to make that public. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Any questions? Okay. Any other speakers? After hearing the applicant, I have some additional information and testimony. You've already spoken, so you don't get a chance to come back. Should have by state law should have the applicant at the beginning present his presentation. Yes, ma'am. You're up.

Good evening. My name is Becky Hoskins. I am a resident of St. Charles County. Um, I'm speaking on behalf of Emanuel Lutheran Church and School in Wville at 632 Northeast Highway N. Um, the development in question is exact is to our west of our property. My husband uh Dan and I are members of Emanuel and I presently serve as chair of the board of directors of Emanuel Lutheran Church and School. Um this development plan, as you've heard, will add a lot of safety features for our church and school. We have over 550 students that are dropped off and picked up each and every weekday. And we have 1,650 members that attend our four weekend services and in addition are on our campus for various activities during the week. So it has been a safety concern for us that we only had one entrance and exit to our property. And this development will allow us to access Perry Kate Boulevard South so that our people can get to the new stoplight intersection that has been spoken about. Um on behalf of Emanuel Lutheran Church and School, I strongly support this development.

Thank you, ma'am. Any questions? Seeing none. Thank you. Did you want to come speak, ma'am? Yes, ma'am. I'm not exactly sure. I just found out about this yesterday. My name's Mary Chapman. I live almost caddyy corner to this development that's going to happen. Uh from what I I mean I just maybe you guys I don't know if you comment but I don't quite understand what they are trying to do. So we're talking about the community improvement district. That's what this hearing is about. not the development as a whole but the community improvement district is what this hearing is.

So there would be not a tax but some kind of assessment assessment on each property within this community that only only within that community. And how are these people that are buying these properties going to be um I guess notified of this tax because it would happen at closing should be in their title report. It should be in their title work. So we can ask we can ask the attorney about that when we get to the bill. Okay. So is this totally necessary at this point to I mean are is this another cart cart before the horse kind of hearing is part of the process?

It's part of the process but is this something that needs to happen now as far as the C goes? Not as far as the development goes. The development is a whole different issue. Right. That's we're we're talking about the CD right now. Correct. Is this something that can be tabled until everything is figured out as lawful or true truthful as far as this development goes? As far as their applications, times and etc. all the details that go with that. This is the public hearing. This is a chance for you to speak for the public to speak.

Okay. So, I'm here to to ask you as our representatives to instead of being steamrolled by attorneys again and uh groups of people that are out here trying to make money. And I know that everybody wants to make money. That that's obvious. But I'm I'm I'm just trying to I'm concerned that why does everything have to go so fast? Why can't we take one subject get the and let the people within this community decide whether they want to do this or vote on this and vote on their fees. I mean you you're going to have all this land that is going to be supposedly taken care of and I've seen this happen before as it did in Dardian Prairie. It never went anywhere. So, um, and I had a property in Darty Prairie, but I'm across the street from this almost right across from the Catholic Church. And I I think this is going to be a real problem because number one, we've got people that um are potentially going to be losing their jobs because of all the new data centers coming up and how are they going to be able to afford these big fancy houses with all these fees? I mean, I mean, we're we're building, 1900 new homes in the in down the road from me. Is it going to be like Arizona where it's going to be a dry community where there's empty houses, communities of empty houses? I mean, we this is what needs to be looked at and and I mean, we're up here doing this fancy thing. I think it's a challenge. I think it's a challenge to do the right thing instead of feeding into the money makers or the money whatever takers. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Thank you for the opportunity. Um, my name is Tom Ruff. I'm also a representative of Manuel Lutheran. Um, as as is Becky. Um, I just wanted to mention a couple of other points. Um, I want to reiterate the fact of the safety and the getting all those cars in and out, you know, the 550, you know, kids both morning and afternoon. uh a lot of vehicles coming in and out. Um we've got a lot of elderly uh members of the congregation as well. Nothing is more challenging than trying to turn left out of that property. Um so with regard to this uh approval this evening, uh the one other thing that I'd like to point out is um uh in addition to the the road development, which is critical for us, um the utility improvements that'll occur um are also very important for us. We're uh currently surviving, I would say, on a very large septic system. Not a very attractive thing uh to have right in the middle of our county. Uh we uh would like to see that uh uh development up from Ducket Creek allow us to tap into that as well. So uh believe all of this is consistent and we also feel that this is the quality of development we would like to see have uh developed next to us. So, thank you for the opportunity to speak and we strongly support this.

