Vote Delayed on Longview Farm Parking Expansion Grant

Monday night the Town and Country Board of Aldermen was set to vote on whether to allow city staff to apply for a $4,000 planning grant to prepare engineering construction drawings for the parking lot expansion project. 

Some Town and Country residents opposed to the expansion project addressed the Town and Country Board of Aldermen Monday about the city's plan to apply for the grant. 

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Residents have started an online petition in an effort to gather support against the project.

"We have started an online petition and we've already had more than 56 signatures of Town and Country residents who oppose this expansion," Town and Country resident Henry Vogt told the board of aldermen and mayor Monday night. "Included on the petition are three aldermen."

Vogt lives adjacent to the park and serves on the Longview Farm Park Ad-Hoc Committee. The committee was created last year to review the parking situation at the park and possible changes to the parking lot. Mayor Jon Dalton appointed the members to the committee which is headed up by former Town and Country mayor Skip Mange.

After a feasibility study, the committee recommended adding 15 additional parking spots on the land and parking lot already designated for the park. Vogt has always spoken out against any expansion of the park or its lot.

"As you know, I am the only one who voted against this," Vogt said Monday night. He said that in April some residents voiced concerns about expanding the property. Other residents who oppose the expansion have said they feel it would bring more people and traffic to the park. 

"The park is overdeveloped. The people are not happy. The people are not happy with the stewardship you've shown at this park," Vogt said to the board Monday night. "It was promised to be passive. It hasn't been passive. It continues to be developed."

Vogt also said he will take the results of the online petition to St. Louis County and urge the County Municipal Parks Grant Commission not to give grant funds to the city of Town and Country to fund the additional parking. 

"It's not free money. It's our our tax dollars," Vogt said. "The main criteria the commission uses in determining funding is whether or not residents want the project you want the money for. They don't. They don't want this and that hasn't changed and we will be pointing this out to the county."

He told board members he hopes they reject the plan to apply for the grant.

"You are going about this the right way," Mayor Jon Dalton told Vogt. "You took the time and gave it thought and your position is well documented and that's a lot of the reason I wanted you on the commission. And we welcome the results of the online petition. We'll revisit the matter in a few weeks."

Vogt's other concern is that if the city applies for the grant and is awarded the grant money, then it will have to use that money on the parking expansion, even if a future study indicates the parking is not needed.

Resident Jim Haven shares Vogt's concern.

"I think this board made the right decision last year when you called for a study on the parking lot in the park, but I am opposed to this resolution to get some free money because I think it implicitly sends you down the road that you are going to do this project," Haven told the board Monday. "My recommendation is not to take this money, then do your study next summer, then make your decision on if we need parking. I think if we do need this money then Skip Mange's plans is as good as any and I would support it, but I say do the study first."

Other resident's supported holding off on the request for funds and gathering more information. 

"The only empirical data that we had from the counters that we put at the park entrances is that we don't have a parking problem," Jeff Chaney told board members Monday. "My question is what other empirical data is out there?"

Mariette Palmer told board members she did not want the project going forward without more data and a survey of residents.

"Longview Farm Park with its farmhouse is our escape and our refuge." Palmer said. "The plans for increasing the parking at Longview Farm Park should not proceed until the initial studies are done and not until a survey of the residents is completed, as the grant is to be given only when the people of the community totally back the project."

The board decided to continue the vote on the resolution and will revisit the item at the next meeting on Monday, Feb. 13.

Mange tells Patch he still supports his committee's recommendations and it is now in the board's hands to make a decision. He said he has no problem with aldermen continuing the vote until the next meeting, but points out the grant application process is time sensitive.

"There's a deadline for submitting for the planning grant," Mange said. "That deadline is three or four weeks away."

Mange said although Monday's vote would allow city staff to apply for the planning grant, an ordinance would later need to be approved to then contract an engineer to prepare the plans. Mange said the engineering costs are estimated at approximately $20,000. 

According to Mange, another grant application would then be submitted for the construction costs.

"That grant covers 100% of the construction costs and 50% of any landscaping that is included," Mange previously stated in an email. "When the project is completed the total of the two grants would be about 80% of the total costs, resulting in a cost to the city of around $20,000."

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