urbanSTL

gary kreie wrote: ↑

11:46 PM - 8 days ago

East and West Berlin merged.  I think we can figure out water.  


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Obviously it can be done. I suppose infrastructure and services is a cart before the horse. A dissolution of St. Louis City County and entrance as a municipality into St. Louis County is one thing, annexation of incorporated areas is another.

Ultimately since I am assuming residents of unincorporated areas largely would like to keep it that way, an involuntary City led annexation would have to clear a court approval and then require a vote in both the City and the annexed area to pass a simple majority, and if the annexed area does not pass it would then have to pass a 2/3 supermajority in a second attempt. Even if all of that passed it would be a years long process for the city to gain areas of low-density, poorly planned land and all of its infrastructural issues and irregularities. For example, a city that has ambitions of being a walkable and equitable place would now have large swaths of area with no sidewalks and abysmal land use it would have to contend with. 

^^Also would have to make it past the St. Louis County Boundary Commission which is written into state law. Good luck with that.

kg2024 wrote: ↑

2:56 PM - 8 days ago

gary kreie wrote: ↑

11:46 PM - 8 days ago

East and West Berlin merged.  I think we can figure out water.  


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Obviously it can be done. I suppose infrastructure and services is a cart before the horse. A dissolution of St. Louis City County and entrance as a municipality into St. Louis County is one thing, annexation of incorporated areas is another.

Ultimately since I am assuming residents of unincorporated areas largely would like to keep it that way, an involuntary City led annexation would have to clear a court approval and then require a vote in both the City and the annexed area to pass a simple majority, and if the annexed area does not pass it would then have to pass a 2/3 supermajority in a second attempt. Even if all of that passed it would be a years long process for the city to gain areas of low-density, poorly planned land and all of its infrastructural issues and irregularities. For example, a city that has ambitions of being a walkable and equitable place would now have large swaths of area with no sidewalks and abysmal land use it would have to contend with. 

Just as a reminder, Kansas City is 315 square miles, stretches into four different counties, and has farms within city limits (see below). I think the City of St. Louis could manage having different land uses, including traditional suburban ones.

[A scene from the northern end of Kansas City, MO:

]

LocalGovSTL wrote: ↑

4:09 PM - 8 days ago

^^Also would have to make it past the St. Louis County Boundary Commission which is written into state law. Good luck with that.

Exactly. Getting the City back into the County as a standalone municipality would be the most significant event in the region's history, second only to the City's founding and the Great Divorce itself. City annexation of unincorporated parts of StL County sounds nice, and may be workable as step 20 in a multi-decade unification strategic plan, but its a complete non-starter in the current (or medium-term) political climate. Including it on day one would completely derail the whole initiative before it got off the ground. Nobody should even mentioned it outside of the confines of this forum.