Minutes from Hearing on McDonald’s Drive-Thru

If, by chance, you are not sick of the McDonald’s issue yet I’ve go more for you. I have received a copy of the minutes of the meeting. This is not to be confused with a word for word transcript. Still, it gives you a good summary of those that spoke and their main points.

Minutes (5 pages, PDF)

And I have posted the letter of approval from the city on the drive-thru. Thankfully, Gravois Park residents have appealed this decision.

Once I receive the audio cassette of the hearing I will digitize it and make it available as a series of MP3 files for all to hear. The next best thing to being there!

Make no mistake, the Florida/Pyramid camp will likely stop at nothing to get there way over the objections of not only the immediate residents but all of us that consider this a critical area for St. Louis even though we don’t live within a few blocks of the area.

The continued attempts by officials in this city to discount the opinions of myself and others simply because we are not in the direct path of a poor decision shows how limited their thinking really is. Florida talks a good game about the big picture but the only big picture plan for the area she willfully choosing to ignore.

I am so over the “we need any development no matter how bad” mentality.

– Steve

Ald. Troupe and Planning & Urban Design Agency Teaming Up

Recently 1st Ward Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe and Planning & Urban Design Agency Director Rollin Stanley presented concepts for a modern in-fill project near Union & Labadie. At the meeting Stanley said the project “would be simple, low maintenance and urban.” He described the project as “very modern.”

It is nice to see an Alderman working with our talented planning staff as well as presenting ideas to the community before they are done deals.

– Steve

Proposed McDonald’s To Be Most Suburban Among Fast Food on Grand

Unfortunately the seven blocks or so along South Grand between Potomac St and Alberta St are littered with fast food establishments, many with drive-thru service. North of this area is quite nice with urban storefronts. South of the area you get a nice urban feeling again with storefronts and homes facing Grand. It is the one section, centered between Gravois & Chippewa, that has been ravaged over the years by inappropriate development.

I decided to take a closer look at the existing drive-thru establishments to see how they compared to the proposed McDonald’s (view site plan). The numbers were startling.

First, only the 1996 White Castle and the proposed McDonald’s have any sort of auto drive separating the public sidewalk from the building. The Taco Bell, KFC, Burger King, Arby’s and existing McDonald’s all have no autos between the sidewalk and building. This places the building closer to the building line and is therefore more accommodating to pedestrians. The proposed McDonald’s will follow the newer White Castle by setting back the building and separating it from the sidewalk with an auto drive, making it less accommodating to pedestrians.

Here are some quick observations:

The Taco Bell has the smallest site. The proposed McDonald’s site is 223% larger than the Taco Bell site!

The Taco Bell and KFC sites combined are the same size as the current McDonald’s site.

The proposed McDonald’s site is 38% larger than the current McDonald’s site.

The site of the proposed McDonald’s is 64% larger than the next biggest site, White Castle.

The proposed McDonald’s will have 62% more parking spaces than the current location (29 vs. 47).

The mixed-use project just South of the Grand View Arcade includes a Wing Stop, a Subway a Papa John’s Pizza and a Head Start program. This project includes, for all four business, a total of 42 parking spaces. This is five less than the proposed McDonald’s. Keep in mind the McDonald’s owner is saying this move is necessary to increase his drive-thru business.

The existing McDonald’s location, built in 1974, is the oldest of all the locations. One could argue it is due for replacement but I say it was the one that started the trend of suburban fast food in the area. However, the White Castle that was razed in 1996 may have pre-dated the 1974 McDonald’s.

The proposed McDonald’s is less urban than the current location in that it will be set back from the public sidewalk and will have a lower building to land ratio (10.7% vs. 7.1%). Truly urban development would occupy a minimum of 30-40% of the parcel with buildings.

All signs indicate the proposed McDonald’s is not only out of scale with the idea of a pedestrian friendly neighborhood but also relative to other fast-food drive-thru establishments in the immediate vicinity. Nobody involved has their act together. The city’s zoning is ancient with no guidelines to make drive-thrus more urban. The elected officials, alderwoman and mayor, seem glad to help McDonald’s more than help the area residents work toward a good compromise. The developer, Pyramid, seems convinced they are doing the city a good service. McDonald’s will generally push the standard formula unless they are forced to do something better which brings us back to zoning.

Here is what I’d like to see happen:

An immediate moratorium on new projects on Grand between Potomac & Alberta with the exception of the SSNB & Melba/Grandview Arcade.

A community planning workshop to envision the potential of the area. Property owners, neighbors, aldermen, and the city’s planning staff should be involved in the process.

Ald. Florida & Ald. Schmid co-sponsor a bill enacting a special zoning overlay for the area. Zoning does not prohibit drive-thru restaurants but it does establish guidelines which mitigates the negative aspects associated with these building types. Drive-thru guidelines might follow this example from Toronto.

Moratorium is lifted with everyone now on the same playing field. Developers know if they invest in the area in an urban fashion that others will also be held to similar standards.

Will this happen? Probably not. This would require some leadership and frankly I don’t think Ald. Florida has either the will or ability to do it.

– Steve

Parking Meters Being Installed on Washington Ave.

Meters1

Originally uploaded by urbanreviewstl.com.

Workers are installing parking meters along the 1000 & 1100 blocks of Washington Avenue today.

When I first reported the change to allow parking on these blocks last month I mentioned more high tech parking payments system, speculating that was planned for these blocks. Sadly, parking czar Larry Williams stuck the the old technology.

– Steve

Proposed McDonald’s Siteplan Now Available Online

Thanks to Missouri’s Sunshine Law I have obtained the site plan for the proposed McDonald’s on South Grand. To view a PDF version please click on the thumbnail to the right.

In reviewing the site plan we can see just how suburban this McDonald’s really is. Asphalt is the primary material on the 40,000 sq. ft. site as the building occupies only a small percentage of the total area. Forty-five regular and 2 handicap parking spaces cover much of the area. Judging by this much parking they must expect to far more popular than they are now.

Pedestrians are not given any consideration as they must walk in one of the three auto drives to get to the restaurant door. Heaven forbid someone in a wheelchair actually want to visit this McDonald’s as they must wheel all the way from the public sidewalk to the ramp on the south side of the building in the same path as cars going toward the drive-thur.

The site plan reveals two “monument” signs — one at Grand and one at Winnebego. No street trees are indicated along Winnebego and we are losing several tree spaces along Grand. No bike racks are indicated. This could not possibly be any more inappropriate for the City of St. Louis.

Ald. Jennifer Florida, in supporting this project, wrote:

“McDonald’s has been sensitive to including an urban architectural design, pedestrian friendly to the neighborhood.”

I’m not sure how Ms. Florida even remotely comes to this conclusion. What makes this, in her mind, as being urban in design or pedestrian-friendly? I’d hate to see her idea of something that is not urban and anti-pedestrian. I can come to only a few conclusions: either she is really stupid or she thinks we are. Well, I’m not stupid. I’m not buying your lines Jennifer.

Everyone involved in this project should be embarrassed for even suggesting such a thing in a fairly pedestrian area. Jennifer Florida should be laughed out of office. Mayor Slay should question why his staff hasn’t pulled the rug out from under this project. John Steffen of Pyramid should question the values of his own company if this is what they want to dump upon our neighborhoods.

– Steve