Green? Yes. Accessible? No.
Green building is all the rage these days. That is a good thing, but I wished walkability was given the same importance. Walking, after all, is one of the most green & healthy things we can do.
So last year when the old Sym’s clothing store in the St. Louis suburb of Brentwood was converted into an Office Depot & Westlake Ace Hardware I was hopeful that pedestrian access would make it into the renovation plans. I periodically scooted by and saw the nifty bioswales being carved out of the existing parking lot but no accessible route connecting the public sidewalk to the accessible entrance of the two stores..
The parking lot was completely redone so there was plenty of opportunity to do the greenest thing of all — welcome pedestrians.
I love the green bioswales which catch and use water runoff.
But when we’ve got major reconstruction of both building and site and no priority is given to connect to the existing public sidewalk we have a problem. When “green” ignores pedestrians, we have a problem. When developers and large retailers are able to ignore the basic right of accessibility we have a problem.
You might be saying to yourself, “npobody walks that stretch of Manchester Rd.” First, not true. Some do walk here. But given the lack of consideration for the pedestrian it is no wonder too few walk. This property is surrounded by residential properties and is only a mile from the Maplewood MetroLink light rail station to the East.
Which comes first the pedestrian or the sidewalk?
That situation is a failure of vision, where the community hasn’t included safe pedestrian access as a high priority in its long-range plans. It is also reflects a failure to establish clear standards in the community’s land use regulations. There is no reason why requirements could not be included in the zoning ordinance to deal with redevelopment of older commercial properties like this – standards that would require certain site improvements (like improved pedestrian access) in proportion to the scale of the proposed project.
We routinely include provisions like this in the land development regulations we prepare or update. A simple example can be found here (http://tinyurl.com/bbhy57) – scan down to “Section 16.09.”
There is no excuse for the situation you illustrated, but it still happens way too often.
Not too many walk this stretch of Manchester because the sidewalks are discontinuous and, for the most part, nonexistent. However, more pedestrians walk along Brentwood Boulevard (less than ¼ mile to the west) and there’s a bus shelter at the corner of Manchester and Brentwood. And, obviously, there’s a sidewalk along Mancheter fronting this site. Sounds like it’s the right time and a perfect opportunity to sue Mr. Landlord – until the community takes a stand and insists on pedestrian access, we’ll just continue to get more of the same . . .
It’s Manchester Rd, what do you expect? Oversight (code enforcement in Brentwood) is a joke and such obvious mistakes (mistreatment of pedestrians) is quite common in a region dominated by insights provided from sitting behind a steering wheel.
I would agree with Jimmyz. Not many people every walk this stretch of highway, i mean road.
Overall The little plaza seems like it will have a hard time making a profit. Why did ACE build there? There is a Home Depot and a Lowes less than a mile away? I mean ACE can build there… but not downtown!?
So overall, I cant blame them for not including a walkable landscape, but then again, seems like they went over board with the amount of parking spaces they built.
O, off topic. I went in the Office Depot for the first time in about 3 years? WOW have they changed. Their layouts look great.
Because you can get in and out of Ace in half the time it takes to get in and out of Lowe’s or Home Depot, especially if you only need one or two small items, plus the service is a lot more helpful!
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Could “Ace” be downtown? Sure – it seems like they’ll franchise most anybody. Westlake Ace is a bit of a different animal – it’s more of a local mini-chain, somewhere between the traditional “neighborhood” hardware store and the big chains like Lowes and Home Depot. Their niche is definitely suburban, and while “downtown” probably wouldn’t work, there’s no reason (other than economics and a fear of crime) that they couldn’t be on any city arterial (Gravois, Broadway, Kingshighway, etc.) – maybe they just need to be persuaded with some generous TIF assistance. 😉
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And to clarify, I do believe that pedestrian access should’ve been added – it’s easy for a pedestrian to get from the corner and the bus stop, and the ADA requires a dedicated pedestrian access path.
And a correction – I drove Manchester east of Brentwood this morning, all the way into Maplewood – there already IS a fairly complete sidewalk installation on both sides of Manchester, with only a big chunk missing along the south side, at Deer Creek/Hanley Road, so “no sidewalks” ain’t a valid excuse or reason . . .
This is just unbelievable! After all, it’s not really that far from the Maplewood Metrolink station or the Metro bus garage. You are allowed to ride the bus to the garage and many routes terminate there.
Great line at the end.
