The city of Pevely recently purchased two small properties immediately south of the city, with plans to annex them.
The properties touch each other and are south of the Southern Heights subdivision off Commercial Boulevard (Hwy. 61-67) in the southeastern part of the city.
Pevely City Administrator Andy Hixson said both are blighted properties purchased from trusts.
The first property comprises 4.4 acres at 9120 Commercial Blvd. and cost $135,000. The second, a 0.18-acre property that cost $20,000, has no address but is adjacent to the first one.
“They’re blighted properties considered eyesores,” Hixson said. “The city bought them to clean up. There has been drug activity on them.”
On Tuesday, Hixson said city workers had begun cleaning up the properties.
Since the city owns the property and it’s a voluntary annexation, no election is required for the annexation. Instead, the process calls for the city to hold a public hearing on the matter. In addition, the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission will consider the matter and hand down a recommendation to the Board of Aldermen, which will vote on it, Hixson said.
He said the Planning and Zoning Commission will likely hear the matter at its Sept. 5 meeting.
Board of Aldermen members voted 7-0 on June 20 to approve the purchase of the properties. Ward 1 Alderman Larry Coulson, who has since left the board, was absent from the meeting.
Also on Tuesday, Hixson said city officials had not yet decided how or if to fill Coulson’s seat. His two-year term expires in April 2024.
Hixson said the recent purchase of the two properties is not part of a plan the city is having developed for possible expansion, merely an attempt to straighten up a problem area.
In August 2022, Pevely aldermen awarded a $115,000 contract to PGAV Planners of St. Louis to create a new Comprehensive Plan and Annexation Growth Strategy. That plan, which will look at the feasibility of annexing property north to Arnold and west to the area near Villa Antonia northeast of Hillsboro, is expected to be completed in November.
“We’re actually in the public participation phase (of the plan),” Hixson said. “PGAV had a booth at Pevely Days (a fair held Aug. 17-19).”
He said the city also will have a website set up for public comments.