St. Louis streets director outlines rollout of new utility coordination ordinance, five-year moratorium and paving plan

St. Louis City’s Public Infrastructure and Utilities Committee heard a detailed update March 19 on implementing the city’s new utility coordination ordinance and on steps the Streets Department is taking to reduce repeated utility cuts on recently repaved streets.

The presentation, led by Director Taffany Williams of the Streets Department, Commissioner Kent Flake and program manager Zach Fortune, described immediate steps already taken under the ordinance, plans for a city utility plan and GIS mapping, and enforcement and inspection work needed to hold utility companies to new patching and permit standards. “The third major thing that will be effective immediately is the moratorium for 5 year a 5 year period,” Director Williams said, referring to a moratorium on nonemergency utility excavations in streets newly scheduled for paving.

Why it matters: Repeated utility digs after costly paving projects shorten pavement life, raise costs and frustrate residents. Committee members pressed staff for clearer multi‑year paving plans, better asset‑management tools and means for residents to report substandard repairs.

Implementation steps and immediate changes

Director Taffany Williams said the department has sent a letter to utility providers outlining key expectations, added permit specifications to the online excavation permit, and plans continuing quarterly coordination meetings with utilities beginning in May. She said the department is updating inspector checklists and will hold training for new and existing inspectors and for sewer‑lateral contractors so field inspections match the ordinance’s standards. Williams told the committee the department has an “old checklist” it will modernize and align with Board of Public Service engineering specifications.

Permit fees and enforcement

Williams reported that the ordinance changes a fee figure discussed during rollout; department staff described a change from $2,000 to $1,500 during the presentation. Committee member Alderman Keyes countered that the deposit currently used and intended to remain is $1,500. The committee recorded this difference in staff description during the meeting and asked staff to ensure the permit form language matches the ordinance.

Inspections and staffing

Williams said inspectors will be responsible for tracking compliance with the ordinance. She reported the Streets Department currently has seven inspectors on staff and seven vacancies and is recruiting to fill positions. The department will compile a robust list of issued excavation permits to help inspectors prioritize field visits.

Five‑year moratorium and exceptions

Under the plan described by Williams, the department will set a moratorium covering streets scheduled for paving in 2025 and moving forward; routine nonemergency utility excavations would be barred in those areas for five years after paving. Exceptions would be made for emergencies and new builds where the work is necessary.

Paving plan, funding and GIS asset management

Commissioner Kent Flake described how paving decisions are currently tied to ward capital or St. Louis Works funds allocated by individual aldermen, and how ward boundaries can split paving projects. He said five major arterials were funded with ARPA dollars and that those arterial projects are being contracted out because the department lacks sufficient in‑house staffing and specialized equipment. “If we’re not spending 12 and a half million dollars a year on paving, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” Flake said, arguing the city needs a predictable annual paving budget to move from reactive to planned maintenance.

Flake reviewed recent paving volumes: the city paved roughly 25,000 tons between 2020 and 2023 and about 75,000–80,000 tons in calendar 2024; he said the technical target would be closer to 200,000 tons per year to keep pavement within its useful life. Staff said the department requested a dedicated paving line in budget requests for two consecutive cycles and again asked that a GIS specialist be added in FY26 to maintain a city utility and pavement map. Williams said ongoing labor cost to keep a GIS‑based plan current would be about $40,000 annually.

How coordination is intended to work

Staff said utilities will be asked each year to provide plans by a single city email, and that the streets department will overlay those submissions on a GIS pavement plan to identify conflicts before paving. Where utilities decline to share plan data for legal reasons, staff said they will negotiate what can be shared in a format that lets the city reduce post‑pave excavations.

Committee questions and next steps

Committee members pressed for a two‑ to three‑year paving plan in the short term, clearer transparency for residents and utility companies, and a public reporting path for residents to flag substandard utility patching. Williams said she will work with Board of Public Service engineers to finalize the specifications document and the updated permit language and will continue quarterly coordination meetings with utilities.

Votes at a glance

Two procedural motions were taken during the meeting: approval of the minutes from Jan. 29, 2025 (the motion carried on a 3‑0 roll call) and a motion to adjourn made by Alderman Keyes and seconded later in the meeting (outcome recorded as passed; roll call not recorded in the transcript).

Ending

Streets Department staff said they will return with further details on the inspector checklist, the specification document produced with the Board of Public Service, and a plan for migrating data into GIS. Several aldermen urged the department to secure recurring paving funds and to make permit and compliance information available to constituents.