Parking Lot a Difficult Arnold City Council Decision

Arnold city councilmen will need to decide, in the coming weeks, whether to allow a business to build a semi-truck parking lot at the intersection of Arnold Tenbrook Road and Telegraph Road.

Dave Wooldridge, who owns with his brother Dennis, want to move from 2960 Arnold Tenbrook Rd., to the intersection that is near a Flamm City neighborhood and the bridge to South St. Louis County. They also want to move parking lot business for semi-truck drivers.

If the city council meeting to consider Wooldridge’s request resembles the Arnold Planning Commission’s meeting on May 22, it will be a difficult decision for the councilmen.

More than 200 people attended the commission’s meeting at , 2101 Jeffco Blvd., and more than 20 people spoke to the commissioners during the meeting’s public comments opportunity on May 22.

Few people, other than petitioning business owners, have attended such commission meetings in the past.

During the May 22 meeting, Wooldridge said he and his brother rent the space where the two companies are currently located.

The spa moving, installation and maintenance company generates most of the revenue, Wooldridge said. “But we need the parking lot until we have a better economy.”

Fewer homeowners are buying and installing spas, Wooldridge said.

Documents said that the Wooldridges currently operate an 80-space gravel parking lot for semi-tractor and trailer trucks on Arnold Tenbrook Road.

Arnold residents who own and operate $200,000 trucking rigs need a secure area to park their property when they are not working.

A bankruptcy forced the parking lot business on he and his brother, Wooldridge said to commissioners

The new building and location, which is planned for the northwest corner of Telegraph Road and Arnold Tenbrook Road, would provide more storage for the spa business and greater visibility to truck drivers.

Planning documents showed the new location would have about 50 spaces for semi-tractors and trailers. The new parking lot will be gravel instead of being asphalt covered.

Neighborhood Problems

The problem is that trucks parking on the gravel lot would disrupt the families in the nearby neighborhood. About 16 residents said, to commissioners, that noise from the trucks would wake them during the night. And dust from the gravel lot would cover the neighborhood.

 “I’m not opposed to spa’s new storefront,” said Susan Kroupa, who grew up in Flamm City near the location the proposed parking lot. She is also the wife of City Treasurer Dan Kroupa.

 “I’m opposed to the truck parking lot because of how the noise, dust, dirt and 24/7 operation will affect the neighborhood,” Kroupa said.

Although a privacy fence, berm and an array of trees and shrubs are planned for the business development, Kroupa said none of it would be tall enough to hide semi-trucks or prevent dust from spreading to the rest of the neighborhood.

She also doubted truck drivers would comply with the proposed rules requiring truck headlights be turned off after parking in the lot or that refrigeration trucks turn off the units between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

“Current businesses fail to comply with Arnold ordinances,” Kroupa said.

Applause filled the meeting room after Kroupa, and everyone opposed to the parking lot, spoke.

A Lakeland Court father, who’s home would be next to the proposed parking lot, said trucks driving along Arnold Tenbrook Road and Telegraph Road wake him during the night.

No shrubs or privacy fence could block the headlights, dust and noise as a truck drives around the proposed lot and parks at night, the father said.

Ward 2 Councilman Bill Moritz said the spa and parking lot businesses should be separated. The spa business could move into its new location while parking lot operations should remain on Arnold Tenbrook Road.

“If they can’t afford it then (the businesses) should stay at the current location,” Moritz said.

Complications

The two businesses cannot be separated because the parking lot must be connected to a building with an active business, Community Development Director Mary Holden said to commissioners.

City Attorney Bob Sweeney further explained that the proposal, combining a spa retailer with a truck parking lot, is a mixed-use commercial-industrial solution.

“The spa is commercial business but the parking lot is an industrial business,” Sweeney said.

The City of Arnold would need to approve an industrial zoning ordinance for the parking lot’s new location. The proposed site is already approved for commercial use.

Ward 2 Councilman Michelle Hohmeier, who sits and votes on the Planning Commission, said she faced a very difficult decision.

“Commercial property is private property and people can sell it,” she said, “but how do you help businesses grow and grant them rights but then intrude on residents’ rights.”

Planning Commissioner Andrew Sutton said it was a difficult burden. “We have a responsibility to grow the city but we also have a duty to represent the people.”

The spa’s new building is beautiful and would improve the new location, Sutton said, but he also needed to consider the health and safety of the neighborhood’s residents.

Planning Commission Chairman Bryan McArthur said commissioners had a third responsibility to uphold current city ordinances.

The new parking lot does not fit with the Arnold’s greenway master plan or with the comprehensive plan that guides the city’s economic development, he said.

McArthur proposed the planning commission recommend that the city council deny the parking lot’s construction at the intersection of Arnold Tenbrook Road and Telegraph Road.

In a 6-3 vote, the commission agreed. Commissioners Del Williams, Jeff Campbell, and Roy Wilde opposed the recommendation.

More applause filled the room.

“The City Council is independent of the planning commission and are the executive branch of the city,” McArthur said.

Six of eight city councilmen would need to vote to against the recommendation to overrule the planning commission’s denial of an industrial zoning permit for the proposed parking lot, McArthur said.

Two commissioners were excused and absent from the meeting.

The City Council’s next meetings are on June 7 and 21.