[0:07] Calling to order the public infrastructure and utilities committee

[0:10] meeting for Wednesday, September 9th. Madame clerk, would you please call

[0:15] roll?

[0:18] » Autumnoman Boyd, Alderwoman Clark Hubard,

[0:22] » here.

[0:26] » Vice Chair Switzer, >> present.

[0:31] Alderman Devote.

[0:35] Alder woman Cox Anti.

[0:42] » Chair Brownie >> present.

[0:48] We have three present. Don't think that makes up a quorum. But

[0:53] there's almond. >> Almond devote

[0:56] » present. >> We have four present. We have a quorum.

[0:59] » Thank you, madame clerk. Uh with that, uh I will accept a motion to approve the

[1:04] minutes from Wednesday, July 15th. >> Some move.

[1:10] » Second. >> Second.

[1:11] » Uh and move moved by the alder from the 10th,

[1:15] seconded by the other one from the first. Uh Mad, please call roll.

[1:19] » Alderwoman Boyd. Alderwoman Clark Hubard. I

[1:24] » vice chair Switzer. Hi. Alderman Devotey >> I.

[1:29] » Alderwoman Cox Antwee. >> Chair Browning

[1:33] » I. >> We have five We have four I votes.

[1:37] » Thank you. And with that, we'll go ahead and move to the fourth item on our

[1:41] agenda, which is board bills for review. Uh we have two board bills to review

[1:46] today. Uh we'll start with Alderwoman Velasquez, who I believe we have online.

[1:51] Um Alderwoman Velasquez, you are recognized on board bill number 34.

[1:56] Uh thank you, Chair Browning, and members of the public infrastructure uh

[2:00] committee. Um this is hopefully a relatively simple uh bill. So we it's a

[2:05] speed hunt bill. I know our favorite. Um there was an error when we uh were

[2:10] during the engrossment process. And so um we're back here. We popped it back to

[2:14] committee to add an amendment um to hopefully send back. So I believe what

[2:19] is labeled amendment three in your drive which is actually the only amendment

[2:24] um there was it is just changing the exhibit to we had two versions we had

[2:33] the same exhibit twice. Um so we replaced the old exhibit 3 with the

[2:39] accurate exhibit 3 uh which is the map of the 4300 block of PTOAC. So, I'd like

[2:45] to ask the committee that we adopt, I guess, amendment one, but labeled as

[2:50] amendment three in your drive to uh board bill 34 as amended in committee.

[2:58] » Uh so, I'd move that we adopt amendment number three

[3:04] uh to board bill number 34. >> Second.

[3:07] » Second. >> All right. Moved by myself, the on the

[3:11] ninth and seconded by the from the 10th. Uh so we um madam clerk if you could

[3:16] call roll. >> Alderwoman Boyd. Alderwoman Clark Hubard

[3:21] » I. >> Vice Chair Schwitzer

[3:24] » I. >> Alderman de voting

[3:27] » I. >> Alderwoman Coxantu.

[3:30] Chair Browning >> I.

[3:31] » We have four I votes. >> Thank you Alderone. We've adopted the

[3:34] amendment. You may proceed. >> Thank you chair. Um with that I ask for

[3:40] your favorable consideration of this bill. So the residents of the sixth war

[3:44] can happily get their speed homes. >> Thank you. Uh we'll uh see if anyone on

[3:49] the committee has any questions. If you have a question, just raise your hand.

[3:53] Don't want to belabor this. Seeing no questions. U madam clerk, are there any

[3:58] members of the public here to speak on this?

[4:00] » No. >> Thank you. And um alder one, just so I'm

[4:03] clear, we do have three amendments in front of us and I want to make sure that

[4:06] we adopted uh everything that you were looking to adopt in this bill. So, u ju

[4:11] just to clarify, we only needed to do amendment three.

[4:15] » Yep. Uh yes, sir. Uh when we were labeling these original amendments, we

[4:20] had labeled all the amendments that were previously adopted. Uh that's why it was

[4:25] three because we had two amendments that were adopted earlier and that is just an

[4:28] error on our our our part that we that should have been labeled amendment one.

[4:33] So, everything is correct um and should be and is good to go now.

[4:38] » Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Uh with that, I'll accept a motion to

[4:43] pass board bill number 34 out of committee with a due pass

[4:47] recommendation. >> So move.

