The History of the Ubiquitous Building Setback Line

Today the “setback line” is codified in zoning ordinances from small rural towns to big cities. This was not always the case, the setback line had origins in the 19th century but it became standardized in the mid-20th century.

In the 19th Century we’d see setback lines used by developers of fancy residential streets, such as Lucas Place (now Locust). The Campbell House Museum website offers information on the use of an early setback line:

In late 1850 or early 1851, siblings James Lucas and Ann Lucas Hunt laid out a residential neighborhood on a section of the farm they had inherited from their father. The main thoroughfare was aptly called Lucas Place.

Lucas and Hunt developed the Lucas Place partly in response to a demand for new housing away from the congestion, noise and coal pollution of the city center and where there was less of a danger of fire and disease which had recently been so devastating.

Originally Lucas Place (now Locust Street) extended between 13th and 16th streets when the city limits were just one block to the west between 17th and 18th streets. When established, Lucas Place was west of the developed portion of the city, making it St. Louis’ first “suburban” neighborhood. Lucas Place was also the first clearly defined wealthy neighborhood in St. Louis. However, it was a neighborhood for new money–none of St. Louis’ old wealthy families lived on Lucas Place.

As in many of St. Louis’ later private streets, Lucas Place properties also had deed restrictions. All buildings had to be set back 25 feet from the street. No commercial enterprises of any kind were allowed, however churches and schools were not restricted. These restrictions expired in the 1880s

Cities did not yet have zoning. Deed restrictions were up to each individual developer. In the case of Lucas Place the buildings had to be set back 25 feet. After these restrictions expired and the city grew and developed Westward new structures such as the YMCA at 15th & Locust were built to the street.

I need to clarify terms before going any further, street and road are not the same. A street refers to the entire public right-of-way — road plus sidewalks. The road or roadway is that portion of the street between the curbs.

At the start of the 20th Century is when we saw the building setback line come into universal use. Before this time every bit of the building lot could be built upon. Streets – both sidewalks & roadways – were becoming quite crowded with pedestrians, streetcars, carriages and such. The private automobile made matters worse. The introduction of the Ford Model T in 1908 made the automobile affordable to more of the population.

But in cities all over the country you had rights of way of 60ft-80ft for most streets with a few up to 90 feet in width. Again, this is the road plus sidewalks. With the streets lined with buildings at the property line the options for increasing the width of the roadway were few. The simplest was to take the space from the adjacent sidewalks by moving the curb line back.

Cities began the expensive process of using eminent domain to take additional property along streets to increase the overall width of the right-of-way. Throughout St Louis and in cities all over the country front sections of buildings were cut off and given new front facades.

In the above image you can see one building on the left side of Franklin (now MLK) that doesn’t yet have the new facade built. Everything in the above image has since been razed, the 1977 Cervantes Convention Center was built here.

Having gone through this costly process cities began to require a new building setback from major streets in anticipation of them being widened in the future. In 1923 city voters approved an $87 million dollar bond issue for a number of projects including street widening.

The 1928 St Louis Directory indicated St Louis had “1,007 miles of streets, 766 of which that are paved” plus
1,500 miles of sidewalks. So at the time the city was undertaking the expense to tear off fronts of buildings to widen some streets other streets still remained unpaved.

In the 1947 Comprehensive Plan street widening was listed as top among planning accomplishments in the city to date:

1. For Establishing, Opening and Widening Streets – $8,650,000
Ten great new thoroughfares created
Gravois Avenue-S. 12th Street
Market Street
Olive Street
North 12th-Florissant-Natural Bridge
Vandeventer Avenue
Hampton Boulevard
Chippewa Street
Watson Road
Delmar Boulevard (3rd to Spring)
Easton Avenue (Franklin to Spring)

The 1947 plan went on to advocate the adoption of building lines:

St. Louis has never established building lines on major streets to require new building construction to set back to future street lines. Numerous American cities established such building lines many years ago for purposes of economy and to assure sufficient street capacity to meet future traffic needs. Building lines should now be established on all major streets of inadequate future width.

The head of the city’s Plan Commission, Harland Bartholomew, and his firm Harland Bartholomew & Associates was responsible for “Major Streets” plans in hundreds of cities where the building line was implemented to make it easier to widen streets in the future. Less than a decade after the city adopted the 1947 plan, President Eisenhower signed into law the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act.

