Is Mr. Rowland paying the impact fee? Will St. Joseph smarten up and make the impact fees a larger umbrella, with contributions to be spread over fire, police schools, along with sewers and roads?

Just to clarify: there is "outrage" over increasing our population? Over providing new homes for people? Wait... it's all about the students. That's right... back to all about the schools...again. Even though the school district has proposed a comprehensive reform plan that is supposed to accommodate all children (demolishing and building anew) in St Joe, it still isn't enough, eh? Surprise. Surprise.

Well, lets see yes it is about the students, they happen to be the future of this city. Umh the "reform plans" state that a new school will be built on the north end of town on Karnes Rd. (sjsd.k12.mo.us to read this Plan) So with Skaith at 412 students now without the subdivision of Thousand Oaks even complete ~ with the additon of the 2121 Riverside Apartments and the apartment complex at the end of Lenoard Rd where exactly to you propose the children from 402 apartments go to get their education? I highly doubt that SJSD will be able to afford or offer to bus them to Karnes Rd. Ontop of all that you have the saftey of the residents that are sending their kids to school. Most of them are walking to school. The residents of Thousand Oaks already deal with cars speeding through the subdivision because they use it as a short cut to avoid main roads. Several times the school has been broken into and used at all hours of the night, with a poor response from the SJPD. I am sure this type of activity will get better with an additional 402 units.
If StJoe is in such dire need for new housing then why can't we just find a sutiable location for that? Why must we try to squeeze every inch of unused land up? Mother nature also needs some where to live. That land is going to have to have extensive work done just to get it ready to build on. There is no bridge to access it from Lenoard and no road to it from the Altec entrance. They want to have residents from the new industral park, well they can't keep businesses in Mitchell Woods.
I don't think anyone is against progress, but lets just stop and map out a better plan!

I don't think that the residents are against increasing the population or providing “new homes.” At the meeting Mr. Rowland said that this would help increase the tax base. Mayor Ken Sherrin gave out a statistic that shot down Mr. Rowland's theory. The population has remained stagnant for the last 14 years. There are already new apartments less than quarter mile that are not at full capacity. The apartment complex across from Deer Park on Riverside Rd was supposed to be “upscale” just as Mr. Rowland said that his development will be. Now they are government subsidized. There are plenty of “new homes” available. What is going to happen is that once leases are up at other apartment complexes people are going to do the “St Joseph thing” and move to the shinny new building.

Also, yes the schools are also another major concern as well as the already deterioration of Leonard Rd and Pickett Rd, as well as the already congested intersection at Riverside Rd and US 36 Highway. This new development is also taking land away from any possible expansion that Altec would develop as well which would eliminate the possibility of more jobs.

All of these valid concerns add up to this development not making sense.