Thank you, sir. Last call for speakers.

Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing on the Trailside Farms Community Improvement District. That gets us to public comment, uh, which I have a feeling we're going to hear a lot of what we just heard. So, with public comments, obviously, we would ask that you turn in a card, uh, to the ladies up front, the clock in front of Mr. Mr. Swanson has three minutes on it. You are allowed to speak for those three minutes. At the end of the three minutes, I will thank you for your time and we will move on to the next speaker. I would also encourage you if the speaker in front of you pretty well laid out the comments that you would like to say, it's great to just say ditto, your um comments will be reflected in the record. So, our first speaker is

sorry, Becky Hoskins. I wave my right. Thank you, Becky. Sean White. I also We're burning through this. Arie Deoff. I bet he's not waving.

It's caught up in the FanDuel the Super Bowl. Man, I shouldn't have said that. My bad. uh hearing before the uh state house on personal property tax reduction and uh fairness of collection of our taxes within the ways and means committee of the house. Good evening once again. My name is Arie C Acino um uh county public advocate running for county executive uh this August. Um I was going to speak uh about censorship of this council on St. Charles County TV and the fraud, deception, and personal use of county assets of a former uh captain and former uh of our county police department in which Joe McCala, the county prosecutor, has not been made aware of these actions or issues. Am I supposed to stop?

Nope. Keep going. actions or or um issues with the and the because embezzlement fraud was done and it needs to be presented to a grand jury. I'll be speaking that probably at the next meeting but I need to shift um my um issue here and that issue is sidewalks, trails, water detention, basic infrastructure that every other developer and home builder across St. Charles County paid for is wrong for this developer to have twice the amount of profits. Number one, chapter 67, and anybody can look it up of the revised state statutes. You could talk to uh director director Trish um Vincent, the Missouri Department of Revenue, and ask her about community improvement districts. by a vote of those directors, they can impose a 1% sales tax on that district. And so this is just corporate greed and corporate welfare. Um we and then I want to talk about the the bill for introduction trying the preliminary plat. We're trying to cram as many homes as we possibly can in a small amount of space. Every week there's 30 to 50 residents that move into new residences on the Missouri Highway N corridor, which is the largest, the busiest developed corridor in the state without the safety improvements that aren't going to be coming until 2030 2031. It's ludicrous that we keep putting and jeopardizing people's lives, people's public safety, pedestrians, bicyclists, and we keep trying to cram development after development after development. And we're unlike Johnson County, Kansas, and

further thinking, future thinking, where you provide the infrastructure before the building of homes and businesses. This preliminary plat on October 15th of this of last year was a 3 to3 vote of the planning and zoning commissioners. I'm not sure how you voted, Councilman Baker, Commissioner Baker, but I would ask that this council re uh deny this preliminary plaque. It's too much for the property. Thank you. Hold on a second, Mr. Elman. Well, I was going to raise a point of order because I thought you'd close the hearing on the C, but he got off it. So, yeah. Yeah, this was we did close the hearing, but it is still public comment.

Only reason I brought it up was because the applicant brought You're done, Mr. Dino. Thanks for coming and speaking. Our next speaker is Rose.

Hello again. Hi.

Um, I find it strange that a development that was originally came in in 2010 with a PUD expired one to two years after that that they're still going with it. Um, and the C wasn't even a talked added to or talked about at the PNZ for the Trailside of Menture Farms. It's brand new. We were really shocked by it when I saw it on the agenda. And I agree that whoever comes in, lives in that subdivision will get taxed. And if they're disclosed at in the beginning that you will always be taxed and it's going to be like some places for tax rebatements, it's going to be more than five years for the for the development and whoever goes and lives and buys their houses there. Um, back to the PUD, why was it um approved when it was already expired? And why didn't we make or the PNZ or the council make them go back over and do it again and present new information? We they were forced to go out and do a traffic study. Uh, I hopefully think that was because of the the residents was asking for it and the council was asking for it and there's still issues with the um the study and where the people are coming in and out of the road which has changed from one drawing to the next drawing.

Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker was the final speaker. Final speaker. Now we're up to the oral report. I I just want Okay, that's fine.

I apologize for interrupting. It's all good. Thanks for pointing it out. Again, I'm Drew Weber with Hamilton Weber. Um I'm here on behalf of the applicant and hold on. Oh, start that.

Okay. Uh Drew Weber with Hamilton Weber here on behalf of the applicant. I wanted to spend a couple minutes to talk about the final plan um since the zoning wasn't really at issue in the public hearing and there was I think some comments and confusion in the crowd. So in 2010 this property was zoned as a PUD planned unit development and it it obviously has not been developed yet but then that PUD was reapproved or or extended in 2025. So now the final plan is the next step in that process. The original proposal, as I said earlier, was for 531 dwelling units. Now we're at 470. So the density, the approved density is 61 dwelling units higher than what's being proposed today. And that is part of the reason for the C in exchange for reduced density. In conversations with Councilman Brazzle, um we are proposing more amenities. So you don't normally see things like war memorials or large sports fields and subdivisions. You may have small playgrounds, but you don't see the extent of amenities that you see here. And so that's reflected on the final plan. Uh and so we are asking that the final plan be approved tonight. It is consistent again less dense than what was proposed in 2010. Um the I also wanted to mention I think someone asked or or I think the church talked about utilities. Um the ducket creek has provided a will serve letter. So there will be normal public utility connections uh to this project and I know that Emanuel Lutheran Church is excited about that and we are as well. I want to again mention that if there's any questions I have Dave Vol with Vols Engineering, Shawn White with CBB the applicant here as well. So, when it comes time for the bills for introduction, if you have questions about the zoning or the CD, uh we're happy to answer those questions. And I also have answers to some of the

questions people raise about the C, which I'm happy to address um when you do the bill for introduction. Thank you. Now, to the county executive for the oral report. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh this a little bit uh different uh approach here, but I was wondering if we could get the uh the lady from Emanuel to come up for just a minute. I have a question for her.

Thank you, ma'am. I'm not trying to put you on the spot here. That's all right. But but totally has nothing to do with this project, at least not directly. A lot of talk about the uh traffic on Highway N. Yeah. And what I'm told is it's just a real problem when school opens and then again when school closes. And I guess my question is have have the three have the you know the public schools and the Catholics and the Lutheran have have anybody have you thought about sitting down and maybe staggering your your times a little bit differently so that so that you know so that that might uh ease that problem somewhat? It sounds like a good idea. I do not know if that conversation has taken place.

I'll volunteer my office if you need a place to be. All right. I certainly will suggest it because I think it's a good suggestion. Okay. Because it's going to be a while before things get better. Yes, it will. And our and our children are in jeopardy. They really are. And and we also have, you know, we have with the great gateway green lights, we have control of the of the light there at Z. And uh I was talking to someone before the meeting. If there's if there's a something if we can change that during certain times of the day to make it make it better, you know, we need to know about that too, right? That would be very helpful. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

Mr. Chairman, I was going to give my annual report. Um, and uh, you know, we usually do the individual uh, uh, director's reports at the second meeting. So, I'm going to go ahead and do it today if that's okay. Let's go.

All right. Okay. Um, as all of you know and and for the benefit of the those in the audience and listening at home, the county charter requires the county executive to make an annual report each year uh just on everything that went on last year. And that's what we're going to try to do here. Um, one of the big highlights I think last year is we we uh finalized all the uh governance uh planning and accepted the $50 million that the state has set aside for this regional uh police training facility. Uh it's due to the cooperation of St. Louis County, St. Charles County, Jefferson, and Franklin counties. And um things are moving forward. want to I want to thank um Brian Lewick for all the work that he's done on this as well as Joanne has been working on it before Brian got here. Uh I'm very optimistic that this thing is going to move and move quickly and and and be a a great accomplishment. And what I'm really hoping is we can use this as an example to do other things regionally. you know, instead of everybody going on their own and duplicating services and so forth, uh uh maybe there's other things we could do uh that would save the taxpayers money. Uh you all are familiar with the wetlands park uh that we're doing in in cooperation with Great Rivers Habitat alliance. It's a migratory bird refuge. It's down here uh between Highway 370 and the Mississippi River uh I guess in the city of St. Charles or near it. And um this is uh we're currently uh doing some engineering for the facilities, but

