Poll: Thoughts on the Plan to Raze Jamestown Mall and build a New Urbanist Village?

Jamestown Mall (map link) isn’t even 40 years old but St. Louis County officials are ready to put it out of it’s misery:

Jamestown Mall opened in 1973 offering regional commercial merchandise on the suburban fringe of St. Louis, in anticipation of residential development moving into the area. The anticipated residential units never materialized and unfortunately, in recent years, new regional shopping destinations that are located closer to larger populations of shoppers have degraded the effective trade area of Jamestown Mall, causing a decline in sales and foot traffic. Over time, the quality of merchandise offered has declined and is now misaligned with the needs of the North County community. Today, although two of the mall’s anchor buildings are occupied, its other two anchor buildings are vacant and portions of the mall have been walled off to reduce the appearance of vacant space. (Executive Summary PDF)

The idea is to raze most of the mall and build a New Urbanist village following one of four concepts: The traditional neighborhood development plan, the garden suburb plan, the central common plan, or the park & village plan:

The Traditional Neighborhood Development Plan features a block and street network creating a complete village. A diverse village center is focused on the northwest parcel and could extend to the plaza at the center of the neighborhood. This scenario develops the site fully including the southern parcel by Coldwater Creek. The operating anchor stores remain as the village center and neighborhoods develop around them. If the existing anchor stores close, the parcels can be redeveloped to create a more complete neighborhood. As with the other scenarios, a diversity of housing is offered including townhomes, live/ work units, duplexes, multi-family buildings and small homes on private lots.

The Garden Suburb Plan features curvilinear streets, center median boulevards, and larger parks and retention areas throughout the village. Neighborhoods are planned around a network of enhanced natural systems that connect throughout the site and to the natural flowways of Coldwater Creek through the open space systems of neighboring subdivisions. Retail is contained within the northwest parcel, resulting in a focused amount of neighborhood retail. The plan identifies a potential location for a sports complex prominently on Lindbergh Boulevard. The southern portion of the site is illustrated with an amphitheater and a large park that would connect to the Great Rivers Greenway trail system.

The Central Common Plan starts with the premise that all of the mall property comes under single ownership of a master developer. This scenario allows the property to be developed in a manner irrespective of the existing property lines, roadways, underlying infrastructure, and buildings. With more freedom to form plan geometries, a larger central gathering space surrounded by shops and townhomes, similar to Lafayette Square in St. Louis, could be possible. It should be stated that any of the four scenarios would benefit from and could be implemented under single ownership and a master developer.

The Park & Village Plan is one in which portions of the site are transformed into a regional park while others are cleared of their existing conditions to reduce blight, but are held until economic conditions are more favorable to development. The northwest parcel could develop with a small village center with a neighborhood serving retail and expand in the future. Farming may continue on the eastern outparcels. This scenario could be considered an interim stage to the other development scenarios.

The St. Louis County Economic Council has detailed information on the proposal here.

Alex Ihnen writing at NextSTL has advocated a “no build” option, taking a hands-off approach:

Reinventing suburbia is sexy somehow. I guess we have a general idea that something’s wrong with it. But this reinvisioning never really touches on roads or cul-de-sac neighborhoods, no, when we talk of a new suburbia we’re speaking of rebuilding retail. Add in a couple apartments and voila, it’s a Live-Work-Play (maybe even Pray) community. It’s also a ridiculous and wasteful idea.

No where is this absurdity highlighted more than with the current effort to build a new development on the 142-acre Jamestown Mall site.  (THE NO BUILD ALTERNATIVE FOR JAMESTOWN MALL)

The Post-Dispatch touching on doubt for the proposal:

Jamestown Mall, after all, is still open. It has a Macy’s and a J.C. Penney outlet, a movie theater and perhaps two dozen stores along its cavernous concourses. County leaders say they want to involve those businesses in whatever comes next. The site itself is owned by five different entities, in nine chunks. Assembling the land under one owner would make redevelopment easier but will cost money. And the development itself could cost $300 million, according to a rough estimate attached to the plan. (STLToday: Makeover for Jamestown Mall is unveiled)

The reality is 142 acres is a very large site and five ownership entities isn’t that many. The land has been developed for nearly 40 years but the five owners couldn’t do anything different with the site without significant changes to the outdated Euclidean zoning in the region, and that site specifically.

The proposed replacement of this dead mall is the topic of the poll this week.  To vote see the upper right of the site.  On June 8th I will post the poll results and give my reasons for supporting the New Urbanist village concept.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: Should Zoo-Museum Institutions Offer Discounts to City & County Residents?

Interesting story in the paper last week:

Property owners in St. Louis and St. Louis County paid more than $70 million last year for the region’s premier arts and culture attractions. But when it comes time to visit institutions funded through the zoo-museum tax district, they’re often treated the same as people who didn’t pay a dime.

Now, a member of the public board that supervises the 40-year-old tax district is asking whether that’s fair.

Gloria Wessels recently suggested that four of the five institutions funded by the zoo-museum district offer discounts on parking, concessions and special exhibits to visitors who live in the taxing district. If necessary, those discounts could be funded through price increases for visitors who live outside the district, she said. (STLToday)

Gloria Wessels is the wife of long 26-year alderman Fred Wessels (D-13). Should those of us who pay taxes to fund these attractions get a little something others don’t? The Missouri Botanical Garden already allows city & county resident in for free on Wednesday & Saturday mornings.  The article points out the logistical nightmare of trying to verify who would qualify for free parking.  Besides the last thing we need is to encourage is more cars trying to get to the zoo & museum.

