ROYALWOOD SUBDIVISION

Scroll down for the May 26 update.

June 5 2024 - Does anyone know who puts the flags up at the entrances on July 4? If so please contact the Trustees. Thanks.

From The City of Chesterfield

Trustees of Royalwood: The City of Chesterfield has contracted with Sweeten’s Sealing Services, for the 2023 crack seal project, which will include the streets in your subdivision. This work consists of cleaning and sealing the pavement joints and cracks. This includes the joint between the driveways and curb. The joints have to be sealed regularly, usually every 5-7 years to keep water out of the base and to keep incompressible material out of the joint space. If not maintained in this manner, multiple problems can occur, the most serious which is street migration, or street creep. This project is scheduled to start on December 4 and is expected to be completed approximately March 1, it is not possible at this time to know when they will be in your neighborhood. There will be some debris caused by the cleaning of the joints, but the contractor will clean the material from the street. The contractor will then follow up and seal the joints and cracks with a hot poured rubberized sealant. During this process no road closures are necessary. The contractor will install temporary traffic control (signs and barrels) as appropriate. Please use care when driving though work zones. 

• We had 11 dead trees along the Outer Road removed the week of March 20. 

• If you are planning on doing any type of renovation to your home and are planning on placing a dumpster on your property you will need a permit from the city for doing so. Trustee approval is required by the city so remember to get our approval.

• Please don't feed the deer!

• Here is what Chesterfield planning department told Council Member Aaron Wahl regarding The Legends at Schoettler Pointe: They have a grading permit to start land clearance and site preparation, but are still working on getting their final improvement plan approval which I do anticipate being issued in the near future. The improvement plan approval shows all of the complete engineering necessary on the site and includes construction details on items like curb ramps, street construction details… Basically, it is their final approval from the City for construction of infrastructure.

• Here is an update from Council Member Mary Ann Mastorakos:  I just talked to the project manager for Lombardo Homes (The builder at Schoettler Pointe). He said they are waiting for county approval of the large retaining wall to be built on the west side of the property. The county told them 6-8 weeks. They hope to hear soon. Once approved, the city will have to sign off and  then they will build it. It will take about 2 months to construct. Once that is done, they will back fill, lay sewer, water and roads.

• Chesterfield Ordinance 1781 states the following:

Residential waste containers and tree waste shall be stored upon the premises where the waste was generated,· unless written permission for storage on other premises is obtained from a person having authority to grant such permission. The containers shall be stored in a place not visible from the street which the residential structure faces. Waste containers used for the storage of residential waste, other than waste from multifamily premises having four (4) or more units, shall be placed at the curb or mailbox or backyard or side yard as required by the hauler for collection. Waste containers and bundles of tree waste permitted by this chapter shall be placed at the collection point, i.e., in front of the premises or on the street no earlier than 5:00p.m. on the day prior to the regularly scheduled collection day. Waste containers shall be returned to their appropriate storage place no later than 12:00 midnight on the day of collection. 

Here is the link to Royalwood's Facebook Page.

Royalwood Subdivision-Chesterfield | Facebook

Royalwood recently received a letter from MSD dated August 19, 2023. The subject of the letter is "Failure to Maintain Stormwater Detention Basin". This basin is in the common ground behind 1524 and 1528 Woodroyal East. MSD's inspection discovered serious findings with the basin's condition and we are being tasked with addressing those conditions. We have contracted with DirtandDemolitionLLC to correct the problems cited in the MSD letter. They have done work on projects like this one before. They will use the easement between 1528 and 1532 WRE to access the Basin. Several inches of sediment need to be removed and a great deal of debris as well. We will keep you updated thoughout the duration of the project using this website. Thank you for your patience.  If you have questions forward them to us using the Contact Trustees tab at the top of this page.

The work on the MSD project described above began on Wednesday, January 24, and will continue until completion. How long it will take depends on the weather. We have been working on the pilot channel to get the stormwater moving efficiently through that channel 

to a low-flow orifice and alternatively to an emergency overflow (spillway)  into Creve Coeur Creek. We discovered during this process that the orifice and the spillway have been destroyed unexpectedly and need to be restored. That is the next phase of the project that we will undertake. MSD is going to be on site on Monday, February 5, to speak with the Trustees on how to proceed.

