Dellwood voters did not just approve a bond issue, they all but shouted for change. With more than 90 percent backing Proposition D on April 7, residents gave city leaders the green light to pour up to $6 million into remaking parks, public safety facilities and long-neglected corners of West Florissant Avenue.
The bond package is designed to turn empty lots and an unused pool into active, revenue-generating community spaces, according to city officials. They say the goal is simple, if not exactly small: safer streets, more things for kids to do and new places for neighbors and small businesses to gather.
According to KSDK, the roughly $6,000,000 will be split across four major projects. The list includes a new public safety building, turf football, lacrosse and soccer fields at Dellwood Park, a modern event center to replace the unused pool beside the recreation center and a farmers market planned for a long-vacant Conoco lot on West Florissant Avenue. The outlet reports the city expects to generate most of the funding by reissuing bonds and that the measure passed by a landslide.
Mayor Reggie Jones, who has led Dellwood since 2013, praised the vote and cast the plan as a way to create new spaces for children, families and small business owners, according to KMOV. He told reporters the work will be phased so residents start seeing quick wins while the bigger-ticket items move through planning and construction.
Turning a Scar Into a Storefront
The farmers market proposal targets a stretch of West Florissant that still shows the damage from the 2014 unrest that followed the killing of Michael Brown. Several businesses along the corridor burned and some lots have sat empty ever since, as documented by St. Louis Public Radio. City officials say turning the former Conoco site and other vacant parcels into active commercial space is meant to pull people back to the corridor and give nearby residents safer, more walkable options for shopping and dining.
City Hall Shuffle and Public Safety
Public safety is a big piece of the package. The plan includes a new building to house Dellwood police officers and code enforcement staff, which would move the department out of the basement of city hall and free up about five offices for other city needs, KSDK reports. The city also intends to tear down a long-vacant auto repair shop on West Florissant to make room for the new facility.
Timeline and Financing
City leaders say the projects will be paid for by reissuing existing debt rather than raising taxes, a detail that clearly did not hurt the measure at the ballot box. Officials want to move quickly into design and contracting once the financial pieces are in place. Jones estimated that several projects, including the farmers market, the turf fields and the public safety building, could be finished by the end of next year, KMOV reported. City leaders told reporters they hope to break ground this summer, with visible construction to follow soon after.
Neighbors Weigh In
At public meetings and at the polls, many longtime residents said Proposition D was an easy yes once they understood it would not increase their taxes, according to local coverage. Reporting aggregated by AOL captured voters who said they expect the projects to boost public safety and give young people more positive ways to spend their time. For now, Dellwood is waiting to see if that landslide vote will translate into shovels in the ground as quickly as promised.