Highways sliced through cities. Streets that were widened a few decades earlier now saw less use. But the building setback line stuck. More from the 1947 Plan:

840,000 people in St. Louis owned 165,000 automobiles and trucks in 1946. By 1970 it is estimated that there will be about 230,000 automobiles and trucks. This figure does not include streetcars and busses or the many thousands of new cars and trucks in suburban areas, all of which are potential users of city streets. The annual traffic in St. Louis will be increased from 1,531,000,000 to 2,403,000,000 vehicle miles by 1960 (Estimate by Missouri State Highway Department, Highway Planning Survey.). This is a lot of traffic. It cannot be accommodated on our present street system. It will require new and enlarged adequate flow channels as well as a high degree of regulation and control.

Traffic originating in residential areas throughout all parts of the city moves: (a) to the central business district or (b) to numerous objectives in various parts of the city, such as industries, parks, business sub-centers, schools, or to other residential areas. Traffic from various parts of the metropolitan area and from more remote points moves to the central business district of St. Louis and to numerous other objectives within the city. More than 100 truck terminals surrounding and closely adjacent to the central business district are points of origin for motor truck lines which daily carry large volumes of freight. These are but examples of a multitude of daily traffic movements in the city.

Since 1916 St. Louis has expended over $40,000,000 in opening, widening, connecting, and extending the system of major streets. Much has been accomplished in converting a horse and buggy street system to automobile needs. As the total volume of traffic increases, however, certain new needs arise. An example is the desirability of grade separations at extremely heavy intersections, such as at Grand and Market and at Kingshighway and Lindell. Likewise there is a need for complete separation of grade where traffic volume is sufficiently heavy to justify the cost involved. The Federal Government, which has helped finance our splendid system of national highways, has recently revised its policies and Congress has appropriated substantial funds to aid the cities in the construction of express highways and for facilitation of traffic flows from certain selected state highways through metropolitan areas to the central business districts of large cities. Past and present experience reveals the need for four types of major streets and trafficways as follows:

So highways were already being discussed and planned but planning for more and more traffic on surface streets continued. Setback lines became the norms. Grade separations were discussed for intersections such as Kingshighway & Lindell – thankfully that never happened!

Over the years planners included the setback. As newer major roads were built this meant the commercial buildings would be set back from the sidewalk as in the older sections of town. It is only natural then that someone decided to start parking their cars in this space. Evolve that over a few decades and you end up with Loughborough Commons – massive parking with big boxes which don’t relate to the public sidewalk along the street.

Again the setback is now standard everywhere. Civil Engineers & Planners have ensured that it is in the codes of every city. Suburban Creve Coeur, Missouri, for example:

Section 26-26 Setbacks and Building Lines.

26-26.1 Purposes

The purposes of the setback lines provided for in this Chapter are to establish safe and clear rights-of-way and to provide adequate light, air and open space in conformity with buildings now in existence.

26-26.2 Setback Requirements on Certain Streets and Rights-of-Way

(a) No building or structure shall be located further from a major street or highway in the City of Creve Coeur than provided for by the standards specified below:

1. Arterial street or highway (Ballas Road, Lindbergh Boulevard and Olive Boulevard): Forty (40) feet setback from the center line of said arterial street or highway plus the permitted setback distance established in the zoning district. The Planning and Zoning Commission may increase the distance measured from the centerline of an arterial street or highway to ensure a consistent right-of-way along such a thoroughfare or if a road expansion is projected in an adopted land use plan.

2. Major collector streets (Conway, Ladue, Old Olive Street, Warson, Spoede, Graeser, Mason, Mosley, Shulte, Craig, Emerson, Old Ballas and Ross Roads, and Cross Creek, Decker, Trojan and Tempo Drives): Thirty (30) feet setback from the center line of said major collector street plus the permitted setback distance established in the zoning district. The Planning and Zoning Commission may increase the distance measured from the centerline of a major collector street to ensure a consistent right-of-way along such a thoroughfare or if a road expansion is projected in an adopted land use plan.