this is going to be a place where people can be educated about conservation, where they can be educated about proper hunting u and they can also um when we're not in season enjoy the beautiful scenery there. Uh I uh this is u you know I'm looking forward to the spring when the when the birds are flying in the fall. Uh we won't be in there. The hunters will be in there. But in the spring when they go back you have the same opportunity to go out there and we're going to be doing the the usual amenities we do in our park including trails so people can enjoy that city hall acquisition. I think it's a good deal for the city and for us. Uh the 18 million u that we're probably going to have to spend on renovation is cheap compared to what it would cost to build a building from scratch with this many square feet. Court expansion. Unfortunately, we we grow in population. So does the population in our in our jail, the cases that have to be tried in our courts. And um you know, we are uh we're getting bids uh for two more courtrooms. um before we have to actually move courtrooms out of the uh courthouse into the uh city hall, excuse me, up into the prosecutor's office. And the prosecutor moves across the u Adams Street to um uh no not Adams, Monroe, across Monroe Street to city hall. give these uh crimes and and and and you know I I I give this every year and then I I take it on the road and go to a lot of Kowanas and chamber uh events and uh if any of you would like to take this again on the road in your district,

please uh please let us know. It's it's available. Uh it's all good news. Um you can see that uh every year u vehicle crime has gone down. Um went down 24% last year. It's not as good as the year before. It went down 43, but it's moving in the right direction. Still work to do. Uh major crimes, um all but one are down. Uh it's up just just a little bit. That's unfortunate, but again, generally good news. In regional crime rates, again, when you compare us to the other jurisdictions in the region, um, you know, we're the lowest, and we have been, I think, just about every year except 2015. Um, but anyway, I I guess I guess when I look back, I'm surprised ours was that high five years ago. Um, but boy, it's uh it's going lower every year and uh thanks to the great job that our police department and all the other municipal departments in the county do to keep those numbers low. I don't understand why this thing isn't responding. Uh jail expansion, as I said, uh got more people and we've got more crime. Uh you also I think are realize that at least when it comes to car thefts about 70% of the people we arrest for stealing cars aren't from St. Charles County. But we have to have room for in for them in the jail. It's been uh a real challenge for us and that's why we are uh taking most of the money that we got uh from the federal government through ARPA and spending it on our jail. Uh 2026 we're finishing a a mental health and substance abuse units. We're also taking a lot of money from our opioid settlement uh for that particular

project. We're renovating four more existing units. We got one that's been done. And then um we'll we'll have a maximum capacity about 573. You compare that to St. Louis County that there we're about 40% as as large in population. I think we got about we'll have about the same percentage difference in bits. 911 dispatch upgrades. Uh again, we uh we've been we've been talking about this for a long time. We tried to get some additional money from the state, but that was unsuccessful. So, uh the the cities and the counties are paying for it. Again, for the folks uh at home, um 911 used to be funded by a tax on your landlines. Okay. On a landline in your house. And there's some young people around here may not know. Well, I don't see too many. They all left, right? But the kids have left probably. Yeah. Do you remember landlines? Okay. So, um the landlines are gone. So, the county's basically had to step in and and spend uh general revenue uh to do 911, but I think this is probably the most important service that uh that the county provides and we're going to be there uh with what's needed. Uh Kinetic Park, beautiful park. Uh uh still uh doing new things each year. Uh I think we have a new skate ramp, playground, indoor climbing gym. um several things. Heritage Center, uh story in the paper a couple weeks ago, we're we're turning the uh the the barn there into a basically a a study area, uh for uh

where the library district can store its books on local history and um also make available all it has for people who want to do genealogy. And uh we're going to have a state-of-the-art facility there and we do it in cooperation with the library district. Uh one of our library u members of the library board is here, Penny Hanky. And uh Penny, we're looking forward to uh working with you all on that. Spring Bend Park is is the next park that's going to be open. That's right there when you go over the Page Avenue Bridge headed towards St. Louis. Uh it's the last piece of property on the right uh between Upper Bottom Road and the and the Katy Trail. Uh it's going to be a um it's mainly in its natural state. Have a lot of walkways and paths and even some bridges uh through uh uh through that uh that natural area. Uh have a good scenic view of the Missouri River and I think people are are going to really enjoy it. How do we stack up? Well, we're we're making progress. You know, I tell the story every year about how my goal is u to have the same amount of acres per per residence as St. Louis County. And we keep getting more acres every year, but we also keep getting more people. But as you can see, we're pretty close. people are are anxiously awaiting the uh the I70 the third lane. Um you don't read much about it in the St. Louis media or hear much about it in the St. Louis media uh I guess because it really is not going to make much of a difference in downtown St. Louis, but it's going to make a big difference in St. Charles County and Warren County and