I believe the sidewalk comes first. The old “if you build it, they will come”.
But unfortunately, it can take years for the pedestrians to come, and people often want to see more instant gratification to their development $$.
Manchester Road truly could be walkable by many people but it will never be until sidewalks are in place there for at least a few years. That’ll be how long it takes for people to notice they are even there.
The sidewalks ARE already there. The tough part for pedestrians are waaaay too many curb cuts. It really doesn’t feel safe walking down a strip of concrete when there’s asphalt on both sides . . .
As a current resident of “Despair” I deal with this type of poor planning on a daily basis. I live just over a mile away from our community center… The Lodge… and would love to walk to the pool and gym every day. Unfortunately, the sidewalk along Manchester Rd. ends at the bridge crossing Hwy 270. I tried this route ONCE… and will never put my life at risk like that again. not only must you walk on a narrow shoulder, the side of the overpass barely reaches the height of my middle thigh area. Jumping out of the way of an oncoming vehicle would basically have me falling to my demise onto the highway below.
That stretch of Manchester isn’t walkable for reasons Steve has discussed many times on his blog; there are no street trees or other things between the pedestrians on the sidewalks and cars zooming past at 35-50 mph.
The walkability issue is one of lack of thought by the developers. I look at those pictures and the “bioswales” seem perfectly crossable on foot, until I realize not everybody is lucky enough to have legs that move as well as mine.
It’s a good thing that it’s become the norm for may new developments to tout “greenness” and hopefully that greenness gets smarter. This situation might be like that at the SLU arena when proper curbs were not installed, but once the issue was delicately publicized, the access was fixed.
A bigger question for many of these communities, like Brentwood, is how do you redevelop streets like Manchester that happen to have a mix of everything and anything, old and new, and cross mulitple boundaries. It is obvious that it will remain a major four lane arterial with majority of the nearby residents living in single family dwellings (we can pick our share of roads in the area – Watson is another good one). The housing density from Brentwood west will simply not support stores dependent on foot traffic nor do residents demand this. Developers are not clueless even though we tend to believe that and the people who sit on zoning boards happen to be residents of that city.
To understand how local leadership continues to place pedestrians at greater risks, examine and research the history of Hanley Rd, particularly in Clayton and Richmond Heights. This major north-south route has been continuously debauched to handle greater traffic loads since 170 was never completed. Some of the regions most expensive homes (Hampton Park,Lake Forest, Hanley Downs, Davis Place, Wydown Forest, Polo) line both sides of the street. In addition, large condo projects line the eastern side and include the Ritz and newer condo developments. Growing up in this area and walking Hanley since the 50s, it has changed dramatically to favor cars, not people. These major mistakes are already disturbing pedestrian flows as Clayton school children, instead of walking, are now being chauffeured by their parents and others.
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Without writing a long essay, the trees which provided a sense of security to pedestrians are largely gone as the street was widened. Now the County and MoDOT are developing the road to carry even more vehicles to serve Home Depot, Lowes, WalMart, Sam’s and the potentially new strip malls designed for the Hadley Township fiasco. To the north of the New 64 (intersection with Hanley to be greatly expanded as the Brentwood exit for west bound traffic was permanently eliminated) Centene is building its new offices with greatly expanded parking facilities and the old Schnucks store remains a major development opportunity. The Shady Oak theater on the east side of Hanley was torn down to become a parking lot.
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With all these new developments, are local leaders providing alternatives to private motorized travel? Have the sidewalks been expanded? Is the road being designed to facilitate alternatives like a Complete Street? The former mayor of Richmond Heights wrote a letter to the County and MoDOT that stated even cyclists should be banned from Hanley Rd. Originally property along Hanley was purchased for a MetroLink station to serve pedestrians but it was moved one block west (another station was added just to the east) as regional leaders had a different vision for the road, one that primarily served motorized vehicles, not people. Clayton requested the ability to serve pedestrians with trolleys but MetroLink said “No” because of the two stations being so close together. The car culture has triumphed. Everyone now needs bigger parking lots, wider streets, fewer buses, no trolleys, and less sidewalks. Pedestrians represent an endangered species in this region, by design.
Green building? Clayton approves Centene’s new plans which will reduce office space 13% and retail space by 17%, but what about parking? Restructure parking spaces to a range of 882 to 1,208 from 1,164 (thus may be more, may be less). But according to Council, the additional traffic load won’t effect traffic… and the beat goes on.