Walmart and Wing’s first drone nest in the St. Louis suburbs died on Thursday night without a single council member touching it. At 58 minutes into the October 15 meeting of the Kirkwood City Council, Mayor Liz Gibbons read Bill 11153, an ordinance granting a special use permit for a drone delivery facility at the Walmart Supercenter at 1202 South Kirkwood Road, and asked for a motion. Nobody made one. Forty seconds later she read the next item, and the bill was dead.
Kirkwood, Missouri, a suburb southwest of St. Louis, is one of 12 stores in the metro where Walmart and Alphabet-owned Wing want to launch, and the first filed application in the metro to fail. The city’s own Planning and Zoning Commission had recommended approval on September 2 with 11 conditions, and its subcommittee report concluded the application met every criterion in the zoning code.
Mayor Gibbons Asked for a Motion and Got None
Bill 11153 died because no one on the Kirkwood City Council would move it. Five of six members and Mayor Liz Gibbons were present, and a bill needs a motion and a second before a vote. Gibbons asked for one, said “No motion,” and moved on.
That is why the local reporting disagrees on what happened. KMOX wrote that every member stayed silent and the bill could not advance. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said members refused to cast a vote. KMOV reported a unanimous vote to strike the permit down, which the meeting video does not show: there was no voice vote either, and Council Member Gina Jaksetic was absent. No vote, no findings and no reason were entered in the record.
Planners Found the Nest Met Every Zoning Test
SUP-08-26 was filed by Rick Rohlfing of BFA Engineering for Walmart and Wing in the B-5 Planned Commercial Development District. The Planning and Zoning subcommittee visited the site August 25, and its September 2 report found the request met the criteria in Sections 25-20(e) and (f) of the zoning code…