We didn't make any progress with MSD on February 5, but we will continue to work it. MSD has now sent us a second letter giving us further direction. This time it is worded stronger and contains deadlines. We have responded to the second letter and are in discussions with MSD and Chesterfield on how to proceed. We have several points of disagreement with MSD and Chesterfield we need to resolve. We will meet with 2 more contractors the week of February 19 to discuss bids on the project. 

March 7 2024

EMERGENCY MEETING - March 21

7 PM

16090 Swingley Ridge Drive

Read below for details.

Take Chesterfield Parkway North to Swingley Ridge Rd.  Go left on Swingley Ridge Rd at the

stoplight. Bear right on Swingley Ridge Rd thru a gentle curve to 16090 which is on the left. Left turn into the parking lot. Visitor parking is on the right. There is plenty of parking available. 

Getting to the meeting room is very easy. As soon as you walk in the front door, the meeting room is off to the left off the main lobby. It is right behind the sculpture in the middle of the floor. 

On August 28th the Royalwood Trustees received a letter from MSD dated August 19, 2023. The subject of the letter was "Failure to Maintain Private Stormwater Detention Basin". This basin is in the common ground behind 1524 and 1528 Woodroyal East Drive. That plat of common ground has a physical address, 1518 Woodroyal East Drive, which is actually mentioned in the letter. The letter refers to an inspection which MSD performed in June of 2023. MSD's inspection discovered serious findings with the basin's condition and tasked the Trustees with addressing those conditions. None of the Trustees were even aware of the existence of the basin and that it was the subdivision's responsibility to maintain it. The letter cited 

the inspection findings which included 2 blocked or partially blocked outlets, an excessive amount of accumulated sediment and debris in the basin's main channel, and overgrowth of trees and shrubs within the basin. It also cited 4 actions which needed to be addressed to correct

those conditions. MSD included photographs in the letter of the problems cited in the letter, but those pictures did not exhibit a clear picture of the situation. After weeks of discussion with MSD and Chesterfield, we contracted with DirtandDemolitionLLC to correct the problems 

cited in the MSD letter beginning with the removal of the sediment and debris. Once the sediment and debris were removed we could then address the accuracy of the violations cited within the letter. We thought several inches of sediment and debris needed to be removed, 

but as it turned out it was several feet, not several inches. The process also revealed that the blocked outlets cited in the letter were not blockages at all, but those outlets had been destroyed by the neglect to maintain the basin properly. The low flow orifice and the emergency overflow or spillway which comprised those outlets needed to be rebuilt along 

with proper reinforcement and erosion control. Once these conditions were revealed we called upon MSD to return and inspect our findings. The result is that now MSD has furnished us with a second Notice of Violation letter citing new corrective actions. Those corrective actions will cost over $40,000 to complete and Royalwood homeowners will have to pay the bill. 

Therefore, we will need to levy a special assessment to raise the money to finance them and will have an emergency meeting on March 21 to initiate appropriate action to proceed. Every homeowner should be present at that meeting. More details will follow. Thank you for your patience. 

Check back for further updates.

Your Trustees - Jim Spillers, Jon Gehbauer, and Kim Alberici

April 24, 2024 - Lawn Masters started mowing our Common Ground on April 23. We have re-negotiated our Common Ground mowing contract for 2024 and achieved a 30% savings over last year.

May 26, 2024 - The Trustees and Rich Klein had a meeting with the MSD General Counsel and the Chesterfield City Attorney on May 23. Rich Klein's summary of the meeting follows:

Dear Neighbors: 

This is an update. MSD will pay to have the repairs made to the stormwater detention basin, and then MSD will seek to recover the costs from Royalwood's Homeowners Association and/or from Royalwood homeowners. The costs are expected to be approximately the same as we discussed at the emergency neighborhood meeting, based on the bid we had from the contractor. A more detailed explanation is below.