[4:50] » Second. >> It's moved by the alderwoman from the

[4:54] 10th, seconded by the alderman from the fifth. Madame clerk, please call roll.

[4:59] » Alderwoman Boyd. Alderwoman Clark Hubard.

[5:02] » I chair Vice Chair Schwitzer. >> Hi.

[5:06] » Alderman Devote. Hi,

[5:09] » Chair Brownie. >> I

[5:12] » We have four eye votes. >> Thank you, Alderwoman. Thank you very

[5:15] much. Your bill is now passed out of committee. Uh so we'll move on to item

[5:19] number two, which is board bill number 66. That is my board bill. And so I'm

[5:24] going to pass the chair over to Alderone Car since she is the member present in

[5:29] person today uh and the most senior member present. So with that, Alderwoman

[5:33] Car Hubard, I'm passing the chair to you and uh we can proceed. Thank you,

[5:39] Chair Browning. You're recognized on board bill 66.

[6:01] Thank you very much. Uh so today we have board bill number 66. This is an

[6:07] exciting board bill in that it is getting the ready for accepting uh some

[6:12] grants in order to do some really cool traffic uh calming and infrastructure

[6:19] projects in the city. Uh one of these is in my ward uh and the other two are on

[6:26] um Kings Highway as well as Cass Avenue. So, uh, madame clerk, if you could read,

[6:33] uh, the summary and then I have John Coh here from the board of public service to

[6:38] answer any questions that anyone might. >> Board bill 66 introduced by Alderman

[6:44] Michael Browning, an ordinance recommended by the board of public

[6:47] service of the city of St. Louis establishing multiple public works and

[6:52] improvement projects for the Cass Avenue multimodel corridor transformation phase

[6:57] two traffic management enhancement phase 10 on Kings Highway and the Linda

[7:02] Boulevard cycle track within the city authorizing the city to enter into

[7:06] supplemental agreements with governmental agencies and parties as

[7:10] necessary for the comp complementation of such pro completion of such pro

[7:16] projects and containing an emergency clause.

[7:19] Thank you very much. So, just like it says, this uh puts us into a place where

[7:23] we can accept the agreements with the governmental agencies to do these

[7:27] projects. Um I can speak to the project in my award and say I'm very excited for

[7:32] this project. It's u Lindle Boulevard is a premier boulevard. It has a a number

[7:38] of amazing things on it including the Cathedral Basilica and some other just

[7:43] gorgeous buildings and it deserves a gorgeous street to go with it. So, we're

[7:48] really excited for this new multimodal uh you know, better pedestrian

[7:54] facilities, better cycling facilities, and safer driving as well. Uh so, no

[7:59] matter how you choose to get around, we're aiming to make sure that you can

[8:02] do it safely. Uh with that, I'll turn it over to John. And John, feel free to

[8:06] share anything that you like about these projects. You've been deeply involved,

[8:09] and we certainly appreciate your work, uh and making these things happen.

[8:16] Thank you, Alderman Browning. Well, good afternoon, committeemen. I'm

[8:21] very excited to talk about our three major federally funded transportation

[8:26] projects. >> Excuse me. Could you say your name for

[8:29] the record, please? >> Sure. I'm John Kohler. I manage the

[8:33] planning and programming division for the board of public service.

[8:40] » Thank you. And I also wanted to express my appreciation of the board of alderman

[8:46] expediently move this bill forward. These are projects that have very tight

[8:52] dlines tied to federal funding and we are very diligent in making sure that we

[8:59] meet those deadlines so as not to jeopardize federal funding. But while

[9:04] I'm up here, I would like to briefly talk about each of the projects. And I

[9:10] guess we can hold questions to the end or unless you prefer to address them as

[9:15] we go to each project. Okay.

