Chesterfield's Pool, Library and Hillside Are All Changing at Once. Here's the Timeline for Each

Chesterfield is rebuilding three public places within a few blocks of Chesterfield Parkway West: the Family Aquatic Center in Central Park, the county library branch on Burkhardt Place, and the steep hillside between Central Park and the old Chesterfield Mall site. Each project is moving on its own schedule. The library comes back first, the pool comes back last if it comes back at all, and the hillside link that would tie them together is still being designed.

The city is planning these as one connected district, with the park serving as the front door to Downtown Chesterfield. Because the openings are staggered, though, the stretch around Central Park will have fewer public facilities running next summer than it has had in decades.

The pool closes regardless of the vote

On chesterfieldpool.com, the city states that "the Chesterfield Family Aquatic Center is scheduled to close permanently after the 2026 season," and that the closure "will happen regardless of the outcome of Props. A & Q." The pool shell, the filtration system and much of the mechanical equipment date to 1998. The city's spring 2026 guide listed Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7, as the last day of the season.

So the Nov. 3 vote decides whether a new facility gets built on the same Central Park site. If no replacement is built, the city estimates about $3 million to demolish the current center and return the site to green space, and says Chesterfield "would no longer have a City-operated aquatic facility."

This is the ballot language as West Newsmagazine published it:

Proposition A: Shall the City of Chesterfield, Missouri, issue its general obligation bonds in the amount of $34,500,000 for the purpose of reconstructing, renovating, improving, furnishing and equipping the City's Aquatic Center?

Proposition Q: Shall the City of Chesterfield, Missouri impose a local use tax at the same rate as the City's total local sales tax rate with the intent to commit such local use tax for purposes of reconstructing, renovating, improving, furnishing, and equipping the City's Aquatic Center or for purposes of public safety, all subject to applicable state law, provided that if the City's local sales tax rate is reduced or raised by voter approval, the local use tax rate shall also be reduced or raised by the same action?

West Newsmagazine reported that the use tax would apply to online purchases from out-of-state vendors at 1%, the same rate as the city's local sales taxes. At the Aug. 17 council meeting, City Administrator Mike Geisel said the use tax would be in lieu of a property tax, while the Prop A bonds come with an option for the council to levy one. Council member Mary Ann Mastorakos said the ballot language does not spell out the in-lieu arrangement. The council sent both measures to the ballot on a 5-3 vote. Chesterfield voters turned down a use tax in April 2022 and again in April 2023. The city's project page gives a slightly longer version of the Prop Q wording than the one West Newsmagazine printed. This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. If you want to know how either measure would affect your own taxes, ask a tax professional or contact the city directly.

The city says the proposed replacement would include an 8-lane lap pool with a diving well, a recreation pool, a lazy river, a splash pad, two water slides, a large sail shade structure, and a multipurpose room of about 2,263 square feet that could be rented year-round and hold about 150 people. It would also add a lower parking lot with 28 more spaces. The July 8, 2026 cost estimate was $34,710,472. If both propositions pass, the design team's schedule targets the beginning of the 2028 season.

The library comes back first, and bigger

About half a mile of construction fencing separates the pool from the library, and the library has the clearer timeline. The St. Louis County Library closed the Samuel C. Sachs Branch on Jan. 31 and is building the Guy and Judy Jaffe Family Branch on the same Burkhardt Place property. SLCL's announcement says the new building will be about 20,700 square feet, roughly 5,000 more than the old branch. It sits at the northwest edge of the lot, where it connects to the existing outdoor reading garden.

The branch will be the first in the SLCL system with a coffee shop, a Goshen Coffee Cafe serving the full Goshen menu along with food and pastries. The plans also include a fireplace, a children's space, separate areas for teens and tweens, eight study rooms, a larger community meeting room and an outdoor patio. LJC designed the building, the preliminary budget is $10 million, and Guy Jaffe and Judy Schwartz Jaffe donated $1 million. SLCL CEO Kristen Sorth called Chesterfield "one of the fastest growing communities in St. Louis County" in that announcement.

