Frequently Asked Questions
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You can find Demographic data from the 2001 Census on our History page.

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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, Barbara Fraser, 5th District, and John Campisi, 6th District. State Representatives covering portions of Affton are: Jim Avery, Jim Lembke, Michael Vogt, and Patricia Yaeger. State Senators are Michael Gibbons and Harry Kennedy. if You can read more about the history of Affton on our History page.

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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, St. George, and Wilbur Park. Each of these municipalities have their own ordinances.

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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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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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The Affton Chamber of Commerce puts on Affton 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 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 4 high schools in 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 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, school, voter, passport, license, 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 Weber Library. The next directory will be published in early 2009.

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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, Affton Start YOur Engines, Night Gold at the Tower, and now our newest event, a Trivia Night. All events are listed on our calendar. 

Affton Community Betterment Association: The chamber worked for several years to form a group for residents to use as a vehicle to represent them, and this group is called Affton Community Betterment Association (ACBA). They meet on the 2^nd Thursday of each month at 9 a.m. at Commerce Bank--Affton, so the people from the county are able to attend as they are a very important part of the group. See more about this group on our Community News page.

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 ACBA, 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 and although the partnership ends in November 2007, UMSL will continue their presence in Affton.

The ACP will focus resources of UMSL to develop projects in the following areas: Welcoming New Americans to the Affton Community, developing a New Americans Task Force, creating an outreach and engagement strategy designed to recruit and facilitate community involvement of New Americans, and providing seminars and technical assistance services for government officials, police officers, business owners, and school district personnel. Supporting Affton's Older Residents, creating a community stakeholder's committee, conducting a housing needs assessment of the community's older population, and developing a set of strategies to better link the housing environment with the abilities and needs of older residents. Building Capacity to Bring About Change, helping the volunteer-based ACBA to develop a strategic plan and better focus resources and develop partnerships that will strengthen and sustain the community.

The grant funds will be utilized to support university faculty, staff and students working in Affton on a variety of projects. Grant funds will also support the development of a strategic plan for ACBA, as well as the development of educational materials, seminars, workshops, and other activities to assist New Americans and older residents in Affton.

For more information on this project, contact Kay Gasen, Director, Community & Neighborhood Development, Public Policy Research Center, UMSL at gasen@umsl.edu or call 314-516-5269

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Although we would like to have residents involved, most of the people who volunteer for the Affton Days committee are business owners or employees, most of whom reside in Affton. This committee meets for many hours over the year from January 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 Days. Chamber records show that Affton Days started as Affton Sale Days, then became Affton Community Days, and in the 1990s was shortened to Affton Days. 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 Days, click here.

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We survey our members by fax and e-mail. We have over 160 fax numbers and over 240 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 fax or e-mail numbers for residents, except for the business owners who reside in Affton and the retired individuals who belong to the chamber.

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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 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. The chamber members looked at the building and businesses currently at that corner and felt that residents in the area would be pleased to have a family restaurant there. 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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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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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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