[9:20] The first project is Cass Avenue multimodal corridor transformation. And

[9:26] this information I'm presenting is in attachment A of board bill 66. This is

[9:32] phase two. It's from Grand to Jefferson and involves almost three quarters of a

[9:40] mile from Grand to Jefferson. It's designed to provide safe multimodal

[9:46] transportation choices and vital connections to regional active

[9:52] transportation networks to support healthy affordable neighborhoods. the

[9:57] new geospatial intelligence agency site and the brickline greenway on Grand that

[10:05] is wrapping up now and various school K through 12 access and the businesses

[10:12] institution around that phase 2 corridor. And just a comment on phase

[10:18] one, that is an active project to the east, which essentially runs from

[10:25] Jefferson all the way to Tucker or I70 and that is nearly complete with design

[10:31] and moving along very well. We are planning to reduce traffic lanes

[10:38] and a great traffic calming features, new lighting,

[10:43] and we're going to construct a shared use path on the north side of the Cass

[10:50] Avenue, which will connect to the Grand uh Avenue and carry that multi-use pass

[10:57] all the way to Tucker at I70.

[11:03] And moving on to the second project that involves

[11:08] our traffic management enhancements. We are up to phase 10 now and this is on

[11:14] Kings Highway. 17 traffic signals are impacted with new

[11:19] monitoring cabinet. All new signal equipment. 3.75

[11:26] miles of Kings Highway from McCree to Shaw Meyer. And then there's a shard

[11:32] piece on Eikleberger from Kings Highway to Christie.

[11:37] We do upgrade the fiber optic interconnections

[11:42] along the entire corridor to connect into the city's transportation

[11:47] management center. And this allows us to optimize traffic

[11:52] flow along the corridor. We also we have recently upgraded the curb ramps

[11:59] along uh Kings Highway with the ARPA funding

[12:03] that was completed within the past year. Some of the ramps will be affected as we

[12:10] uh work on the new signal equipment and and any additional ramp upgrades that we

[12:16] may need will be incorporated in project.

[12:20] And then Alderman Browning provided some background on the Lindle Boulevard cycle

[12:26] track. The total length which connects Forest Park to Van Avener is 1.34 miles.

[12:34] The two-way cycle track it's being proposed on the south side of Lindle and

[12:41] it'll be protected with a physical barrier between park cars or with the

[12:47] park cars also acting as barrier. and a lane reduction, one travel lane in

[12:54] each direction.

[12:57] We also plan to implement various traffic calming

[13:03] features, all new markings to improve pedestrian safety and access across

[13:09] Lindle and on the side streets. And we are very excited about this project. We

[13:15] will we'll have some improvements in coordination with bystate to improve t

[13:20] transit stops along corridor. But with that I'm available to answer

[13:26] any questions and I appreciate you hearing this board

[13:31] bill.

[13:38] » Okay, we'll start with questions. I didn't see if uh Alderwoman Boy has

[13:43] joined us. No, she has not.

[13:47] » Okay. So, then I'll start with myself. Um, thank you, Mr. Kohler. The

[13:55] attachments. I know we don't have them here for the public to see. So, if you

[13:59] can just go into like some some brief sight specific um traffic calming pieces

[14:06] of the Lindle project. Also, as it relates to the Kings Highway project, it

[14:11] sounds like that's all south, right? Am I correct on that? So, if you can just

[14:16] give I know you mentioned the streets, but if you can just kind of touch on to

[14:21] give people >> Sure.

[14:23] » a broader view of where those are like are they south of 64, south of 44. Mhm.

[14:29] So the features that many of you have seen on the ARPA funded projects

[14:34] recently in Kings Highway in particular in this area, but also we've done them

[14:40] on Goodfellow >> Union, Jefferson, and Grand is our last

[14:46] one that we're wrapping up. >> We'll have very similar FE features.

[14:50] They are generally speaking pinned on concrete bumpouts at every intersection

[14:58] which shortens the pedestrian crossing >> both on Lindle and then potentially even

[15:04] on the side streets. It will help slow vehicles down and and improve visibility

[15:11] for pedestrians that are wanting to cross by having uh that bump out where

[15:16] cars can't park right close to an intersection. for example.

[15:21] » Mhm. >> And then we are building

[15:25] enhanced pavement markings. These are longlasting thermal plastic markings

[15:30] like we've done on the ARPA. They'll last the the length of the anticipated

[15:36] paving which could be 12 10 to 12 years >> where we will not have to stripe every

[15:42] couple years if it was traditional waterborne paint. So that's a very nice

[15:48] longlasting feature as well. We'll put in our standard continental or

[15:54] rectangular block markings on every pedestrian crosswalk.