uh and any and all all points uh points west saying for a long time that uh St. Louis is a gateway to the west but if you want to go west from St. Louis, you got to squeeze under a railroad track on two lanes of traffic at 3:00 in the afternoon. It takes you takes you 45 minutes or so. Route in corridor. U obviously that's the area where this uh u development which we've been talking about so far today. This is this is u what it looks like today on the uh on the left side except uh there's probably a lot more cars. That must be a pretty old pretty old picture. I don't know. Might be tough to find a find a picture like that today where there's the the nearest car is a half mile away. Uh but on the right is what we want to see out there. And we don't want to see another uh highway K. Now, it's not a criticism of Highway K. But Highway K used to look exactly like Highway N and then uon I don't know Modat was involved. I guess. And they came in and did a five lane road and and now we've got, you know, hundreds of driveways, which makes it difficult for traffic to move. Uh we want to go ahead and widen and have better access, but we want to keep moving, probably have mostly ride in, right out. If we have any businesses, it'll be at the intersections with the crossroads, uh if if if at all. Uh and a lot of that is because with more people shopping from home, we don't need we don't need another uh highway K right now. Whether that's good or bad depends on whether you're a small business owner or not. David Hok Parkway continue to work on that. That's going to be basically a circumferential highway. Uh

when you take Highway 61, Highway in and then the Parkway, you'll be able to uh it'll totally surround the city of Wville and most of Mr. Swanson's district, at least where most of Mr. Swanson's people live. Um hope to get that done in the next year or two. Um this is something I talked about a little bit. you know, in um in the history of this county, most of the roads that were built by MDOT or the county or the federal government, they went they went east west because people the last 200 years have been moving to the west. Um Highway N is uh one of those roads. In fact, you know, Highway is the old Boonlick Road. Did you know that Highway N is the old Boonlick road? And yeah, it needs to be updated uh because people still do want to go west. But with all the subdivisions that have come out here in the last 60, 70 years, we've had to do a lot of north south arterials. And that just gives you some idea of the roadboard projects that we've done and a few more on the left hand there that we'll need to do in the next few years uh to allow people not only to get from St. Louis to St. Charles and Warren County, but to allow them to get to their homes when they get off those main uh interstate highways. County employment numbers uh again look uh look very good. Unemployment rates, we're very lucky. Of course, we work real hard out here. U this is interesting. It's the first time uh St. Louis city and county actually are both in decline when it comes to

population growth and uh and job growth. Um you can see that uh and again this doesn't mean Warren County and Lincoln County aren't going to pass us up, but that's a percentage of what they had the year before. Okay? And you can see that uh uh that our grow job growth is actually faster than our population growth, which is good. And uh and the population growth has slowed down a little bit the last few years. Um but but that's that's okay. We'll be able to catch up on some of these roads maybe. And and this is not the percentage. This is the actual share. So this if you look at this is the job growth in the region you know three4s of it St. Charles County population growth what 55% maybe a little more commercial development um a little bit less than in 2024 uh maybe because of tariffs maybe because of other uncertainties in Washington DC I think uh uh we've got some really big projects including Mercy Hospital and some other things going on in the county um it's it's a good mind that people still um still see this as a as a possible destination. Senior tax relief. We had to get uh had to go through a a first bill. Then we had to go to Jefferson City and get the bill clarified, which it it was. Then we had to figure out how to handle all the paperwork on this including all the um changes that had to be made to our computer system. Uh a lot of people worked very hard to make that happen. There was a few uh problems. One of our

vendor vendors didn't come through for us. um caused a challenge on with online payments, but everybody uh by the last week of the year was able to pay online and um you know, we will be having some discussion with that vendor uh if they in fact want to want to be uh hired for the next uh next year. Uh remember, if you want the senior citizen, you do have to renew every every year, but once you've done it the first time, the second time is pretty easy. It's just a kind of a check a box and sign it. Okay. Uh there's going to be a tax freeze on the ballot on April 1st. Uh there's a lot of constitutional challenges to it. It appears that the courts are not going to do anything. They're going to let it go to the people and it'll be interesting to see um how that uh how that how that turns out. Uh only thing I'm concerned about is if if people vote to freeze and then some judge tells us six months from now it was all it was all for. Okay. That one's not working either. Are they not watch? Are they asleep back there?

