Two New Cities Considered in Franklin County

State and Local Government |
By David Stokes | Read Time 2 minutes

We have a new leader in the "most boring headline ever" competition here at SMI. The only way anyone is ever going to click on this post is if my friend Gus W. stops by the site. But anyway …

There are two new municipalities being considered in Franklin County. The Post-Dispatch has a good article on the debate today. One of the proposed cities, Lake St. Clair, has gone about the process the right way, and one, Stonewater, has taken advantage of the controversial "village law" passed last session to attempt to bypass the normal rules. It should also be noted that there is only one resident of Stonewater, and nobody can reasonably be so pro-property rights that they think any single individual should be able to incorporate their property into a new political entity on a whim.

I actually don’t have too much to add from the article’s coverage of the decisions of the Franklin County Board of Commissioners. It seems correct to me that the residents of Lake St. Clair form a new city, and it seems more than reasonable that Stonewater was denied:

Stonewater is 40 acres of almost entirely vacant ground off Holtgrewe Road southwest of Washington. Ferguson, a developer in the county, is the site’s only resident.

Just because Wikipedia has a terrific article on micronations does not mean you have to grant political autonomy to every jerk who wants his own city. ‘Nuff said.

About the Author

David Stokes is a St. Louis native and a graduate of Saint Louis University High School and Fairfield (Conn.) University. He spent six years as a political aide at the St. Louis County Council before joining the Show-Me Institute in 2007. Stokes was a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute from 2007 to 2016. From 2016 through 2020 he was Executive Director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, where he led efforts to oppose harmful floodplain developments done with abusive tax subsidies. Stokes rejoined the Institute in early 2021 as the Director of Municipal Policy. He is a past president of the University City Library Board. He served on the St. Louis County 2010 Council Redistricting Commission and was the 2012 representative to the Electoral College from Missouri’s First Congressional District. He lives in University City with his wife and their three children.

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