[15:59] And we will be uh another safety feature and transit improvement will be uh

[16:07] platforms or where people but at bus stops along the corridor. We've worked

[16:14] closely with bystate to analyze where people are using transit

[16:21] and looking at ridership and any adjustments for bus stop locations and

[16:27] making it safer for accessibility for transit users along the route.

[16:36] Um >> the let me see the so [clears throat]

[16:40] basically for Kings Highway I'll touch on that first. What you're saying is

[16:43] you're picking up where the art for fun left off going south.

[16:47] » Okay. >> Since I have you here about that, I'll

[16:50] just specifically touch on at Kings Highway and Delmare on the

[16:57] northwest corner. Mhm. >> I have a constituent that recently

[17:01] reached out to me, so this was perfect timing and witnessed a disabled um rider

[17:06] on the metro >> that could not navigate getting off of

[17:10] the bus and getting over to the sidewalk >> uh over to the sidewalk on Kings Highway

[17:16] because the area you all carved out, I guess, for pedestrians is not wide

[17:22] enough um for wheelchairs. So they essentially had to ride their wheelchair

[17:27] down the lane of Delmare to get to the actual corner of Delmare and Kings

[17:33] Highway to get over. So I do want to flag that since I have

[17:36] » I appreciate that and and we will look at accessibility and we can some of the

[17:43] most projects are still open. We can modify and work with our construction

[17:48] department. And uh if you don't mind sending me an

[17:52] email with those specifics again and then I'll forward it to construction

[17:58] uh to look at accessibility and physically what's happening there.

[18:02] » Perfect. I know you're always very responsive on things like that, but I

[18:06] just wanted to take advantage since I had to go ahead and flag it. And then

[18:09] also the last thing about the Lindle cycle track, can you just speak to what

[18:13] side of the street that'll be in? >> Sure.

[18:17] We've had public engagement meetings on this and we presented multiple options.

[18:23] We landed on a two-way protected cycle track on the south side of Lyn.

[18:30] » Mhm. >> So, it'll be a 10- foot wide cycle track

[18:34] on the south side with a small physical barrier similar to most likely what

[18:41] we're building on South Broadway. And then we'll have parked cars

[18:47] » and one travel lane in each direction and then parked cars in the north side.

[18:53] So it'll be on on the south side. >> Great. That's great. And how far west

[18:57] will that go on Linda >> Vanav or Oh, it'll go to Kings Highway.

[19:01] » Kings Highway. Okay. And then we're we're looking at what was done on ORP or

[19:05] we're we're going to make potentially some minor modifications to make it safe

[19:12] to get into Forest Park by bicycle or pedestrian.

[19:16] » That'll be great. That'll be great. As well as feed into the new Lindle Union

[19:20] Lindle bridge that um I'm in Brown and I share. So that'll be great. Thank you so

[19:25] much for my questioner.

[19:30] » Thank you. I appreciate the the presentation and the questions asked uh

[19:34] by Alder and Clark Hubard already. Those were really good questions. Um are there

[19:38] upcoming public um open houses on on some of these projects or are those

[19:42] already taking place? So some of the projects that involve

[19:46] studies like the Lindle, the study did have a public house meeting to garner

[19:55] public input on that during a study period.

[19:59] on that particular one or on all three of these. It is a requirement of East

[20:05] Gateway to have another public meeting at once MODOT approves the preliminary

[20:12] plans and the environmental clearances and then we'll schedule another public

[20:19] meeting for each one of these. So cat

[20:25] » well I will be following along and looking out for those public meetings

[20:28] and I will hopefully get to attend some of them. I appreciate appreciate the

[20:32] time and the questions. >> Thank you

[20:36] » Adam Devote. >> Yes. Uh thank you Mr. Kohler. It's

[20:42] always good to to hear from you and thank you for the presentation.

[20:47] Uh can you please educate us on how these three particular projects were

[20:52] chosen? what what is that process? >> So I'll start with

[20:59] the Cass Avenue. This Cass was a initiative and promise that the city of

[21:08] St. Louis made to move the national the NGA to the north campus. We promised

[21:17] that federal agency that we would build Jefferson

[21:21] which is the north south spine to the NGA and then the east west was Cass.

