St. Louis County Denies Mehlville School District Zoning Request

The St. Louis County Planning Commission unanimously voted to deny a Mehlville School District petition for a change in zoning for offices and a school bus parking facility in an executive meeting Monday night.

The request was for a 1.93-acre area on the south quadrant of the intersection of Lemay Ferry and Ringer roads.

Planning Commission member Bill Sneed made a motion to decline the request because of the additional traffic that would occur at the intersection.

“There was great concern, and I know I have it, for coming into and going out of that site and I don’t see that they’re going to do anything to achieve a safe route in and out,” he said. “That out there is very difficult to negotiate even coming out of Ringer Road with an automobile, much less big school buses.”

The facility would hold no more than 32 of the district’s 96 buses, administrative offices, a training facility and a limited maintenance repair station, said Debi Salberg with St. Louis County Planning. The district wouldn’t make any major changes to the site and five to six employees would be working at the location full-time.

The Mehlville school board briefly discussed as a cost-saving measure. Moving some of the buses to the south end of the district was projected to save .

Board President Venki Palamand declined to comment about the rezoning request, saying it was a real estate issue, which is a closed session topic.

The space is currently a vacant office building that was previously a produce market and convenience store. The area also contains another vacant office building and a large garage structure.

Department of Planning staff recommended approval for the request to the Planning Commission so the district could provide more efficient transportation to its students, the information report said.

Salberg said two residents spoke against the petition at a March 19 public hearing because of traffic concerns when buses were entering and leaving the facility. In a symbolic vote out of 11 attendees, seven people were in favor of the request, while four people were opposed.

“It wasn’t a perfect location and there certainly were not overwhelming neighborhood concerns,” Salberg said. “The way it was explained, the buses would be leaving pretty early, before rush hour.”

When district officials met with the planning department, Salberg said the buses would primarily be making right turns in and out of the site.

“We certainly discussed that in our own meetings and agree that’s an awkward intersection because it’s not a right angle intersection, but in the end, we kind of took the school district at their word in terms of predominate movement,” said Director of Planning Glenn Powers at Monday’s meeting.

Wayne Hilzinger, a member of the Planning Commission who also served on the Mehlville school board from 1994 to 1997, disagreed with the approval recommendation.

“There’s at least two sites that would probably be less congested and would suit their needs better than that intersection," he said. “I think there are some other opportunities in South County, particularly on Baumgartner Road.”