Town & Country Crossing A Marked Improvement Over The Typical Strip Center in Our Region

Last week, after a meeting, I took a drive out West along Clayton Road with the destination being the new Town & Country Crossing shopping center at Clayton & Woods Mill (map).

The municipality of Town & Country is home to many well to do types. Their city, however, is neither town nor country. It is a collection of big homes on streets with pretentious names yet lacking of sidewalks. The closest they get to country is having deer and that is something they’ve been trying to get rid of. A little too country I suppose?

A few years ago Lucent Technologies left a large building and site vacant at the SW corner of Woods Mill and Clayton:

While the existing uninspiring building could have been remodeled for new tenants a developer saw an opportunity for more suburban development. In particular a more upscale development anchored by a Target and Whole Foods.

In the site plan above you get the Target in the bottom left of the development while the Whole Foods is the letter “E” on the right. A large pond/lake is in the upper right near the intersection. A large section of the total site (left) is designated for residential development.

Nothing says upscale like stone and the entry marker has plenty. I actually like the way the signage for the stores is worked into this wall. The above is the Clayton Rd entrance. Note the presence of sidewalks, an unusual sight along Clayton Rd.

Many might think who needs sidewalks because nobody walks out here. The counter argument, of course, is that nobody walks because they have no sidewalks. However, they do have sidewalks in places.

Above is looking North along Woods Mill from the entrance to the residential area to the South of the new Town & Country Crossings. Clearly when this was built some 20 or so years ago they had walking in mind. However the other commercial developments at this intersection are hostile to pedestrians by their design. The center with a Schnuck’s just to the East of this new development is not easily accessible by foot. They claim to be the “friendliest stores in town” but not if you are a pedestrian. OK, enough about them let’s get back to Town & Country Crossing.

Above is the sidewalk coming from Woods Mill. The entrance from Clayton also has a proper sidewalk.

Walking around the lake is also encouraged. The above view is looking East from the Whole Foods outdoor patio. This sidewalk provides another pedestrian access point into the development off of Woods Mill.

So far they’ve done a decent job of connecting various buildings on the site via sidewalks (thus complying with the ADA Access Route requirement). Above is the sidewalk from in front of the Whole Foods turning the corner to the left and eventually connecting to a couple of buildings that will have smaller stores.

Above is looking back the other direction at the entrance to Whole Foods (the only store completed & open on the day I visited). From this vantage point the center looks pretty typical of suburban strip centers.

Out in the middle of the parking area we see another departure from typical centers — an access route dead center. At the other end of the above sidewalk is the main entry to the new target.

Turning around we see that the previous sidewalk connects to a sidewalk that takes you to the strip buildings along the North (Clayton Rd) side if the development. It remains to be seen just how connected the entire site will be once completed.

For example the above is taken from in front of the Whole Foods looking West. Way in the background is a small strip building near the Clayton Rd entrance. At this time I don’t see an obvious route to get from here to there. I’ll have to return in a few months when they are further along, when it is cooler outside, and I can walk farther.

This is not the project I would have placed on this site. I would have done a commercial street lined on both sides by shops. Like the Boulevard off Brentwood near the Galleria although not so cutsie. The lifestyle center I saw last Fall in West Palm Beach (see post) is a good example of the upscale level of urbanism that would have been ideal for this site. Such a plan would require costly structured parking but offered more lease able space in return. It would have given this section of Town & Country a bit of that missing town.

Still as a big box (Target) strip center it is probably the best in the region. I can think of no other on this scale that does such a nice job of bringing the outside pedestrian into the site and then giving then the option to walk internally.

From a March 2007 Post-Dispatch article:

The shopping-center plans drew opposition from some residents who worried that the local streets were not wide enough for the traffic, while others complained that Target seemed a bit lowbrow for the well-to-do community. Residents signed petitions to block the center in its earlier versions, and they sued TNC. The dispute was settled out of court.

Work was done on both Woods Mill and Clayton, widening and adding turn lanes.  Perhaps the resulting project is better as a result of objections from neighbors?  They probably wouldn’t have liked my quasi-urban lifestyle center either.  Hopefully they’ll start adding more sidewalks so that more people can walk to this shopping center.  Hopefully other developers will stop by to see how strip centers should be designed to meet minimum standards of connectivity.

Downtown Bookended by Delayed (Dead?) Mega-projects

Acres and acres sit idle on the edges of downtown awaiting promised new development.  On the South edge we have Ballpark Village and just North of America’s Center and the Edward Jones Dome we have the Bottleworks District.  Both have made news over the past few
years, lately for not going anywhere.