As you recall, in the Fall of 2023, MSD sent our Trustees a Violation Notice for failing to maintain a stormwater detention basin. The concrete basin had been covered by grass, trees and earth five feet deep. It was not visible since approximately the mid 1990's. There had never been a problem noticed nor complaint made regarding any issue involving the stormwater drain that leads to the stormwater detention basin, until MSD's letter in the Fall of 2023. I volunteered to help when the trustees notified us of this issue and the costs of repairs. My role was limited to help find answers to the extent of legal liability that we may have. I consulted with the top attorneys in St. Louis who handle these matters. They helped us by searching all public records with St. Louis County and Chesterfield to determine if any plats or other documents were filed which would have put Royalwood homebuyers on notice of the duty to maintain the stormwater basin. Both of these lawyers were very helpful. Neither of them charged us a dime. 

Our subdivision's water detention basin is unique. The ordinances in effect when our subdivision was built required the Plat to list the stormwater detention basin and required our neighborhood bylaws/indentures to describe the duty to maintain it. However, the Plat on file with the St. Louis County Recorder of Deeds Office does not show and does not mention a stormwater detention basin. It was signed by the St. Louis County authority in charge of stormwater at that time. Similarly, Royalwood's bylaws/indentures do not mention a stormwater detention basin or a duty to maintain it. This seems to have been an oversight on the part of the developer and on the part of the St. Louis County official in charge of stormwater regulations at that time.  Nevertheless, St. Louis County's ordinances at that time required neighborhood associations to build and maintain stormwater detention basins. The rationale is that public funds were not available for this, so the County required private land developers to pay for constructing the basins and to obligate the homeowners to be responsible for the continued maintenance, per the laws/indentures. The public funds available were reserved for waste water systems. MSD later became responsible for stormwater drain systems in Chesterfield. MSD's ordinances have always required owners of private land (common ground is private land) to be responsible for the maintenance of stormwater detention basins on private land (common ground). Royalwood subdivision is the owner of the private land (common ground) on which the stormwater detention basin is located. If we disputed in court the legal obligation to pay for the costs of repairing the stormwater detention basin, the legal costs to do so, with an attorney would be very costly in attorneys' fees, and a judge could very well rule that Royalwood is responsible to pay for the repairs, despite the fact that the Plat and Bylaws/Indentures do not mention the stormwater detention basin or the duty to maintain it. If we won in court, MSD would probably appeal. The costs for attorneys' fees to represent Royalwood in an appeal would also be quite high. Due to the practical monetary concerns involved, the Royalwood Trustees are not inclined to hire an attorney to fight this in court at this juncture. 

Funding is the next topic. The Trustees and I met with MSD's attorney several times and on May 23 we met with MSD's attorneys and the City of Chesterfield's attorney to discuss possible funding options for our neighborhood to consider. There were no viable funding options. MSD has decided, as of 5/23/24, that MSD will pay for the repairs with a contractor. MSD might choose the same contractor who gave our Trustees a bid. MSD will have the repairs made and then MSD will contact the Trustees about the "costs of recovery process." MSD's "costs of recovery process" is unknown and uncertain. We have asked for clarification on this. MSD's attorney who we have been speaking with did not know what was entailed with the "costs of recovery process." We will find out more later. Our other funding option would have been to have a vote for a special assessment for neighbors to pay the costs of repairs up front. However, this was quite problematic as many homeowners  expressed concerns with being able or willing to pay for the costs of such a special assessment for this project. On behalf Royalwood Subdivision's Trustees, I disputed the legal obligation to pay for the repairs and the duty to maintain the basin, and I informed MSD in writing that any payment made to reimburse MSD would be made in protest and not as an admission of liability. However, is a practical matter, it would probably be a financially wise decision to maintain the basin at a low cost.

The next topic will be whether we should or should not add language in our revised indentures to address the duty to maintain the stormwater detention basin. That is a topic for discussion. I suggest that the time to have that discussion would be after we learn more about MSD's costs of recovery process for the costs of repairs. 

Yours very truly, 

Richard D. Klein