[21:27] That was part of the agreement we had for NGA to relocate to North City. So

[21:33] that's been in the works for some time and Cass is the last commitment to

[21:38] fulfill the NGA requirement or or agreement that we had with them

[21:45] on the the CMAC

[21:50] traffic management phase 10. We are in fairly good shape with all of

[21:57] our signalized corridors. We have now gone through the city and

[22:05] interconnected and upgraded every major signalized corridor in the city. But the

[22:12] ones we did a while back are now obsolete.

[22:17] Kings Highway which is this phase 10. That is an example of the equipment

[22:22] doesn't meet current technology needs and we are now starting the process of

[22:28] going back and redoing our principal arterials that are in the most need. We

[22:34] have active discussions with the street department Len Effam of traffic as the

[22:40] traffic commissioner. he has uh significant input as to which corridors

[22:46] we prioritize uh moving forward.

[22:51] And so with respect to the King's Highway section of work, where might one

[22:57] be able to and and I know you identified it generally and I appreciate that, but

[23:02] is there a is there a map? Is there a list of those intersections that are

[23:07] going to be tackled as part of this project

[23:09] » on the Lindle uh project? Oh, Highway. >> On the Kings Highway, sir.

[23:14] » Yes. If you open board bill 66 and exhibit A, it will show all 17

[23:23] intersections that are being impacted by that job. And

[23:26] it is I printed this off right from the city's website on board bill 66. and and

[23:34] and certainly and I realized that and and really what I was getting to and and

[23:38] I can I can post it with respect to my my media, but but I was wondering where

[23:44] on the city's website could a uh could could a resident access

[23:49] it. It is it merely by looking at the board bill or is there some somewhere

[23:53] else? So, as projects move forward through BPS, since we're the contracting

[24:00] and managing agency for all of these federally funded jobs, we populate each

[24:06] project on our board of public service website. because these were just

[24:12] recently approved by Eastwiss Gateway at the end of August. Uh we haven't

[24:18] developed a website yet because we haven't started design or concepts but

[24:24] eventually all these and you can look back on anything that we've done or or

[24:30] in design. We should have a website on all these federally funded projects as

[24:36] well as traffic studies and other projects that BPS has managed. We've

[24:42] we've really made a concerted effort to improve and enhance upon the available

[24:48] public information for each one of these projects.

[24:53] » Yes, sir. And I appreciate that. I and I thank you for that work because that is

[24:58] that is something that as an alder if we put out uh it can very easily be buried

[25:05] or lost or if it's on a central website it's it's easy for a resident to search

[25:10] and to find. So I do appreciate that and I like the idea that it's somewhere

[25:15] other than a board bill because that can be clunky for someone to find who isn't

[25:20] necessarily knowledgeable about where to look. So again, thank you very much and

[25:25] I appreciate the explanation. >> Thank you. And I I did want to just

[25:29] briefly talk about the last project, the Lindle as how we came to that selection

[25:37] particular project. That project is funded through transportation

[25:42] alternative program. It's very specific to for projects that address pedestrian

[25:50] improvements, bicycling, multimodal other than moving vehicle and

[25:55] it's a limited amount of money, three or $2.5 million federal is the max on a

[26:03] tab. Uh this project is right in the central

[26:07] core of the city. Alderman funded a traffic study that was extremely

[26:12] wellreceived by the community. We've all driven Lindle. We know how tight it is.

[26:18] A lot of crashes un could be considered unsafe crossing Lindle. It was an ideal

[26:25] candidate to submit as a tap up funded project for this year.

[26:32] » Yes sir. So I lied. I do have another final question. You used a term of art

[26:38] multiple times. For those folks who are watching at home, what does multimodal

[26:43] mean? If you could define that for folks to make sure we're on the same page.

[26:48] » So multimodal means traveling by generally four forms

[26:55] or four modes. It could be someone moving by use of a automobile. That's

[27:02] one mode. anybody walking. That's a pedestrian mode. You could be traveling

[27:09] by bicycle. That's the third mode of transportation. And generally the last

[27:14] mode of transportation that we have in this would be people using transit

[27:20] buses, light rail. Of course, there's other multi modes, but we don't see a

[27:26] whole lot of other things in the city like Segways. [laughter]

[27:32] Thank you, sir. Thank you.

