The city of Manchester, Missouri hopes the upcoming Nov. 7 special municipal election will mean a population boost of more than 30%.
Residents of the town in west St. Louis County, along with about 6,500 people in neighboring unincorporated territory, will vote on an annexation proposal. If a majority of people in both places approve, the 1,500 acres north and east of Manchester’s current boundaries would join the city on May 7, 2024.
“We become bigger, which means we have more efficiencies in some of the things we do,” said Manchester mayor Mike Clement, who became a resident of the city in a 1999 annexation. “The grants that we can provide are often based on population.”
Manchester has been eyeing the land, roughly bordered by Barrett Station Road, Highway 141, Carman Road and Manchester Road, since 2004. But a county commission charged with administering boundary changes rejected the original proposal because Manchester wanted to use Grand Glaize Creek as a boundary. That goes against state law requiring a “firm” boundary.
The city re-upped its effort in 2018, and began bringing it to voters earlier this year after getting approval from the Boundary Commission.
Keith Weldon, a trustee for the Barrett Creek Villas subdivision, found the arguments for annexation compelling.
“The first thing that everybody looks at is the financial side of things,” Weldon said of himself and the two other trustees of the gated community. “We reviewed the proposal, and we determined that overall, when you look at everything, that our costs would actually go down on an annual basis.”
Weldon added that he liked the fact that Manchester has a large pot of money available for erosion mitigation. The subdivision backs up to Grand Glaize Creek, he said, and there are at least three major areas of erosion that will need to be addressed.
Bill Handy, however, could not think of a good reason to vote for higher taxes and the loss of St. Louis County police services.
“It’s just an additional layer of government that isn’t necessary,” he said. “I don’t think anybody, especially in today’s day and age, is looking for more government.”
Handy said he intentionally chose an unincorporated area when he moved to his home two years ago.
The Boundary Commission’s review shows that real estate, sales, and personal property taxes would all go up for those in the unincorporated area, although the cost for trash services would go down. Residents would also have to pay more for any repairs to the public portion of their sewer laterals.
Some of the tax increase is due to a bond issue that Manchester passed for streets and sidewalks in 2018. The work is already completed, meaning newly-annexed residents would not benefit. Clement said the city would develop a rebate program for that portion of the increase, although there are questions about the constitutionality of that proposal.
The annexation is the subject of two lawsuits that seek to overturn the Boundary Commission’s decision. Neither are currently scheduled for a hearing.
