I never realized how much unincorperated areas there are to the south of the city. That, in itself, might be the most important pro for the city. I would also agree that in any plan, the city should become just another municipality amoung many. Idealy, the county would follow suit by consolidating its municipalities into 3 or 4 equal size munies, thereby giving the county 5 approximatly equal size local governments. The positive from a planning perspective is that this consolidation and centralization could help create more obvious nodes for the location of commerical and civic sites, and thereby make it easier to develope infastructure to move people too and from these places.
Not to repeat too much but... From what I can figure instead of having 3 similarly "sized" super-municipalities (population? land area?) is not really workable (by any stretch ? considering the topic). I came to find making the existing county into 10 - 13 units is MUCH more doable (including the city being the largest of all of them). Obviously North County - where there are dozens of densely populated small towns in very close proximity - would combine lots more of the current municipalities into one or two new super municipalities. Out where there are already big municipalities (chesterfield, Wildwood etc) combine 3 or 4 into one super municipality
I DO NOT think the city should annex parts of South County, but South County?s large unincorporated area should become a new municipality. Assuming the city will continue on its rise ? I don?t see why it can?t be at 400,000 people in the not-too-distant future. Add that with the large swath to the south ? that?s 550,000+ people ? and would be much larger than any of its neighbors.
Another thing that needs to be rectified, while dreaming, is a major consolidation of school districts ? along the new super municipality lines. I think having 10 ? 13 large school districts that work together would eliminate a lot of the need for Bussing and would give kids more options ? as each school district would have numerous high schools, and only one administration.
I think this idea would work well for the whole region - say combine the populated area of St. Charles into 3 cities approximately 100,000 in population. Northern Jeff CO and down I -55 should all become Arnold (it is already mostly Arnold already) East side could use some of this too - especially right across the river. Combine resources from Sauget, ESL, Brooklyn etc. into one large city.
I DO NOT think the city should annex parts of South County, but South County?s large unincorporated area should become a new municipality. Assuming the city will continue on its rise ? I don?t see why it can?t be at 400,000 people in the not-too-distant future. Add that with the large swath to the south ? that?s 550,000+ people ? and would be much larger than any of its neighbors.
Another thing that needs to be rectified, while dreaming, is a major consolidation of school districts ? along the new super municipality lines. I think having 10 ? 13 large school districts that work together would eliminate a lot of the need for Bussing and would give kids more options ? as each school district would have numerous high schools, and only one administration.
I think this idea would work well for the whole region - say combine the populated area of St. Charles into 3 cities approximately 100,000 in population. Northern Jeff CO and down I -55 should all become Arnold (it is already mostly Arnold already) East side could use some of this too - especially right across the river. Combine resources from Sauget, ESL, Brooklyn etc. into one large city.
