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

I Can’t Imagine My Life Without The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Twenty-three years ago today our 41st president, George H.W. Bush, signed the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 into law. At that time I was still living in Oklahoma, just 23 years old. I’d completed all but one course for a bachelor degree in architecture, though I don’t recall the idea of accessibility ever coming up in my 5 years in school.  Accessibility was on the radar of some, but it wasn’t law so it was easily ignored.

I had no idea that just 18 years later I’d come to be so thankful the bi-partisan congress passed the law and the president signed it.

Today Bush, 89, is seen publicly in a wheelchair  — not standing. He’s got a Secret Service detail to help him, he’s not going grocery shopping or taking the bus to the doctor like us regular folks.

Don’t think this doesn’t apply to you, the statistics around disability are eye opening to many:

• Just over 1 in 4 of today’s 20 year-olds will become disabled before they retire.
• Over 37 million Americans are classified as disabled; about 12% of the total population. More than 50% of those disabled Americans are in their working years, from 18-64.
• 8.8 million disabled wage earners, over 5% of U.S. workers, were receiving Social Security Disability (SSDI) benefits at the end of 2012.
• In December of 2012, there were over 2.5 million disabled workers in their 20s, 30s, and 40s receiving SSDI benefits. (source) 

If not you in your working life, then likely a family member, friend, or co-worker.

As I show often there is a lot of work to be done, but without the ADA I couldn’t live the independent life I lead.

— Steve Patterson

Elevated Highway Will Continue To Divide Downtown From The Mississippi River

The CityArchRiver 2015 effort has been about connecting the city to the Arch and to the river. But I think the name needs an asterisks, followed by a legal disclaimer in fine printer.

The disclaimer would read something like this:

*The connection will be applicable for a block or two at the center of the Arch grounds, the north & south portions will remain disconnected. We’ll make a few token changes, nothing significant. 

I agree there isn’t time now to raze the elevated highway and complete an urban boulevard before October 28, 2015, but I’d like to see us work on starting shortly after the 50th anniversary of the last piece of the Arch. If we start now we can have the urban boulevard by the 75th anniversary on October 28, 2040.

Only after this is removed will downtown be reconnected to the Mississippi River in a meaningful way.

— Steve Patterson