Well, I can talk about the master plan. As you know, we're uh we just about have that ready to take to the uh master plan commission commission and then they will send it to you. Um we'll have a lot of uh a lot of discussion um before our final plan is adopted and so can I do it now? We don't have a whole lot to do with our schools except uh uh protect them with our SRO's. But u I'm very proud of uh of the way our uh schools uh have uh have improved over the last year. Um and of course this kind of shows where they are in relation to uh the other schools in the region. Fort Zumal has just u made a lot of progress. Uh, a lot of those a couple years ago, uh, Francis Hall, Zumalt, and Wentzville were all kind of up there at the top, but you know what it was? It was because those schools in St. Louis County closed down during co and the kids, you know, had to learn from home and some of them just didn't learn. They didn't do as well on the test. So, it's kind of back to more where it was, but but Zumold should be applauded. Marijuana sales tax. Um Supreme Court Supreme Court said the way it was written and put in the constitution it uh uh we can tax only in the unincorporated areas. We've got five or six different we got five or six different t uh county taxes and every county tax up until now has been a countywide tax. Um, but of course, you know, if we if if they had put this in a statute, uh, we could, uh, not only

not only could we point to those precedents, but if the courts ruled against us, we could go and try to get it changed. But now, um, you know, it's in the it's in the Constitution. I'm not sure how we, uh, how we're going to, uh, get it changed, and we have to go back and ask the voters, and I'm not sure how interested they would be in doing that. Uh we are talking to some of the growers about uh donating some of that money back to uh to help fund these SRO's in the schools in the unincorporated part of the county, the elementary schools. We were planning on using the marijuana tax uh to continue to do that. We've had federal funds the last three years, but next year we'll need to find another way to fund them. Emergency shelter funding. Again, it was so cold here the last two months. uh we had organizations that were almost running out of money and we were only halfway through the uh through the cold season. So, we went ahead and um put a little extra money in the budget for them to hopefully get them through the rest of the year. Uh East West Gateway uh regional board, that's that's the regional board that divides up the federal grant money for St. Los metro area and votes on the council uh originally were based on population and when it was created 1965 uh the city of St. Louis had three times as many people as St. Charles County and they gave St. Louis three votes and they gave us one. Later on we got a second vote as we grew. The city which has been shrinking still has three votes. So, uh, we think that's very unfair. We'll be trying to change the bylaws this year to, uh, take a vote, one vote away from the city and give it to St. Charles County. Um, Mr. Elim serves on that board with me. Uh, I'm not I'm not sure it's really hurt us yet on on any particular vote. Uh,

there's they're not necessarily out to get us, but someday they may. So, I think we need to we need to fix that while we can. Thank you. Did you have any questions? Any questions? I would just note the one thing that was really nice about the crime stats that you had in there. Not only are those the lowest crime stats we've had in 10 years, those are the lowest crime stats in the region, right? In the last 10 years. And if you look the same, it's it's a national trend, which is a good

It's a national trend. So, you know, um we shouldn't probably pat ourselves on the back too much because everybody but I don't think everybody's gone down as much as we have and uh and and and that's great and we just need to maintain what we got and improve it if we can. We appreciate the report. Okay. Thank you. And congratulations to Mr. Swanson and Ford Zuma for leading the way. Great middle school teachers. those great eighth grade middle school teachers that that make the difference. Uh that'll get us to the consent agenda. Any items to be removed from the consent agenda? Seeing none. Uh move to uh approve the consent agenda.

Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you, ma'am. Uh consent agenda is approved. We moved the resolution up earlier. So that'll get us to bills for final passage. Starting with bill 5461, bill number 5461, an ordinance approving a supplemental agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission for the Joseph Road project. Any questions or comments about this bill? Seeing none, bill number 5461, an ordinance approving a supplemental agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission for the Joseph Road project. Councilman Brazzle. Councilman Hammond, yes. Councilman Elim,

yes. Councilman Hollander, yes. Councilwoman York, yes. Councilman Baker, yes. Councilman Swanson, yes, ma'am. Bill 5461 passes. This is bill 5462. Bill number 5462, an ordinance providing for an amendment of ordinance 25-082 for a supplemental appropriation relating to expenditure of the state and local cyber security grant program funds and execution of an intergovernmental agreement between St. Charles County and the Missouri Department of Public Safety Office of Homeland Security. Any questions or comments about this bill?

Seeing none, please call the role. Bill number 5462, an ordinance providing for amendment of ordinance 25-082 for a supplemental appropriation relating to expenditure of the state and local cyber security grant program funds and execution of an intergovernmental agreement between St. Charles County and the Missouri Department of Public Safety Office of Homeland Security. Councilman Hammond, yes. Councilman Elim, yes. Councilman Hollander, yes. Councilwoman York, yes. Councilman Baker, yes. Councilman Swanson, yes, ma'am. Councilman Brazzle.

Bill 5462 passes. That wraps up bills for final passage. We'll move to bills for introduction. We have four tonight, starting with 5463. Bill number 5463 requested by Michael Hurlbert, sponsored by Joe Brazzle. An ordinance amending the zoning district map of the county of St. Charles, Missouri by reszoning land from Agricultural District to C1 Neighborhood Commercial District per application RZ25-14. Any questions or comments about this bill? Seeing none, that'll move us to 5464.

Bill number 5464 requested by Mike Carlbert, sponsored by Joe Brazzle, an ordinance of the county of St. Charles, Missouri, approving the preliminary plat and final development plan for Menure Farms. Most of the talk tonight has been about the CD. Mr. Weber, do you want to come up and talk about the actual development? Councilman Elm, I I spoke about the development briefly during the public comments. I'm happy to answer any more questions uh that anyone may have, but I don't have any further comments.

Does anybody have any questions? Seeing none, thank you very much. So, that'll get us to bill 5465.

Bill number 5465 requested by Ali Overmid sponsored by Mike Gillum. an ordinance accepting the verified petition setting forth and setting forth the findings of fact, excuse me, setting forth the findings of the St. Charles County Council and providing for the creation of a community improvement district to be known as the Trailside Farm Community Improvement District. The purpose of said district being to fund and build community improvements within the district such as lakes, trails, parks, playgrounds, a memorial, traffic and road improvements, utilities, and other infrastructure. Any questions or comments about this, Mr. Swanson?

Yeah, I want to clarify. We had a couple speakers talking about this being a tax and how will this work? This is an assessment just like an HOA. Now, I'm not saying I'm for this or against this, but I wanted to be clear. When you move into subision, sometimes you don't understand what HOA assessments you have until that bill shows up. This is the exact same thing where you'll be getting another assessment on top of your normal HOA fees, which I do believe this uh community would also have an HOA fee as well. Yes. So, basically, you're just getting hit with two HOA fees to make it as clean and simple of what this uh C would do. Is that it?

Yes, that's correct. There would be a separate notice of assessment recorded uh with a recorder deed so that each property owner would know what their C assessment is. Okay. I just want to make sure cuz everyone kept saying tax. This is an not a tax. An additional assessment. Right. I don't like HOA fees either, Mr. Elman. Yeah. I've been against subsidies for a long time, but I I never called the lack of a of a subsidy a a bloodless solution. I I congratulate you on that metaphor. So, just to be clear, um this is only on the folks who would move into that subdivision if approved. Yes, that's correct.

And how would it be paid? Do they pay it every year like they do an HOA fee or would would they get a separate bill that they pay every year for that? It would be paid yearly for the duration of the CD or at least until the um amount of money owed under the district is paid off. So it's slated for 27 years at this point. So if it's paid off early that it it would go away early. It could. Correct. Okay. Mr. Holland. Yes. Uh so that the amount that they'll be paying would be the same every year. Is that correct or not correct?

