To the editor:

Does St. Louis County government really want citizens’ input when they have public hearings on rezoning?

St. Louis County officials may have met the “letter of the law” in notifying south county citizens about a proposed rezoning to accommodate a senior citizen housing complex. But they didn’t meet the “spirit of the law.”

For National Church Residences to build a complex at 6050 Telegraph Road, a rezoning of the property was required. The rezoning required a public hearing by the county Planning Commission.

This public hearing is where the citizens impacted by the proposal have their opportunity to voice their concerns. This is where the process broke down.

On the county’s website, it lists ways that citizens should learn about public hearings for rezoning changes:

• Signs posted on the property — this may be the first information surrounding residents have regarding the pending change of zoning.

• Postcards mailed to property owners within 1,000 feet of the proposed rezoning area notifying them of the public hearing. In particular, there is a requirement of notification of joining properties.

• Legal notice in the newspaper of the public hearing.

• The public hearing notice is posted on the Department of Planning website.

The county’s site implies that they want citizens to know about rezoning and realize that communication with the citizens is important.

As I see it, this is where the problem lies.

The county may have followed the letter of the law by posting a sign on the property, but the sign was so far back that it was not readily seen.

Is this the way to communicate with the citizens of the area so that they know about the public hearing and can come and voice their concerns?

The county may have met the letter of the law, but certainly not the spirit.

The county may have followed the letter of the law by sending out postcards to property owners, but according to County Councilman Steve Stenger, D-Affton, he has found only two people who received the postcard.

The owner of Goddard School, next door to the proposed site, did not receive the postcard. This was described as a change-of-address issue.

If I were the councilman for the area, I would have ensured that the businesses on either side of the proposed site were made aware of the zoning request before I voted for a rezoning. Obviously this was not done.

The public hearing notice on the Department of Planning’s website is fine if you go to the website on a regular basis or if you are checking on a hearing that you already know about.

But for the normal public, we don’t go to the Department of Planning’s website.

The most egregious incident of where the county did not meet the spirit of the law was the newspaper that the county chose for its “legal notice” of the public hearing.

County officials chose the Countian–St. Louis as the newspaper to notify the citizens of south county about the public hearing for rezoning. According to the Countian’s website, the newspaper is published by Missouri Lawyers Media.

I’ve never read it and I assume that most of the citizens of south county haven’t either. How about putting the notice in a newspaper that the public actually reads?

If county officials really want to communicate with citizens and get their input in public hearings, then they must change their process.

But maybe they just don’t want our input.