ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — People living in St. Louis County say their wants and needs are changing, which is why county officials are developing a new comprehensive plan called "St. Louis County 2050: An Equitable & Sustainable Comprehensive plan."
It's the first comprehensive plan the county has created in 40 years.
Residents can attend a series of open houses:
- Thursday, Nov. 14 — 4:30-7:30 p.m. at Pavilion at Lemay at Jefferson Barracks Park
- Saturday, Nov. 16 — 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. at Florissant Municipal Court Building
Officials will be listening to suggestions for housing, transportation, sustainability and other areas after spending the last year putting together a draft after hearing from residents on initial survey's.
Jacob Trimble, the county director of planning, said they want to make sure they invest the right resources in the right places for the next 25 years.
"We want to create communities that are fiscally responsible and fiscally sound so that residents can feel assure," Trimble said.
Through surveys and community conversations in the last year, St. Louis County developed a list of areas they'd like to see in the plan:
Trimble said the open houses are a way for residents to see a draft of the St. Louis County 2050 plan.
He said the plan will build on success that's currently happening
"One of the things that right now we're really excited about in county government is some real changes going on in north St. Louis County. You're seeing the ongoing demolition of the Jamestown Mall site," Trimble said.
Trimble continued: "Just a couple of miles away is the new Wild Care Park, which is being developed by the Saint Louis Zoo".
He also said the plan will address five key challenges among many other areas.
"The first and I think the biggest one is that St. Louis County has had, it has been on a population plateau since 1970. Which leads into the second core issue residents for the last 50 years have seen a lot of new buildings going up, but there haven't been new people, the third issue is housing affordability. We're also experiencing and looking at how do we deal with social and environmental resilience issues. Then our fifth and final large scale issue is looking at our jobs mix and our skill set of our residents. So we, we have somewhat of a job skills mismatch. We don't have the right job mix for the skill mix of our residents. So what are we going to do to address that," Trimble said.
Trimble said he's thankful to residents in the county for their transparency.
"It's the folks out in the community that are bringing up their needs that are telling us what they want, that are positive and are optimistic about the future," Trimble said.
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page released this statement about the St. Louis county 2050 plan saying "community feedback is essential to ensure that our comprehensive plan delivers the policies and projects that will drive the county's future growth."
County officials say the comprehensive plan will reinforce current programs rather than create new processes.
The St. Louis County 2050 plan could be adopted as soon as next fall.