____________________________________________________________________________________________
By Pauline Masson –
Aldermen will consider whether to approve an outdoor storage lot at the entrance to Liberty Field park at the Tuesday board meeting.
Although local social media posts indicated that citizens don’t favor a storage lot at the park entrance, no opponents appeared at the P&Z meeting to voice concerns.
Two measures now come before aldermen to approve the use of the lot adjacent to the park – final approval of the sale of city owned lots the storage lot will occupy and approval of the conditional use permit to allow the lot in a an M 1 light industrial zoning district where it is not permitted by ordinance.
Both measures are on the agenda requiring aldermem to act at the Tuesday, Mar. 21 board meeting.
Aldermen gave preliminary approval Mar. 7 to the project by completing a first reading of an ordinance authorizing the mayor or city administrator to sign a special sale contract to transfer ownership of the land from the City of Pacific to Klance Staging, which is headquartered in the Meramec Industrial Park on Jefferson Street.
And, in a 8-1 vote the planning and zoning commission voted to recommend approval of the conditional use permit to allow the storage lot on the property in an M1 industrial district where it is not a listed use that is allowed there. Commissioner Gary Koelling cast the no vote without comment.
The only speaker at the P&Z meeting was Lynn Vogt of Klance Staging, who explained that his firm is outgrowing its Jefferson Street location and needs a place to store 50 trailers that hold the outdoor portable staging equipment that Klance provides for large performances.
“We’re busting at the seams.We have no place to go with this stuff,” Vogt said. “We need to space to make it more efficient than our location in Meramec Industrial Park.”
The firm provides and transports movable temporary stages, that fold up on flatbed trailers or drive into enclosed trailers. Once at their locations, the portable stage systems open to create huge covered and lighted stages for outdoor productions.
Vogt said the firm provides stages for some of the country’s best known performers.
“This is all large format stuff for big arenas,” he said. “In the last 40 years we’ve done shows for the Pope. I worked with Billy Graham 30 years and now work for his son Franklin. We’ve worked with big names U2 and Frank Sinatra.”
The special sale contract is a land swap that would, in addition to selling the East Pacific Street lots to Klance, transfer ownership of the large lot at the south entrance to Liberty Field from Klance Staging to the City
In recommending that P&Z approve the permit, City Administrator Steve Roth said the property at the south entrance to the park would be more beneficial to the city than the wooded lots at the north edge of the park.
Roth also said planting trees on the north and west side of the property could create a barrier between the lot and the park.
Vogt said because of the height of the stages on the trailers he planned to build a berm six-foot wide along the perimeter of the lot and because of the height of some of the stage systems would plant trees that would grow to 18 feet in height.
He also said in the case of flooding his company had 15 tractors that pull the trailers and had the ability to move the trailers out of the area quickly in the case of rising water.
If what he says he is going to do is what he does, it would be ok. But is putting berms around the property in a floodplain a good thing? There doesn’t seem to be anyone against it, so as long as it doesn’t look like his Jefferson St business.
The only thing about it is when the city acquired it, the info in them claiming eminent domain, then the bank settled, what was this property needed so bad for that they were willing to use the threat of Eminent Domain for?
Pauline Does he have the proof that 6 ft berms will not affect the potential water rise elsewhere? That is part of the city form that people have to sign to build there. Where is the engineering on that, Pauline Have you looked into that, Pauline?