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New Florissant Landscaping Code Says Dumpsters Must be Screened-In
BY CAROL ARNETT
The Florissant City Council passed a bill that includes landscaping and screening criteria in the city code. City Building Commisioner John Morgan reviewed with the council some of the items covered in the bill at an executive session before the council meeting.
Morgan said that the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission (P and Z) had worked on the bill at the request of the council to address some items that have come up in recent petitions for new developments. Among other items, the bill gives a definition of ground cover and sets out what trees should be planted for screening.
“P and Z used a book put out by the Department of Natural Resources about Missouri urban trees,” Morgan said.
The bill also allows P and Z to wave certain landscape requirements for smaller or unusually shaped lots, Morgan said. For example, trees should be planted a certain distance apart, but P and Z could approve a different distance if the lot size or shape was unusual.
The council made one amendment to the bill before passing it. The bill also calls for all dumpsters to be screened, or fenced in. In addition to all new construction, the original bill would have required existing businesses to screen dumpsters within two years.
Councilwoman Karen McKay expressed reservations about requiring existing businesses to come into compliance. “These shopping centers are going to pass the cost onto their tenants,” she said, saying it would hurt small businesses. She also pointed out that since the bill does not require trash totes or cans under 40 gallons to be screened, some businesses may opt to forego dumpsters and use the smaller totes. “Then we could have overflowing totes,” she said.
Councilman Mark Schmidt suggested that the council amend the bill to remove the section requiring existing businesses to add screening and revisit the issue at a later date. “Let’s get the rest of this passed,” he said indicating that here should be further discussion on this matter later.
In other matters, the council passed a bill amending the zoning ordinance to revise the definition of family. After the meeting, City Attorney John Hessel said that the change was proposed because the city was inconsistent in the way it defined a family. There was one definition in the building code, a slightly different one in the definitions section of the code, and a slightly different one in the section of the code dealing with occupancy permits.
“This simply makes all the definitions consistent,” Hessel said.
The council also approved an existing monument sign and additional awnings at the drive-through for the recently reopened Wendy’s at 8250 N. Lindbergh.
