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Florissant City Council
Florissant Redistricting Report Shows
Only 1 Minority Ward in City Proposed
By Carol Arnett
The city council Monday night held four public hearings including one to review a city Redistricting Commission report.
The Redistricting Commission was to take public comments concerning the commission’s recommendation. City Attorney John Hessel spoke to the council about the recommendations.
According to the city charter, Hessel said, the city is divided into nine wards, and periodically, after a federal census, the council must appoint a redistricting commission to review the ward boundaries. The Redistricting Commission made recommendations in 2011.
“Unfortunately, the demographic data that was given to us by St. Louis County was flawed,” Hessel said. “Certain blocks were identified as being in a certain ward, and they were simply wrong. As a result of that, the Redistricting Commission incorrectly made adjustments to the wards based upon the data they were given.”
The NAACP wrote the city to let the city know that the information was flawed. In the last year, the city has tried to identify the best solution. The Redistricting Commission worked with the NAACP to fix the errors and redistrict the city. Their goals were to keep the population of the wards similar and to create two minority majority wards, wards in which there is a greater population of African American voters.
The commission could not meet the second goal, Hessel said. Ward 9 will be the only minority majority ward. Hessel said that the commission also created a second proposal that would create a second minority majority ward. However, that plan would move more people overall and was not recommended.
Councilman Joe Eagan asked if the commission was racially diverse. Susan Geerling, speaking for the commission, said that it was and that the proposal was recommended unanimously. The council now has 30 days to choose a plan or change one to their specifications.
A public hearing was scheduled for a request for rezoning the property at 1350 N. Highway 67 for a U-Haul facility. However, no one from U-Haul was at the meeting.
Councilman Mark Schmidt said that the council had requested further information from them at the last meeting and had never received it. The council continued the hearing until the next meeting.
The council held a public hearing about a request for addition to the existing ground signs for the property located at 14070 New Halls Ferry Rd / 3180 N. Hwy 67. This is the center where Lowe’s is located. Dollar Tree is also in the center. The change will allow Dollar Tree to add their name to the existing signs below the Lowe’s signs.
Councilman Tommy Siam asked if there were any concerns about visibility being reduced for drivers passing by. Glenn Egart, speaking for the sign company, said there should not be. Schmidt said that he commended Lowe’s and Dollar Tree for working together on the project.
In other action, the council:
- Passed a bill that will rezone property at 10900 N. Hwy 67 to allow for an urgent care facility.
- Passed a bill to authorize a special use permit to Metropolitan Events, LLC to allow for an event/banquet center for the property at 11 Patterson Plaza Shopping Center.
- Approved requests by Philip Bell to keep three chickens on Bellarmine Ln., Wilma Rutin to keep three hens on Borgia Lane, and Jason and Kelly Pokorny to keep two chickens on Ensenada Dr.
- Approved a request for a beer and wine liquor license for Paint It Like You Meant In at 3357 N. Highway 67. And a request for a beer and wine liquor license for Viet Thai at 8458 N. Lindbergh.