[27:38] » All right, Madam Clerk, whether is there anyone from the public signed up to

[27:44] speak on board Bill 66? >> No, we're not.

[27:48] » And none online? >> No, we have none.

[27:51] » Okay. Thank you. All right, Chair Brownie, you're welcome to close. Thank

[27:54] you, Mr. Colum. So, uh, we just heard a lot about these

[28:00] exciting projects. I just want to take a moment to say that I think it's really,

[28:06] uh, wonderful to see these progressing because, uh, when you go to other

[28:11] cities, you see some of the steps they've taken to improve pedestrian,

[28:16] bicycle, even just their streets for driving. And we know that when we design

[28:21] roads for the most vulnerable user, we really design them to be safer for

[28:25] everybody. And so that really includes accessibility, which I really appreciate

[28:30] you raising all the one uh from the 10th because uh it's really really important

[28:36] that if the road meets the accommodations that people need that

[28:40] then everyone will be able to use that road safely. And so, uh, if someone who

[28:44] crosses the road, you know, if the slowest person can cross the road

[28:47] safely, that means the rest of us can make it.

[28:50] » And so, that's really important to making sure that people have that

[28:53] option. But it's also an issue of equity in that when you have the option not to

[28:58] own a car, which is a very expensive purchase and an ongoing expense as well.

[29:02] But when you have an option not to own a car or a second car and you have the

[29:05] ability to get around in other ways that is actually uh allows you to get your

[29:11] feet under you in life and uh maybe purchase your first home uh maybe uh you

[29:17] know upgrade your living situation. whatever it is, you know, that really

[29:21] helps people who getting started in life as I know it helped my family when we

[29:25] went with just one car for nine years um that that let us get our life started

[29:30] here. So, I like to think of St. Louis is a great place to build your life.

[29:34] » So, we're really excited to bring this today. Uh this is just, you know, a few

[29:38] projects, but I think you'll notice that there's more and more things happening

[29:41] in the city. Uh so, with that, I ask for your favorable consideration on board

[29:46] Bill 66. >> Thank you, Chair Brown. I mean, I did

[29:48] have one quick question. So, the grants that we are accepting or legislating to

[29:54] accept, they fully cover these projects or is this kind of a partnership working

[29:58] here on some of them? >> There'll be a match on some of these

[30:01] projects. I I can't speak to the other two, but I can tell you from my part uh

[30:04] I am actively saving Ward Capital money so that we can uh do the match on this

[30:09] and make it happen as soon as that grant comes in.

[30:12] » That's great. We know that's sometimes the quickest way things can happen. So,

[30:16] it's a commitment. Um, madame clerk, can you please add me as a co-sponsor to

[30:20] board bill 66? >> So noted.

[30:23] » With that, I'll accept a motion uh that we pass board bill 66 out of

[30:29] committee with the due pass recommendation.

[30:33] » So moved. >> Second. [laughter]

[30:36] » It was moved by Alderman Devodi and seconded by Autooman Schwicer that we

[30:40] pass out board bill 66 with the due pass recommendation. Madame clerk

[30:46] » with the call of a previous role with [snorts] no objections. So

[30:51] congratulations. >> Thank you.

[31:13] And with that, uh, that is all the board bills we have for review today. Uh, we

[31:19] do not have any resolutions on the calendar. Um, so we'll move on to the

[31:23] next agenda item, which is committee discussions. We don't have any committee

[31:26] discussions on the calendar, but we do have a gentleman who showed up today uh

[31:30] who wanted to make some comment um on uh a board bill that is no longer in

[31:36] committee, but I'm going to as chair just make an exception here and uh allow

[31:41] him three minutes to speak. Um, but I also want to emphasize that there is a

[31:45] planning commission meeting tonight at 5:30m at 1520 market uh that will be

[31:52] maybe not uh well let me let me pause on that but um for now we'll go ahead and

[31:58] let this gentleman speak. So if you uh could introduce yourself uh say what

[32:03] ward you're from and uh you will have three minutes to speak.

