Lack of Land-Use Controls Among Reasons Why So Little Transit-Oriented Development At MetroLink Stations After Two Decades

Today is the 20th anniversary of the opening of our original MetroLink light rail line. Since then we’ve added a line in Illinois and one in St. Louis County.

One thing we haven’t really seen much of is transit-oriernted development (TOD). We’ve had a few projects that are, at best, transit-adjacent development (TAD).

TAD is TOD gone bad, development that is adjacent to transit but breaks all the rules that make TOD work, like making public spaces the focus of building orientation and neighborhood activity; creating pedestrian-friendly street networks that directly connect local destinations; and providing a mix of housing types, densities and costs. (TOD’s Evil Twin: Transit-Adjacent Development)

In the poll last week I asked about the lack of TOD in the last two decades:

Q: Why do you think our MetroLink light rail stations haven’t seen much transit-oriented development in the last 20 years? (Pick up to 3)

1. Lack of proper land-use controls, like form-based zoning 42 [13.21%]
2. Nobody pushed for TOD 37 [11.64%]
3. Regional fragmentation of leadership 37 [11.64%]
4. Regional job & population growth have been stagnant 37 [11.64%]
5. The station designs aren’t conducive for infill development 31 [9.75%]
6. Located in bad locations. 29 [9.12%]
7. The alignment isn’t convenient to many 27 [8.49%]
8. No demand for transit-oriented development 23 [7.23%]
9. We naively thought if we built it they’d come 17 [5.35%]
10. Used mainly for games, events, to reach Lambert airport 15 [4.72%]
11. Another reason not listed 10 [3.14%]
12. Our laissez-faire love of the free market 8 [2.52%]
13. Naysayers muted initial enthusiasm, halting TOD potential 4 [1.26%]
14. Park & ride lots are the best use of the land at the stations 1 [0.31%]
15. Unsure/no answer 0 [0%]

All of the above (except #14) are valid reasons, I think they ended up in about the right order too. A form-based code at the Wellston station would’ve required St. Louis County Economic Council building to acknowledge the presence of light rail.

When the county government doesn’t do set a good example, how can we expect others to do better on their own?

In the last couple of years there has been a TOD push. Better late than never or too little, too late?

— Steve Patterson

VA Hospital Should Expand East To Grand Boulevard

Yesterday I explained that John Cochran Veterans Hospital Wants To Expand South Into Grand Center, Raze Historic Palladium Music Hall. This would involve taking an active union hall, a popular restaurant that just rebuilt its building, and the historic Palladium. It would also require the city to vacate a public street: Enright.

It would also leave John Cochran Hospital set far back from Grand, in stark contrast to urban buildings to the north and south along Grand Blvd. My solution then, is to look at expanding the hospital out toward Grand Blvd, rather than to the South.

Of course, after the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the front would need to be a blast-resitant design. They’d need less room for surface parking and valet service if they actually embraced public transit.

Directions to the hospital takes you to the driving directions page.  If you look for it you’ll see the on public transportation page which says:

Public transportation is available at both divisions. The Grand Boulevard bus will take you to the John Cochran Divsion [sic]. The Jefferson Barracks Division may be reached by using either the Broadway or Lindbergh bus. For more information on public transportation for the bus lines or for Metrolink rail service please contact Metro St. Louis at (314) 231-2345 or visit their web site at *Metro St. Louis.

* Link will take you outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs Website. VA does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of the linked websites. The link will open in a new window.

The above should be written as something like:

Both divisions can be reached via public transportation. The John Cochran Division is served by the the following routes:

• #70 Grand*
• #97 Delmar* (1 block south)
• #94 Page* (3 blocks north)
• #10 Gravois-Lindell* (5 blocks south)
• MetroLink light rail (Exit Grand Station, transfer to the northbound #70 Grand MetroBus)

The Jefferson Barracks Division may be reached by using either the #40 Broadway or #48 Lindbergh MetroBus routes.