The way in will be new. West Newsmagazine reported that drivers will reach the library from Chesterfield Parkway West onto Main Circle Drive, through a single entrance to the parking area. SLCL's current target is early 2027.

The hillside meant to tie it all together

Between Central Park and the former mall site is a slope with about 48 feet of elevation change. The Staenberg Group, which is building Downtown Chesterfield, donated the 3.9-acre hillside to the city and paid $300,000 toward its design. The city is managing the design and construction. Public Works Director James Eckrich told West Newsmagazine that the city "did not simply want 'a set of stairs and utilitarian switchbacks'" but "a unique, iconic pedestrian link between the former mall site and Central Park."

The question still open is how people on foot will cross Chesterfield Parkway. At a Sept. 24 open house at City Hall, designers from Kanopi Gap and LJC showed two options. A bridge over the parkway would keep pedestrians away from traffic and is estimated at $10.1 million. An improved, marked crosswalk at street level is estimated at $5.1 million. The gap between the two matches what designers told the council in August, when they described a bridge as about $5 million on top of the base hillside design, built either right away or later.

A street-level crossing is less simple than it sounds. Assistant City Engineer Zachary Wolff said it could use Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons, but a full traffic signal is unlikely because the Missouri Department of Transportation would not allow one so close to the existing signal at Lydia Hill Road. Residents were also asked to pick between two planting directions: a layered garden of native and adapted plants with seasonal color, or a flexible lawn with planted edges for informal recreation and open views.

Why the sequence matters

A crosswalk with flashing beacons and a $10 million bridge only make sense if a lot of people will be walking between Central Park and the old mall site. The city's argument is that they will be. Parks, Recreation and Arts Director Wayne Dunker said that new projects such as the Villas at Downtown Chesterfield will bring more people to live nearby. Tim Lowe, TSG's vice president of leasing and development, told West Newsmagazine that 800 to 1,000 residential units are expected in the first phase. "We've got to have a good phase 1," Lowe said. "You can't flood the market too much at one time."

Some of those homes are already moving forward. West Newsmagazine reported that on Oct. 5 the city approved a revised 16.82-acre project west of Chesterfield Center. It switched from multifamily rentals to 87 attached villas on one lot and 88 units on another, and developer Matt Segal said he planned to break ground this winter. That plan routes the villas onto Burkhardt Spur or an extension of Burkhardt Place, the same street the new library sits on.

Put together, the library, the pool site in Central Park, the amphitheater and the hillside are being planned as the public side of a new neighborhood rather than as separate stops along a parkway. The timing still doesn't line up. Grading and infrastructure at the mall site are expected to continue until spring 2027 before vertical construction begins. The library should open around the same time, the earliest a new pool could open is the 2028 season, and no construction date has been set for the hillside.

What summer 2027 looks like on the parkway

For a family that has spent summers between the library and the pool, next year looks different. The library should be open by then, with its coffee bar and expanded reading garden. Central Park's pool will be closed in summer 2027 whichever way the vote goes, and either a construction site or a site the city plans to demolish and return to lawn. The hillside will most likely still be a design on paper.

Until the new branch opens, SLCL says holds for Sachs patrons are being sent to the Thornhill Branch. Thornhill's page has recently shown a temporary closure notice after a water main break, so check its hours before you drive over. The library system also lists the Daniel Boone Branch in Ellisville.

The next firm date is Nov. 3, when Chesterfield voters will decide on Props A and Q. The full replacement plan, its cost breakdown and the city's answers to common questions are on chesterfieldpool.com.

If you live near Central Park and wonder how the work around Chesterfield Parkway West, from Downtown Chesterfield to the new library, could affect your street or your plans over the next few years, Kristen Weld is happy to talk it through. I follow these projects closely, and I can tell you what's been approved, what's still being decided and what it may mean for you. Let's Connect.