[32:11] Hey everybody, my name is Timothy Cusk. This is my wiener dog, Carito. I live in

[32:16] Sulard. Um, [clears throat] congrats on passing the speed humps and

[32:22] keeping the traffic at bay. Um, I don't want to get too into it, but

[32:31] there's certain things that St. Louis needs and St. Louis ones and

[32:37] standing as is. I don't see our opinions being taken uh for what they are, which

[32:44] is we the people's words. I understand we need to keep people safe

[32:49] by putting traffic cones in humps places. Um and and don't get me wrong,

[32:56] there's issues. Um but when it's all said and done, uh I see St. Louis as the

[33:01] greatest city in the world. And um as a citizen of this great city, we just want

[33:07] to be heard. You know, we don't want data centers. We don't want to

[33:12] live in the new world order. Like, I'm not going to get too into this whole

[33:16] thing, but uh I appreciate you letting me say some things. Um but when it's all

[33:21] said and done, I'm a local alterman at my local parish and Caro here is my

[33:28] close confidant. And as we continue moving forward in St.

[33:32] St. Louis doing our own projects privately. I'm here introducing myself

[33:38] because I am an ally. I'm not here to go against anything about this. We just

[33:44] have some discussions that all of us need to have and honestly like there's

[33:49] nobody here right now. I'm the only I don't know who you guys are. I

[33:53] appreciate you guys being here. Um but like I said, we got other issues than

[33:59] putting in speed bumps. It's simple. We need to figure out like what's going on

[34:03] in the sheriff's office. And correct me if I'm out of line because I don't come

[34:07] do these meetings often. Uh but there should be more conversations about how

[34:12] do we actually make St. Louis the greatest city and not worry about

[34:17] putting in more surveillance or more lights or more speed bumps or more

[34:20] delineators or taking away traffic or taking away parking spots and putting in

[34:25] more concrete. Like it's simple. like the city's fed up with this the way this

[34:31] entire thing is being run and the way the city's been run for most of history

[34:36] and it is what it is at this point, but I had to come and say hello. So, with

[34:40] that, I'm going to go back about my day. So, thank you.

[34:45] » Thank you. >> Thank you. And um I'm going to correct

[34:49] what I said earlier. Uh the planning commission meeting tonight will be at

[34:52] 3140 Cass. >> 3140 Cass. Yeah. and um that they will

[34:59] be taking up changes that the board of alderman made uh to the uh board bill 49

[35:05] which is the data center regulations. So for anybody that has comment on that I I

[35:11] believe it will be also um online as well. Uh but there usually is public

[35:17] comment at these meetings. Uh, and this is a great chance to see the the process

[35:22] um, as it works and uh, encourage anybody who's interested at 5:30 p.m.

[35:27] tonight to uh, go to 3140 cast or join online. Um, and I certainly appreciate

[35:34] all the members of uh, the the board of aldermen that serve on that committee as

[35:38] well, including Alderone Schweitzer who's today. Um, so with that uh, we'll

[35:43] move on the agenda to announcements. Does any member have Oh, sorry. Didn't

[35:48] want to skip over any written testimony, clerk,

[35:51] » we have none. >> Okay. And with that, does any member of

[35:53] the committee have any announcements? >> Okay. Well, I do I have one announcement

[35:59] that I'd uh like to make other than the planning commission tonight, which is

[36:02] that uh look out on the agenda this Friday for board bill 75. Uh this is a

[36:08] board bill that I've been talking about for years now, and I'm really excited to

[36:12] introduce it. Uh it is getting rid of the process of doing a board bill to put

[36:18] in a speed hump and turning that over to the professionals in our departments to

[36:23] make those decisions. Also empowering residents to be able to request that uh

[36:28] and empowering neighborhood organizations, empowering our uh even

[36:32] our police captains and our other people to participate in this process. So, we

[36:35] really want to make sure we bring the public uh to the table in this and we're

[36:40] really excited to introduce this bill that's been worked on in close

[36:43] coordination with the departments uh as we work on the transition to the

[36:47] department of transportation. So, thank you all. Uh really excited to bring that

[36:53] forward. Uh I'd like to excuse the alderwoman from the 13th and the 8th for

[37:01] necessary absence. And with that, I'll accept a motion to adjurnn.

[37:06] » So move >> second previous role.

[37:10] » Moved by the alder from the 10th. Uh second from the other one from the first

[37:14] and a call for previous role from the alder one from the first. Hearing no

[37:17] objection, we are adjourned. Thank you all.

Public Infrastructure Committee September 9, 2026

Transcript