Councilman Tim Baker's Blog

Traffic safety is one of the most frequent concerns I’ve heard from residents since becoming your County Council representative for District 7. I’ve made it my business to travel the District to see what issues can be addressed, and with so many subdivisions, it’s no surprise that so many people are worried about keeping their families safe from dangerous drivers. 

If you have a problem with risky driver behavior in your neighborhood, you can be part of the solution by requesting traffic regulations. These are stop signs, speed limits, electronic signals, traffic calming measures and other traffic control devices. Requesting a new traffic regulation requires three steps: petition, County Engineer review, and Council approval.

The process begins by getting a petition signed by residents from at least 15 separate households in your neighborhood, or at least 51% of all property owners within one mile of the requested location, supporting the requested regulation.

The petition is sent to the St. Charles County Highway Department for review by the County Engineer. Following a review and traffic study, the County Engineer may approve or deny the requested changes.

Any regulation that gets approved by the County Engineer will go to a public hearing before the County Council and placed on the consent agenda for the County Council to vote on. Hearing notices are posted on the County’s website and on signs placed within 500 feet of the proposed traffic regulation.

If a petitioner or nearby property owner disagrees with the County Engineer’s decision on a petition, there is an appeal process. All this information can be retrieved on the Highway Department’s webpage under FAQs.

One thing to remember when requesting a stop sign: It is not a tool to be used to slow down traffic. Many times, too many stop signs create a false sense of security, because people think everyone will stop and that is not always the case. The same goes for speed limit signs – people don’t always follow them.

If you are having a difficult time with speeders in your subdivision, you can contact the St. Charles County Police Department and request a trailer that displays the speed limit and how fast the driver is going by visiting sccmo.org/Police.

The one thing I learned while out meeting many residents while campaigning for County Council District 7 is that this county has a lot of stormwater issues our residents are having to deal with. These problems include creek erosion, overland erosion, and insufficient stormwater design. I wish I had a dime for every time a homeowner said to me, “I used to be able to walk across that creek.” Of course, one big problem is within the Heritage Subdivision where there are multiple issues that include subsidence and stormwater issues that have impacted some homes within the subdivision.

The County was fortunate to get American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds via the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to fund a stormwater watershed study and to fund addressing some of the storm sewer problems within the Heritage subdivision. In fact, the County is currently working with a stormwater consulting firm hired to study the watershed within the Heritage subdivision. Their report was completed March 31.   

When I began my career over 32 years ago as a civil engineer for St. Louis County Highway Department, I was exposed to a variety of stormwater problems throughout St. Louis County. It was a big problem for St. Louis County then, as it is a big problem in St. Charles County today.  While storm sewers designed to collect runoff and accepted by the County for maintenance are County responsibility, most local creeks are on private property and are not owned or maintained by the county and so are not county responsibility.   Back in 1990, St. Louis County got creative and decided to use cable TV franchise fee revenue (fees that the state has now legislated be cut in half by mid-2027) to address stormwater infrastructure problems. Fortunately for St. Louis County, they share district boundaries with the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD), which took over management of stormwater issues within St. Louis County. Unfortunately for St. Charles County, there isn’t a sewer district in St. Charles County that would manage these types of issues. Outside of the major cities in this county, including St. Peters, St. Charles, and O’Fallon, there is not an entity that manages stormwater problems.  

In 1972, representatives of St. Charles County and the major cities at that time met to discuss creating such a sewer district within St. Charles County but the measure did not proceed as the cities at that time did not want a separate sewer district. If it had passed, the sewer district would be managing storm sewer projects within St. Charles County today.

I believe that something needs to be done about stormwater problems in St. Charles County.  What exactly?  I do not know but I do know that I’m making this a priority!