(b) In every instance, the first ten (10) feet of the front yard setback from the right-of-way shall be provided with and maintained with sidewalks, unless sidewalks exist in the abutting public right-of-way, and with landscaping including, but not limited to deciduous street trees at regular intervals. (Ord. No. 2030, § 3, 10-25-99)

I’d much rather walk in Boston’s North End neighborhood than along a widened street like Natural Bridge in St Louis. So there you have it, planners saw streets as too limiting for auto traffic so they opened them up and put setback lines in place on other streets to ensure when the time came to widen the street buildings would not be in the way — not that buildings would stop them.

More Unnecessary Demolition Coming to What Remains of Downtown St Louis

I couldn’t make it to the Preservation Board meeting on Monday night. I understand they approved a request from the Roberts Brothers to demolish two structures on the corner of 10th & Locust to clear the way for an auto circle drive and hotel entrance.  Highly unfortunate!

Downtown St Louis already has holes everywhere — this will be yet another. The building on the corner has been altered so much over the years that it is no longer considered a “contributing” historic structure. What it does do well is hold the corner.

I don’t have a problem with the demolition if we were getting some of equal or greater massing where the existing buildings now stand. But a circle driveway? Two curb cuts along 10th street to contend with – adding to the challenge of passing this way in a wheelchair. Just north of this site on 10th is a parking garage where pedestrians have to really watch for cars. We continue to erode our downtown – favoring motorists over pedestrians.

From the windows of this new hotel guests will be able to see into the 9th Street Garage that sits on the half block that contained The Century Building for, well, nearly a century.

I love the idea of remaking the taller building on the block into a hotel. I rather like tall, narrow boutique hotels:

In urban cities like Boston they don’t sacrifice their street corners for circle drives. This hotel is mid-block. It doesn’t need a big circle drive to survive. Neither does a boutique hotel in downtown St Louis.

Our city is what we make it to be. We’ve pretty much guaranteed that we’ll never return to wonderful urban densities of pedestrians on the sidewalks and mass transit transporting large quantities of the population. Each year it seems we take steps further away from being a wonderful walking city to one overrun with cars.

Further Reading:

• Vanishing STL
• Ecology of Absence – Jan 2006
• Urban St Louis Forum
• Downtown St Louis Business
• Preservation Board agenda item

Every time I get to feeling good about our city a decision like this comes along to make me question my decision to remain in St Louis rather than move on to places where the sidewalks and transit vehicles are crowded with people. Here we simply have crowded highways.

Delmar Improvements Narrows Roadbed, Adds Street Trees, Improves Accessibility

The stretch of Delmar between Kingshighway and Skinker just went on a diet – a road diet. A new center median consumes a large portion of the formerly too wide roadway. The median along with street trees at regular intervals really transforms the street.

My post yesterday on The Ville and new sidewalks on MLK was critical of the fact that new street trees were not added on what is certainly an important arterial road in North St Louis. On Delmar the conditions are similar – major arterial with large vacant lots adjacent to the street. Yet on Delmar the design is vastly superior to that of MLK in The Ville.

I’m not a fan of medians – but they are cheaper than the streetcars I’d prefer in the same space. If the medians are maintained they look great. But not all the medians in the city are equally cared for. Still, it is this type of infrastructure investment that can help boost private investment in the area.

Reducing the amount of paving makes a huge difference. I would have liked to have seen some curb bulb outs to prevent someone from using the parking lane as a driving lane. At the very least the city should come back and paint a solid while line between the parking lane and the right driving lane.

Only time will tell if the trees survive and if this helps bring new investment to fill in the gaps.

A Visit to The Ville

This past Saturday I paid a visit to the Ville neighborhood. The reason was the AIA’s Ville Marketplace. They are not selling produce every weekend but are seeding the idea for when they have sufficient funds raised they can start a new market building.

On Saturday they were out on the site selling produce from Produce Row – the same stuff sold in local grocery stores. A couple of local growers were also on hand.

After I visited the market I went back into the neighborhood to check the status of Ville Phillips Estates – the new home project that I first reported on last year.

Very little has changed except a couple of formerly through streets are now barricaded.

The open sewer hole is now covered – with plywood.

There are fewer buildings in the neighborhood since my last visit.

The same corner is now like so many others — totally vacant.