For more information on public transportation for the bus lines or for Metrolink rail service please contact Metro St. Louis at (314) 231-2345 or visit their web site at *Metro St. Louis.

* Link will take you outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs Website. VA does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of the linked websites. The link will open in a new window.

That little bit of extra information might convince someone to use transit rather than drive.veer

Back to expansion, there might be legitimate reasons why adding to the south makes a lot of sense in terms of internal flow, but it is also possible they never considered adding out front rather than to the side.

— Steve Patterson

John Cochran Veterans Hospital Wants To Expand South Into Grand Center, Raze Historic Palladium Music Hall

The Veterans Administration operates two facilities in the St. Louis area:

The VA St. Louis Health Care System provides inpatient and ambulatory care in medicine, surgery, psychiatry, neurology, and rehabilitation, and many other subspecialty areas. It is a two-division facility that serves veterans and their families in east central Missouri and southwestern Illinois.

The John Cochran Division, named after the late Missouri congressman, is located in midtown St. Louis and has all of the medical center’s operative surgical capabilities, the ambulatory care unit, intensive care units, outpatient psychiatry clinics, and expanded laboratory.

The Jefferson Barracks Division is a multi-building complex overlooking the Mississippi River in south St. Louis County. It provides psychiatric treatment, spinal cord injury treatment, a nursing home care unit, geriatric health care, rehabilitation services, and a rehabilitation domiciliary program for homeless veterans. (source)

The John Cochran facility, located in midtown, was built in the 1950s, on the site of the once-opulant Vandeventer Place private street:

Founder, Peter Lewis Vandeventer, came to St. Louis in the 1860s with brothers William and Henry Barnum Vandeventer. Peter Lewis Vandeventer and Henry Barnum Vandeventer were Wall Street stockbrokers with a firm located at 6 Wall St., New York City. They made their money from selling stocks and took the train west to St. Louis to invest it in land.

Peter Lewis Vandeventer died in 1879, during the development of Vandeventer Place, a gated, luxurious private place in the neighborhood with stately mansions and a beautiful fountain as its centerpiece. His Missouri estate was managed by several corrupt lawyers, who stole much of the money from the sale of the lots at Vandeventer Place. His family remained in St. Louis for some time after his death, living in Vandeventer Place in a large mansion.

Vandeventer Place met with its demise in 1947, when the eastern half was demolished for the Veterans’ Administration’s new hospital. The western portion was demolished about ten years later, when the City acquired it as the site for a children’s detention home. The fountain and east gates survive in Forest Park. (Wikipedia)

The formerly secluded street on the western edge of the city had fallen out of favor among the wealthy, they sought to buy or build mansions even further west in the city or into St. Louis County.  John Cochran Hospital has always remained within its original 11+ acre site of Grand on the East, Enright (formerly Morgan) on the South, Spring on the West, and Bell on the North. Granted, the VA has various surface parking lots beyond this.

Now the VA is looking to expand , funding for a new tower was included in a 2009 spending bill:

A $44 million appropriation included in a new $447 billion spending bill approved by Congress this week will provide seed money for a 262,000-square-foot hospital tower for the midtown facility.

[snip]

The proposed VA medical center expansion will feature a larger emergency room, wings for spinal cord injury and mental health patients needing immediate medical treatment, more private bedrooms and better room structures for medical equipment and records. (stltoday.com)

Why hasn’t this moved forward in the last four years? If you’ll recall, John Cochran VA soon had some very bad PR issues:

• June 2010: VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV
• February 2011: Surgeries are suspended at Cochran center
• April 2012: Issues go unsolved at St. Louis VA medical center

Then in June 2012 an expansion story ran once again:

An expansion is planned for the John Cochran VA Medical Center, but it could affect a new, widely popular soul food restaurant. The expansion would increase the facility by 60 percent. The “Sweetie Pies Upper Crust Eatery” sits on land that is being looked at for the expansion project. (Fox2: Could VA Hospital Expansion Force Sweetie Pies Upper Crust Out?)

