Arnold will hold a pair of public meetings next week to discuss two separate issues affecting some city residents.
The city will hold a work session at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25, at City Hall, 2101 Jeffco Blvd., to provide information about the Arnold Retail Corridor Transportation Development District (ARC TDD), which was going to be used to fund a controversial road project that has been abandoned.
Another work session is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, at City Hall to provide information on what may be done to get a broken stormwater pipe repaired that caused the collapse of a yard behind a quadplex in the Woodridge Estates subdivision.
ARC TDD
Mayor Ron Counts said on Wednesday, there will be a PowerPoint presentation about how TDDs work and the city will present the pros and cons of having a TDD.
“My hope is everyone will have a clear understanding about what the TDD is,” Counts said. “We have people out there who don’t understand what the TDD is, how it works and the process.”
The ARC TDD became a point of contention among some residents when Arnold announced it would use funds from the 1 percent sales tax it collects to fund a road project that would have connected Hwy. 141 to Richardson Road along I-55. The estimated cost of the project was $75 million.
When the two-lane, 2-mile road project was announced, there was instant backlash because of the possibly use of eminent domain for the city to acquire properties needed to construct the road. City officials said 38 homes, multiple businesses and a portion of the Water Tower Place Shopping Center would have needed to be acquired to build the road.
The road project was canceled on Aug. 26, but that announcement did not stop a group of residents from gathering signatures to force recall elections for all Arnold elected officials.
The group, the Citizens Against the Construction of Arnold Parkway, also has called for the ARC TDD to be dissolved to end the 1-cent sales tax in the shopping district. As of today, the group had 3,058 members on its Facebook page.
“I think letting people know what the truth is the answer,” Counts said. “There is so much misinformation out there, and I think this will lay out what it is. I think the truth about what is going on will help the city and the residents moved forward.”
Woodridge Estates
A hole in a yard developed after heavy rains on July 16 caused flash flooding in the area.
It appears the hole formed after the pipe, which runs along the backyards of four property owners living in a fourplex in the 800 block of Woodridge Drive off Tenbrook Road, broke during the heavy downpour.
One of the fourplex residents, Bonnie Smith, said the hole originally was about 30 feet long and 20 feet wide but has grown slightly since July 16.
Because the broken pipe and hole are on private property, the city wouldn’t typically intervene to get the repairs taken care of. However, because the utilities for the subdivision could be affected by the damage, Arnold will use public money to pay the upfront costs to get the repairs completed on the private property. However, after the work is finished, Arnold will be reimbursed by the residents, City Administrator Bryan Richison has said.
The city will send a bill to each of the subdivision residents to pay a portion of the repair cost. According to city records, the subdivision has 129 homeowners, Richison said.
Arnold already hired Civil Design Inc. of St. Louis and will pay the company up to $51,482 for civil engineering services and to create a design to repair the pipe.
Richison initially authorized the contract with Civil Design as an emergency expenditure, and City Council members voted unanimously on Sept. 5 to approve the contract.
Arnold officials were going to discuss the project on Sept. 12 during a work session, but that meeting was canceled because some members of the subdivision’s homeowners association were not able to attend, city officials said.