It it depends. Um so if the CI decided to do additional improvements in the future, let's say 15 years down the road, um if they wanted to do additional improvements, then assessments could increase. But generally upfront you have your world of costs and then those are paid off by the same amount of assessments. Thank you, Mr. But if they do additional approvements later on, the people who bought the lots get the vote. Yes. I I'm not Yeah, I maybe I shouldn't have put that out into the world because that's not part of the plan. I know. But but in the in the event they did, it's not like that the developer could could reimpose it.

Right. So, if there was an increase to impose a tax, he'd have to get the people who also own the property of the people the property to approve it. Correct. If there were an increase in the special assessment, that'd have to be approved by a petition approved by uh majority of the owners, which would be hundreds of people. Majority of the acreage probably, right? Correct. Any other questions? Seeing none. Thank you, sir. That'll move us to bill 5466.

Bill number 5466 requested by Tim Baker and Joe Brazzle. Sponsored by Tim Baker and Joe Brazzle. An ordinance amending the 2026 budget adopted as ordinance 25-082 as amended by providing supplemental appropriations to the budget of the transportation planning fund. Mr. Baker. Yeah. I'd like to motion to table this. Second. All those in favor? I I. Any opposed? Uh, that bill is tabled. That gets us to announcements and miscellaneous. Mr. Swanson.

Yes. Uh, if I could have just a little leeway with the rest of the council here. I want to address two different items. Um, one in particular, there is another drug that's out there calledratom. The council had this brought back many years ago. I think five years ago. Is that correct, Joanne?

Roughly, right? And this is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. Um, they're putting it into gummies and everything else. We're seeing it come into schools and all. And I would like permission to work with our counselor and also executive branch and chief to draft something. Lake St. Louis just passed bill 5043 and 5044 regulating the sale of these products. And a lot of them, our municipalities are doing this. So, where is it going to end up? At the county stores and I think we need to get in line with our municipalities to stop this drug that's going on. So, if I have permission to work with uh those individuals, I'd appreciate that. All those in favor say I. I. I.

Thank you. Second one. Um Florida just kind of made a lot of national news with their halo law, which restricts the distance that people can be around our first responders. Now, the state of Missouri passed RSM574.207, which put in a halo effect of 25 feet around all first responders. So, firefighters, EMS, police, that they'll be given a verbal warning. And then if they don't, they can be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor. Um, we do have it at the state level. I sent something to our attorney as well about this to work and get something in place. It's more of just codifying this within our county code um versus just the state statute as well. So, if I got a permission to work with that with chief and then also staff as well, that'd be great.

All those in favor say I. I. Thank you very much. And last, um our winner of the I voted sticker. Got to meet the family before the meeting and I didn't realize I already had a connection with his family. Of course you do.

And it's a very sad one. Um they had a little girl by the name of Felicity. Felicity was struck by an ice cream truck. And you may remember we passed this at the county level. Uh she lives over by Bear Creek subdivision. Horrible tragedy and all. And I didn't put two and two together until I met the mother and she's like, "I remember you because we started it in Wville, then we brought it to you because it being a health department countywide issue." So, uh just want to add a little context to it. This family's gone through a lot. They're great patriots and I don't think we could have chosen a better person. I think it worked out very well. Well said, Mr. Baker. Yeah. I was just wondering, could we get an update on the Airbnb ordinance that I know that's you've been working on, Rory? Sure.

Um, so I'm still working with the department. We have We're still working on a draft. Uh the department has been doing not not so much a survey but looking around to find alternative uh ordinances that are in that are working in other places. And so we're still trying to put those together for um my hope would be sooner rather than later. Um you know my the draft that I'm working on right now um we could probably get a meeting with yourself and council member uh York. Well I'd invite Matt for that too. I know he's expressed interest in in that ordinance. Sure. Um, so I I'll try and reach out to you.

Yeah, I'd appreciate I'm getting a lot of a lot of calls and it's it's ironic that this all a sudden just came up. I don't know if Airbnbs are just going rampant in our county, but you know, don't want to control it, but we need need to figure out how to make it work cuz I personally wouldn't want to live next door to Airbnb. So, you know, I got to use that as a barometer whether I think it's a good idea or not. So, thank you. Anyone else? With that, I would thank everyone for coming and entertain a motion to dismiss. Motion to dismiss. Second. Motion in a second. All those in favor?

I be careful going home. Well,