A term known as Shrinking Cities can refer to the process of accepting population loss and managing the shrinking of the cities. This can include the removal of infrastructure – buildings, streets, etc. But what we have in St Louis is not planned shrinkage — it is simply the removal of vacant structures to the point where remaining occupied structures become vacant themselves. We’ve been in this mode for decades now. It does not appear to be a successful strategy for turning around neighborhoods.

Another strategy is to invest in infrastructure, such as sidewalks. We see this going on as well. But the new sidewalks along a long stretch of MLK missed a golden opportunity. Existing trees were left but no new street trees are being added. I saw some blocks without a single tree. This of course can be fixed later but the time to dig the holes was when you had all the sidewalks ripped out. From an accessibility standpoint I didn’t see enough places to cross MLK.

This is a great neighborhood with a long history and some wonderful residents but I see the investments it is getting — building demolition and treeless sidewalks as being counterproductive.

Halloween in Lucas Park

Today we continued our presence in Lucas Park by holding an afternoon Halloween Party for neighborhood kids.

Everyone had a great time, by the end of the event in the park we had quite a few kids, maybe 10. One of the kids was homeless, at age 5. He was with a friend of his mom’s, the mom was at work. The three of them had spent the last few nights on the street sleeping under a loading dock. They had spent a few nights at Larry Rice’s New Life Evangelical Center but he tossed them because the women wouldn’t do his 90-day program. They consider Rice’s program to be “slave labor.” One woman has a job while the other is doing classes as St Patrick’s Center to get her GED. They consider Rice’s program to be “slave labor.” Their landlord had raised the rent and they could no longer afford it. They have some leads on more affordable places. In the meantime the three of them were out in the cold.

We shared their story with Alderwoman April Ford-Griffin. She gave us her cell number and asked that the mom call her and she would help her get into a family shelter. As we went trick or treating the friend of the mom stayed in Lucas Park but she sent a homeless young man to keep an eye on the young one. After we all got back from trick or treating the mom arrived from her day at work. Andy Martello of the shut down NLEC petition gave the women the Alderwoman’s phone number. I gave them my card and told them to call me if they needed a ride to a shelter.

About a half an hour later my phone rang, I was at home by now. They had talked with Griffin and they needed a ride to a shelter just north of Downtown. I got in my car and drove to a nearby building where they had slept under the dock. Within 20 minutes of them calling me they were safe inside the shelter.

When I got back home I started to cry. The little 5 year-old was so sweet and innocent. The mom and the other woman were nice and trying to do their best, they’d been out of their apartment since October 9th.

As I picked them up I saw Maureen Brown again. She asked why I wasn’t helping her. I said I’d be happy to give her a ride somewhere. I think I was crying in part because I had gotten to know Maureen over the last few weeks but she was still on the street. So I called a women’s shelter to see if they could take her. They said they were full but they might be able to let her sleep on a sofa for one night but they wanted to talk to her first.

So back down to the car I went. I got lucky and found Maureen near the same loading dock where I had seen her about an hour earlier. She got into my car and I called the shelter. She turned down the sofa but they suggested she call back Monday to see if they have any openings. She doesn’t have a cell phone so I’m going to go find her on Monday so she can use my phone to talk to them. She is out there in the cold. I did notice a couple of homeless men in the same spot — they are likely her protectors.

I’ll be able to sleep better tonight knowing I helped two women and a child get a safe place to sleep and that I will hopefully get Maureen into a shelter as well this coming week. This morning I had noticed belongings under this particular loading dock. It was weird putting a face to a space. A 5 year-olds face.

We had fun in the park today. We made more connections with homeless persons. I found more people among the homeless population that think NLEC needs to go. Needs do exist and NLEC is not meeting those needs.

One of the top needs is a place to store personal belongings and clothing. We have more homeless than we have spaces for stuff. The stuff goes into the shelters at night but the next morning the person & their stuff are back on the street (or in the park). I don’t mind seeing homeless persons in the park but piles of stuff just show how poor a job we are doing at providing good services for the homeless. How can we expect this person(s) to get a job? They can’t carry all this to a job interview.

Happy Halloween!

UPDATE 10/26/08 @8AM   – I removed information on the shelter where I took the two women and child.