Arnold city officials are working to pave a new path for the future.
They said a new road will be constructed to connect Richardson Road to Hwy. 141. The new two-lane road will run north to south with most of the nearly 2-mile stretch running alongside northbound I-55.
City officials said the project will cost approximately $75 million and will be funded with revenue from the sale of bonds through the Arnold Retail Corridor Transportation Development District (ARC TDD), which was established in 2008 to fund infrastructure related to the development of the Arnold Commons retail complex and the redevelopment of the Arnold Crossroad complex. The ARC TDD collects a 1-cent sales tax from businesses in those two retail developments, as well as some of the businesses in the Water Tower retail complex.
City Administrator Bryan Richison said the bonds are expected to be sold in September, and the city will seek the road construction bids in August 2025.
He said some work on the new road may begin in the fall and winter of 2025, but the bulk of the road construction will take place in 2026.
“We are really excited about this,” Arnold Mayor Ron Counts said. “We feel like this is something that is going to take us to another level for the next 50 or 100 years. It is something we have been working on for three years.”
The new road is expected to alleviate traffic on the interstate and on Jeffco Boulevard.
It also will connect the Arnold Commons, Arnold Crossroads and the Water Tower retail plazas to the retail districts to the south on Richardson and Vogel roads.
“The southern part of Arnold is a little removed from the central business corridor,” Arnold city attorney Bob Sweeney said. “This will allow traffic to traverse our entire commercial district without getting on I-55 or Jeffco Boulevard.”
Southern leg
City officials said the road project will have what they call a southern leg and a northern leg, with Church Road being the dividing line between the two.
Sweeney said the southern leg begins at Richardson Road near the northbound I-55 entrance ramp east of the flyover ramp where Vogel Road crosses Richardson and leads to the interstate. He said he expects the eastern ramp from Richardson to be eliminated when Arnold Parkway is built.
The beginning of the southern leg will go through CubeSmart Self Storage, 3401 Robinson Road. City officials said they will attempt to purchase the business through the ARC TDD, and if they have to, officials will use eminent domain to acquire the property.
“The storage facility will go away,” Sweeney said. “We will purchase or take them. We think we will be able to purchase it.”
Sweeney said after the storage facility, most of the land needed for the southern leg is included in rights-of-way or owned by the Missouri Department of Transportation.
“MoDOT is extremely anxious to get rid of their responsibilities on the eastern side of I-55,” he said. “Kozeny Wagner (a construction company) is the largest property owner (in the southern leg), and they have contributed their easement. We think it is because they recognize having a road that provides access to that property is valuable.
“We have had some conversations with property owners in the area, and we are confident we will have no problems obtaining the necessary easements.”
Northern leg
The northern leg starts where Arnold Parkway will intersect with Church Road, and a four-way traffic signal will be installed at the intersection, Richison said.
The road will then connect with Michigan Avenue, which leads into the back of the Water Tower retail complex.
Sweeney said the new road will not impact the Arnold VFW Post 2593, 2301 Church Road, or the Holy Family Catholic Parish Church Road campus because the new road will run behind the parish’s cemetery and athletic fields.
After connecting to Michigan Road near the start of the northern leg, the new road will run into the back end of the Water Tower Plaza complex, and Arnold plans to purchase land needed there from the plaza’s ownership group, Koch Development of Clayton, city officials said.
After purchasing the property through the ARC TDD, the city will remove the existing businesses in that section of the shopping plaza, which include the Las Fuentes Mexican, Puna Cafe and Sugarfire restaurants, Studio C Dance, GameStop and Trek Bicycle Arnold.
The building that used to house Club Fitness, which has relocated to the Arnold Crossroads plaza, also will be demolished.
The plan also calls for the removal of the building that previously housed the 54th Street restaurant, which closed in 2023. The Local House Restaurant and Bar owner recently announced plans to move into that building near the end of the year.
Sweeney said the Community Development Department will try to help business owners find new locations in the city if they want to continue operating in Arnold.
“We don’t know how they are going to react,” Richison said of the businesses in the Water Tower Plaza that will need to be demolished to make way for the new road system that will connect Arnold Parkway to Hwy. 141.
“We will understand if they are not particularly happy. We are looking at the big picture of what is best for Arnold as a whole. There were people who were very upset about Arnold Commons, but if Arnold Commons had not been built, the city would have been in a very difficult place financially because Gravois Bluffs was attracting shoppers away from Arnold. This is like Arnold Commons 2.0.”
The new road system will not impact the building at 2184 Michigan Ave. the U.S. Postal Service is renovating for its new Arnold location.
To make way for the road system, Arnold needs to purchase 38 homes on Harrys Lane, Christy Drive, Big Bill Road, Ridge Drive and Lone Star Drive through the ARC TDD. There also are some businesses on Lone Star Drive that will need to be purchased, city officials said.
Sweeney said the city has delivered letters to homeowners in the area with an offer to purchase their houses for $225,000. He said four homes in the area already had been purchased for about $170,000 because they had gone up for sale in the last few years.
Sweeney also said one commercial property in the area already has been purchased.
“One of the reasons we purchased the properties as they came up was because we didn’t want people to buy homes, move in and find out we were going to take them,” he said.
Sweeney said the owners of the homes still needed, mainly those on Christy Drive and Harrys Lane, are meeting with city officials to discuss the project and the acquisition of the homes.
“Those acquisitions we know will cause anxiety and stress for the residents,” Sweeney said. “We want to work through that process as seamlessly and with as little disruption that we can. We know it will be disruptive. Progress is disruptive, and this road project is necessary for the progress of the city in the next 50 years.”
Another business that will be eliminated to make way for the new road system is the Bandana’s, 1220 Big Bill Road. However, the nearby Applebee’s restaurant, CVS pharmacy, QuikTrip gas station and Heiligtag-Lang-Fendler Funeral Home will not be impacted, city officials said.
Richison said he expects some homeowners and business owners in the area will be happy to sell their property, but he also expects some people to be upset.
“Ultimately, this is something that is going to have a major impact on the city,” he said. “Arnold Commons was a major addition to the city and really helped us financially. We think this is on that kind of magnitude, but we have no illusions that everyone will be happy. Sometimes that cannot be avoided if you want any kind of change or progress.”
Sweeney said the city will demolish Harrys Lane, Christy Drive, Big Bill Road, Ridge Drive and Lone Star Drive and construct a new road network in the area near Hwy. 141.
“All of those roads are old, obsolete roads that are not conducive to emergency service and in various states of disrepair,” he said. “Most of them are private roads that pre-date the incorporation of Arnold.”
Future
Richison said he expects the northern portion of Arnold Parkway and the road network that will be built leading to Hwy. 141 will attract commercial developers.
“We think if we build it, they will come,” he said. “We will not try to pretend that we are not hoping there will be commercial development. We are, but it is a hope. No one has signed on the dotted line. We are confident, given the inquiries we have received about that area over the years, that there will be interest.
“At this point, we don’t know. We are focusing on getting the road built.”
Richison said he expects the southern portion of the road would be developed for residential homes.
“If somebody wants to do something commercial on the south part, we will work with them. But there will not be large flat areas like there will be in the north. It is more hilly on the south. Residential you can fit in on the hills.”
Community Development Director David Bookless said the city has created a website, arnoldparkway.org, to provide information and updates about the road project.