04/11/2005 Regular - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular Meeting April 11, 2005 Ms. Colquitt said that she had thought that she had requested that it be tabled and Councilmember Welsch had agreed with her. Mr. Wagner said let’s let the City Clerk research whether we tabled it or didn’t. Ms. Meine Forsythe said that she did not see an official tabling action only that the conditional use issue was held off. The only actions taken on this issue was the public hearing and the passage of a resolution and ordinance. There was not an official tabling motion from the Council on the conditional use permit. Mayor Adams said that he didn’t think that there had been a tabled conditional use permit. The Mayor noted that there were requests to speak. Herman Slade, 8077 Hafner Court, described himself as the operating partner of the Hafner Court Apartments, a property adjacent to the property under discussion. He has been at this location since the early 1980’s and said he experienced great difficulty, specifically flooding from overland flooding and from surging of the sanitary sewer system, which in under the River des Peres and runs directly adjacent and behind this property. Since the proposed improvement was done, it has made matters much worse. They experienced two devastating floods in less than one year, to the point where it wipes out completely the apartment dwellers in the complex. The parking lot is flooded and we have lost as many as twenty or twenty-five automobiles in the parking lot that were totally underwater. We have approached MSD and obtained help from Mr. Ollendorff to write to them on our behalf and the City’s behalf, and it has been ignored. There are numerous reasons why it has become worse and why this is an extremely serious problem. Loss of life could be considered. Water can be thigh-high. He said he could go into additional detail about this problem, he has much information relating to his concerns related to this redevelopment, and he has VCR tapes to demonstrate what occurs during these floods inside the apartments. He asserted strongly that this should not be approved, under any circumstances, without going into more detail. He stressed that this is not an occasional occurrence and that to experience it is devastating. Tenants in the apartments have had to suffer undue distress. He believes that this development will only hinder rather than help the problem he just described, indeed he believes it will compound the problems. Some demands must be made on MSD. He has been told that this is a flood plain and does not understand how this project can proceed in a flood plain when he was advised that building is not allowed in a flood plain. He asked for answers to his questions. Mayor Adams restated Mr. Slade’s position, saying “Your belief is that the construction on the other side of the creek will create and will increase water flow that will affect his apartment complex” and asked if this was his basic “bottom line.” Mr. Slade responded that it would affect some family homes in the area in addition to the apartment complex. He said this is not a guess, on his part, and that he has factual information to prove the Page 8