So they want to expand South to Delmar, closing Enright and razing some buildings. What impact would this have on Grand Center? What buildings would need to be razed? Is there a better option for expansion?

Only four buildings are on the thin block bounded by Enright, Grand, Delmar, and Spring:

1. a vacant former gas station already owned by the VA,
2. Laborer’ Local 42 union hall,
3. Sweetie Pie’s Upper Crust,
4. Vacant former HHV Thrift Plus (aka The Palladium, Club Plantation)

Here’s a look at these four:

Interesting, 66 years ago the VA wanted a hotel and a club razed or they wouldn’t build and “the VA itself is prohibited by law from buying the block because it is not contiguous to its hospital site.” Not sure when the hotel was razed, but the club remains — for now.

So we have a newly built & popular restaurant that faces Delmar, a 1970s union hall and a historic 1912-13 musical hall facing Enright, all in the path of the Veterans Administration.  The VA owns the tiny 1950 gas station, the other three are privately owned.

Tomorrow I’ll suggest how to expand the VA hospital while also improving, not hurting, Grand Center.

— Steve Patterson

Poll: Who Should Gov Nixon Appoint St. Louis License Collector?

Last week it was announced a city hall regular would be leaving elected office to take a new job:

The Board of Directors of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Inc. has appointed Michael P. McMillan, 41, as the next president and chief executive officer of the 95 – year old Urban League affiliate. McMillan, the License Collector for the City of St. Louis since 2007 and a longtime Urban League member and supporter, takes the helm August 5, succeeding James H. Buford who is retiring after 28 years of stellar service to the Urban League. (Urban League)

McMillan, 42 as of last Friday, will be assuming an important leadership position in St. Louis, congratulations.

This also means a city-wide elected office will become vacant, the position of license collector.    As a county office, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, a Democrat, will appoint a successor to complete the term, which ends on December 31, 2014. The next primary is in August 2014.  The appointee will have nearly a year in office on the day of the primary.

Speculation began right away as to who Nixon might be considering, the Post-Dispatch listed the following in Field to replace St. Louis License Collector is wide open:

• Brian Wahby, the former chairman of the St. Louis City Democrats who lost a bid for city treasurer last year.
• Terry Kennedy, a workhorse at the Board of Aldermen who chairs the board’s Ways and Means committee.
• Marlene Davis, close friend of McMillan’s who represents his old Midtown ward.
• Martin Casas, who unsuccessfully ran for state representative and is looking to stay active in politics
• Donna Baringer, alderman from the city’s Ward 16.
• Jeffrey Boyd, alderman from the city’s Ward 22.

If Nixon appoints a current alderman then we’d see jockeying to fill that seat. I personally like to see the players change seats every so often, otherwise races get stagnant as voter apathy increases.

Speaking of stagnant, we shouldn’t forget the two most senior members on the Board of Aldermen:

• Fred Wessels
• Phyllis Young

Both were sworn into office in April 1985! Wessels ran for treasurer last year, Young ran for president of the board of alderman in 1995.

Assuming all are equally qualified, Nixon may consider the race of his appointee. He may not want to appoint a white person to a citywide seat held by a black person. Then again, he may not care.

Will McMillan ask Nixon to appoint Marlene Davis? Given her recent financial difficulties, the increased salary would no doubt help her personally. As of January 1, 1999, the annual salary was $64,130 (source). I’m uncertain of the current salary after annual adjustments.

The replacement is the poll question this week: Who should Gov Nixon appoint St. Louis License Collector? The poll is in the right sidebar, you’ve got the option to add a name if you like.

— Steve Patterson

Wildlife In Citygarden

Not sure why I’m surprised to see wildlife in the city, but I always am. Citygarden has the large white rabbit sculptures but the other night we saw a little bunny.

What wildlife have you seen in your city yard or city park that surprised you?

— Steve Patterson