The St. Louis County Council is in the beginning stages of making a decision on plans for the Animal Protective Association鈥檚 new shelter in north St. Louis County.
The local animal welfare organization, which has a shelter and veterinary clinic in Brentwood, plans to build its new location near the intersection of Lewis and Clark Boulevard and Redman Road.
The organization plans to remodel and add an addition to an existing nearby building on Benham Road for the adoption center and accessory office space. A new 10,000-square-foot building on Redman Road would contain an animal clinic, education center and outdoor dog park.
At a public hearing in April, no one opposed the proposal.
The county's Planning Commission recommended approval for the rezoning of the lot for the shelter.
鈥淭he proposed use would serve a need in North County where there are few animal clinics or places for family pets to get treatment,鈥� the commission said in its review of the plans.
The APA owned the county animal shelter from December 2022 to February 2025. Since the county regained its control of the facility, it has struggled with a variety of problems, including facility maintenance, high staff turnover and an outbreak of parvovirus that led to the euthanization of 19 dogs.
On Friday, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page from the NFL Rams settlement money for improvements to the facility.
The $17.8 million would go toward retrofitting the space for vet offices and exam rooms, additional space for large kennels, replacing the HVAC system, increasing water and sewer capacity and relocating the Vector Control department from its current location in the shelter building.
This is a separate request from the from the Rams money that Page wants for shelter building and operations improvements. The bill for this use of funds was introduced at the council鈥檚 meeting on Tuesday.
St. Louis County received $169 million of the $790 million paid to settle a 2021 lawsuit over the Rams moving to Los Angeles.
