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How many people live in Affton?
You can find Demographic data from the 2010 Census on our History
page.
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Where is the Affton City Hall?
There is no city hall since Affton is not a city, but a
neighborhood with a very strong identity. Since the Post Office is called
the Affton Branch and the Police Precinct is called the Affton Precinct,
this leaves newcomers to the area to believe that Affton is a city. There
is NO Mayor of Affton. Representation in county government is thru the County
Council, Patrick Dolan, 5th District, and Steve Stenger, 6th District. State
Representatives covering portions of Affton are: Bob Burns, Vicki Englund,
and Genise Montecillo. State
Senator is Scott Sifton. if You
can read more about the history of Affton on our History page.
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Who does the code and zoning enforcement?
Since Affton is not a city, there aren’t any employees
to do this type of enforcement. The Affton community adheres to St. Louis
County rules and regulations. Any code & zoning enforcement is done by
St. Louis County. There are seven small municipalities within
the 63123 zip code: Grantwood, Green Park, Lakeshire, Mackenzie,
Marlborough, and Wilbur Park. Each of these municipalities
have their own ordinances.
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Where do you register to vote?
You can register to vote at the Affton School
Administration office, any of the County Public Libraries (2 are in
63123), any vehicle license office, or at the St. Louis County Board of
election Commissioners.
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What area does the chamber serve?
We serve the 63123 zip code and any vendors doing
business with Affton businesses. About 25% of our membership comes from
outside the 63123 zip code.
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What does the Affton Chamber do for the community?
The Affton Chamber of Commerce puts on Affton Community Days for
the community. There is no cost for entering the parade. We provide the
opportunity for organizations in the community to raise funds by having a
game or food booth at the festival. Much of the cost to put on the Parade and Festival
are funded by sponsorships from chamber members or by the chamber if
sponsorships do not cover all costs.
Revenue from Affton Community Days funds scholarships for Affton and
Bayless students in appreciation of their participation in Affton Days.
Donations are made to the invited school marching bands who participate in the
parade. The Chamber also supports the Graduation Lock In parties at the 5 high
schools serving Affton. Each year the Chamber funds two scholarships for our
high school students to attend the Missouri Chamber's Leadership in Practice
leadership training, and in 2007, we began sponsoring a table of students at
the Ethics Seminar sponsored by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce.
Every March, the Chamber holds their annual Exceptional
Educator's Recognition Banquet, where they recognize a teacher from each
participating school located in 63123. This event was first held in 2004 and each year
it attracts 120-200 residents, business leaders, and members of the academic
community.
The Chamber publishes a Bi-Annual Buyer's Guide/Community
Directory for use by residents and business leaders in the community. This
popular booklet includes information about chamber members, civic
organizations, elected officials, municipalities, emergency and hospital
numbers, houses of worship, schools, voting, passports, licenses, public service,
state, county, newspaper, senior citizen, utility information. The directory
is published in odd numbered years and available at the chamber office between
9am and 1 pm or at local financial institutions & the Tesson Ferry & Weber
Libraries. The next directory will
be published in early 2013.
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Who can join the Chamber?
Businesses, sales reps, government agencies, schools,
churches, non-profit clubs, civic organizations or retired individuals. A
chamber of commerce is basically a business organization providing the
members with the opportunity to network with other business leaders to
help grow their business. Our programs and meetings are geared to business
people.
We do encourage non-members to participate in our
events; e.g., our annual awards and auction dinner, the exceptional
educators dinner, the fishing and golf tournaments, our BBQ, Night Golf at the Tower, Trivia
Night, and now our
newest event, the Taste of Affton . All events are listed on our calendar. Affton Community Partnership (ACP):
In 2005 the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) was awarded a Community
Outreach Partnership Center grant. This two year grant of nearly $200,000 will
assist the University in developing a community building partnership in
Affton, working in cooperation with the Affton Community Betterment
Association, the Affton Chamber, the Affton and
Bayless School Districts, St. Louis County Government, and a variety of other
community partners. There have been wonderful accomplishments during the two
years. The ACP focused resources of
UMSL to develop projects in the following areas: Welcoming New Americans to
the Affton Community, developed a New Americans Task Force, created an
outreach and engagement strategy designed to recruit and facilitate community
involvement of New Americans, and provided seminars and technical assistance
services for government officials, police officers, business owners, and
school district personnel. Supporting Affton's Older Residents, created a community stakeholder's committee,
conducted a housing needs
assessment of the community's older population, and developed a set of
strategies to better link the housing environment with the abilities and needs
of older residents. Building Capacity to Bring About Change, helped
the volunteer-based ACBA to develop a strategic plan and better focus
resources and develop partnerships that will strengthen and sustain the
community. Affton Community Betterment Association
(ACBA) was formed in 1998 to work with residents for the betterment of the
Affton Community. The non-profit organization disbanded in 2009 due to lack of
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Who runs Affton Community Days?
Most of the people who volunteer for the Affton Community Days committee are business
owners or employees, most of whom reside in Affton. This committee meets
for many hours over the year from February to September organizing the
event and promoting it to our members, looking for sponsors so that we can
provide them with top notch entertainment. We provide the opportunity for
non-profit organizations in the community to raise money for their events
by participating in Affton Community Days. Chamber records show that Affton Days
started as Affton Sale Days, then became Affton Days. In 2012, the name was
changed to Affton Community Days to include all of the Affton Zip Code, not
just the Affton School District. The chamber then provides scholarships
for area students and has provided many enhancements
to the Affton White-Rodgers Community Center. For more information about
the next Affton Community Days, click here.
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Who do you survey when taking a stand on an issue?
We survey our members by e-mail. We have over 250 e-mail addresses in our database. This is who
we survey. We do not survey residents as we are a business organization
and we do not have e-mail addresses for residents, except for the
business owners who reside in Affton and the retired individuals who
belong to the chamber.
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Why did the chamber take a stand in support of Sonic
Restaurant?
We surveyed our members giving them as much information
as we had so they could determine what our position should be. We received
60 responses (20% response rate) and only 6 of these responses were not in
favor of the Sonic and of those, 3 wanted the corner to remain as it and 3
felt it needed improvement, but not sure of what it needed. Since the
corner of Mackenzie and Gravois is one of the major commercial corners in
Affton and the commercial buildings have been there since they 1930s and
some before that, the chamber members looked at the buildings and thought the community would be
pleased to have a family restaurant, such as they have in Kirkwood and
Ballwin, at that corner. Sonic is a first class operation and would help
the neighborhood keep up their property values. Sonic doesn’t belong to the chamber, so there was no money
interests involved in the stand the chamber took. It was strictly the
result of members looking at the situation and responding in favor of
Sonic. We hope the residents will find a business they want on that
corner.
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What stand did the chamber take on MetroLink?
Since the chamber sponsored a meeting in 1998 and took a
stand against I-170 coming south and wiping out the industrial area in
Affton, which would have had a disastrous effect on the school district,
we have supported the MetroLink and the route shown at that time was
parallel to the BNSF route. We did 2 surveys in 2004 and the
responses still supported the route parallel to the BNSF route (now called
the BLUE Route). The most recent survey conducted in July 2004 had a total
of 59 replies returned and 33 were in favor of the Blue Route, 24 in favor
of the YELLOW Route and 2 in favor of the PURPLE Route.
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Why don’t you respond to complaints about the Chamber?
We are unable to follow up on complaints that are sent
to the chamber office or the newspapers anonymously. We would be most
happy to respond if someone writes to the chamber office and provides
their name and address, so we could respond.
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