St. Louis County Announces New Ordinance Guidebook for Subdivisions

St. Louis County’s Department of Planning has recently completed an Ordinance Guidebook for subdivisions. The purpose of the Ordinance Guidebook is to provide a quick reference of St. Louis County laws and regulations that commonly affect everyday life in our subdivisions and neighborhoods. The Ordinance Guidebook is primarily targeted to subdivision trustees and neighborhood leaders in unincorporated areas who frequently deal with property maintenance problems, nuisance complaints, and other issues that have an impact on a community’s appearance, safety, and environment.

The Ordinance Guidebook, however, also includes laws that are enforceable throughout St. Louis County and may be of interest to municipal residents.

The Ordinance Guidebook is available on St. Louis County’s website at:http://www.co.st-louis.mo.us/plan/subdivision/OrdinanceGuidebook.pdf

For more information contact: Department of Planning at (314) 615-2520

Subdivision Trustee Guidebook Available for Downloading

The Subdivision Trustee Guidebook was updated in August 2006 and is a key resource to subdivision trustees. The book is available for immediate downloading at: http://tinyurl.com/yhpgqf or from the St. Louis County Planning Department.

St. Louis County Issues Trustee Guidebook

Though not a legal document, this guidebook is intended to help Subdivision Trustees and interested St. Louis County residents understand the issues surrounding the establishment and operation of Subdivision Associations.

For additional information, please call the St. Louis County Department of Planning, Comprehensive Planning Division at (314) 615-2520, email at planning@stlouisco.com.

The language throughout most of this Guidebook is general and intended to be applicable to any subdivision in St. Louis County. The primary audience is subdivisions throughout the County, both in incorporated and unincorporated areas.

In order to maintain the general focus when referring to government institutions and services, the phrase “municipal or county” is frequently used; typically, a subdivision in a municipality receives most of its government services from that municipality, while a subdivision in an unincorporated area of St. Louis County eceives most of its government services from the County.

The main exception to the general focus of this Guidebook is its Appendix A, which contains information regarding neighborhood preservation, zoning and building permits for properties in unincorporated St. Louis County. Appendix B offers a toolkit for all subdivision trustees on topics such as running effective meetings and creating newsletters.