During its thirty-seven years of operation the District’s annual tax revenue has increased from $3.9 million dollars in 1972 to more than $72 million dollars in 2009. In recent years, approximately 85% of the tax revenues come from the County taxpayers while City residents provide 15% of the District’s tax revenues.

The expansion of the number of Subdistricts from three to five is indicative of the success and vitality of the original concept of a tax supported cultural district. Today, the Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District is, perhaps, the largest tax supported cultural district in this country. It is a model that other cities have often attempted to emulate. (mzdstl.org)

The five subdistricts are the Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis Zoological Park, Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis Science Center and Missouri History Museum.

The poll this week asks you to weigh in on this issue. The poll is in the upper right of the blog.

– Steve Patterson

Readers: Clusters of Cities Need to Lead Effort to Consolidate

Readers last week indicated how consolidation of St. Louis County’s 91 municipalities should happen:

1. Clusters of cities need to lead the effort. 74 [44.85%]
2. County leaders need to lead the effort 48 [29.09%]
3. The state needs to force consolidation 32 [19.39%]
4. Other answer… 6 [3.64%]
5. We don’t, 91 municipalities in St. Louis County is fine 4 [2.42%]
6. Unsure/no opinion 1 [0.61%]

The top vote getter is the one that will never result in any meaningful consolidation – leaving it up to cities.  I personally think the state needs to step in to make this happen.

1. not going to happen. these clusters formed to separate themselves for a reason
2. Reduce it to what number? Or how many can be disolved?
3. Cities need to join together for better fiscal responsibility
4. Enforce a minimum population requirement on municipalities.
5. Why? Who cares?
6. Voters in the munis should decide

Voters? Again, that is the same as saying nothing should change.

The list above will not change substantially unless the county and/or state takes action.  A first step though, is for some to unincorporate. Saint George is the only one considering such action. Actually just dissolving each of the 91 would be the simplest.

– Steve Patterson

One Year Since St. Louis County Voters Approved Proposition A

A year ago St. Louis County voters approved a small sales tax increase to fund transit, Proposition A. Wednesday I attended a panel discussion on why this measure  passed where previous attempts had failed.  Professors Todd Swanstrom & David Kimball introduced their new study:  From Checkbook Campaigns to Civic Coalitions: Lessons from the Passage of Prop A (PDF).  From the introduction:

On April 6, 2010 the voters of St. Louis County approved a tax increase for transit with a surprising 63 percent majority. The 1⁄2 cent sales tax now raises about $75 million a year to maintain the bus system and expand light rail. Seventeen months earlier a similar initiative had lost with 48 percent of the vote. With the economy in a recession in 2010, unemployment high, and the anti- tax Tea Party movement rising around the nation, the huge majority for Prop A was startling. In this paper we try to explain the success of Prop A and tease out the lessons for future tax initiative campaigns and civic coalitions.

Compared to the defeat of Prop M in 2008 two characteristics of the 2010 Prop A election make the victory especially surprising and help to frame our analysis: 1) Prop A succeeded in an off-year election when the composition of the electorate is less inclined to support tax increases and public transit; 2) Prop A, at least initially, did not enjoy unified business support – usually the kiss of death for transit tax initiatives.

The report details how the campaign differed from prior campaigns.  One difference was the campaign targeted some voters, as outlined by the dark line below.

Basically efforts were concentrated on West & North County and ignoring far SW and South parts of the County.  Voters who had voted in the prior 12 elections were targeted rather than all registered voters.  Citizens for Modern Transit (CMT) funded an educational component that never mentioned Prop A.  The pro-transit slogan was: Some of us ride it. All of us need it. Here is the TV spot that ran in the months leading up to the vote:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aR9rzybjuU

Notice Metro isn’t mentioned at all, the focus is on transit.

At the panel an audience member asked about a more regional approach and including St. Charles County. All agreed that more of the region should be served by transit but it was noted those areas need to step up with a funding source. In Illinois both Madison & St. Clair Counties fund transit.    While the 2010 passage of Prop A was important, we still have more work to do.

– Steve Patterson

Thoughts On Tuesday’s Elections

I couldn’t be happier that independent Scott Ogilvie defeated Democrat Tom Bauer in the 24th ward with 61.46% of the vote, impressive!  Hard to say how he would have done if Waterhouse had won the Democratic primary in March. Still I’m very optimistic about the future of St. Louis based on this one race.

For those in odd numbered wards start planning to run now.  Remember redistricting may change which ward you are in.  The last time I went from being in the 13th to the 25th.  Some of you in even numbered wards may end up in an odd ward, so you could run in 2013.  I really want more independent candidates in 2013.

32 year Republican alderman Fred Heitert lost to Democrat Larry Arnowitz in the 12th ward.  Nothing personal against Heitert but he was first sworn into office in 1979.  Carter was President, disco music was popular.  He stayed in office way too long.

Thomas Villa was elected to fill the vacant seat in the 11th Ward following the resignation of Matt Villa.  Did you expect someone other than a Villa?

Voters approved five more years of the city’s earnings tax with 87.55% saying yes. Kansas City voters also approved a proposition to continue their earnings tax. Both cities have five years to evaluate their sources of revenue and their expenses to see if alternates would be any better.

Looking at the election results in St. Louis County reminds me why consolidation needs to happen — 37 pages long! The number of municipalities, school districts and fire districts is maddening. Just like in St. Louis, many of these races only have a single candidate.

State Rep Jake Zimmerman was elected accessor for St. Louis County — the first time the position has been an elected office in over 50 years.

– Steve Patterson