Above:  blocks sit vacant awaiting the proposed Bottleworks District
The latter was in the news again this week for a settlement on one of the blocks the city took from its rightful owner:

A St. Louis jury awarded $2.8 million on Friday to the former owner of two acres just north of the Edwards Jones Dome downtown in a fight over eminent domain.

The city’s Land Clearance for Redevelopment Agency condemned the two-acre tract after the owner refused sell it in 2005 for $523,000.

The property, a city block bordered by Sixth, Seventh, Carr and Biddle Streets, was included in the “Bottle District” redevelopment plan for a $226 million entertainment destination including a restaurant, concert venue and bowling alley. It has not yet come through.

Today the entire site remains covered in gravel with much of the intact street grid blocked by Jersey barriers.

The surrounding blocks could have been developed without taking this one block from the owner.  But assembling larger and larger tracts for larger and larger projects is what proponents say must be done to get development.  Judging from the broken sidewalks and vacant blocks of land  think perhaps it is high time we questioned this practice.

Granted creating the ideal urban building on a single narrow parcel surrounded by vacant blocks is going to be an island for a long time.  Development does have to be large enough to build both excitement and a sustainable level of visitors.

An alternative to the single developer mega-project is to create a zoning overlay district that outlines the urban design qualities that future buildings must have.  This allows different property owners to participate in the redevelopment.  It also allows the business owner to build their own structure without being tied up in an increasingly complicated and difficult process of financing the mega-project.

This city was built one building at a time — each fitting into the grid.  I think we need to return to such a scale to finish filling in the gaps in our urban fabric.

I Hadn’t Bought Gas Since January

Yesterday, on July 14th, I filled the gas tank on my recently purchased 2004 Corolla. It was the first time I bought gas since January 20th 2008. Granted for February through April I was in the hospital and certainly in no position to drive.

On January 20th I filled the tank on the scooter for less than three bucks.  Yesterday I spent just shy of forty bucks to fill the Corolla (and it wasn’t empty yet).  So I missed out on seeing gas go up 50% ($2.69 to $3.99) while I was in the hospital.

Recently the Bush administration stopped adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve but now calls are coming in to sell some of the oil to relieve price pressures:

Bush initially opposed an earlier call this year to stop shipments to the country’s strategic oil reserves before Congress forced him to take that step. Now, Pelosi is asking him to go even further by drawing down a small portion of that stockpile for commercial consumption “to help reduce the record (gas) prices that are helping push the economy toward recession,” according to a copy of the letter.

“The severe energy price crisis facing millions of Americans compels strong presidential action to assist consumers and strengthen the economy,” the speaker says in her letter to the president.

The two parties are locked in a bitter fight over high gas prices, and congressional leaders have only taken a few superficial steps to reach across the aisle in search of a remedy.

With that in mind, Pelosi’s missive is hardly an olive branch; rather, the speaker points out that the price of a barrel of crude oil has nearly quintupled since Bush took office, with a gallon of gasoline now selling for the average price of $4.11.

In her letter, Pelosi points out that Bush, his father and former President Bill Clinton all tapped into the strategic reserves at one point during their respective presidencies. George H.W. Bush did small test sales in 1990 and again in 1991 right before the initial Gulf war. Clinton released 30 million barrels from the reserves during his final year in the White House to help lower the costs of home heating oil. And Bush himself withdrew 11 million barrels (after offering to withdraw 30 million barrels) in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina damaged refineries and pipelines along the Gulf Coast.   (source: CBS News)

As painful as filling as today’s prices are I think the long term benefits will be real. Those that bought any vehicle regardless of mileage and thought nothing about driving many miles without consideration of the impact will now change their behavior.   Some will take gas costing $7+.

The current gas prices are doing things we could never accomplish before with cheap gas.  Use of mass transit is up, sales of gas sucking trucks & SUVs are way down and people are more mindful about the number of miles they drive on a daily basis.

With my scooter I got into the habit of combining trips and planning my route in advance so as to be able to take care of several errands per trip.  Things like stopping at the store on the way home rather than running back out again.  At the time that was more about saving time as the scooter averaged better than 85 MPG.  So now with the car I think ahead to what I can accomplish while I’m out with the goal being a savings of miles driven.

The Corolla is proving to be as thirsty as promised.  The sellers had filled the tank right before I bought it so I know my MPG for the last few weeks – just over 31 mpg in mostly city driving with the A/C on most of the time.   Next month I’m driving back to Oklahoma City to visit family and I hope to get at least 40mpg on that trip.

One member of congress is revisiting the fuel savings achieved by the old national 55mph speed limit.  Virginia Senator John Warner, a Republican,  is talking about real conservatism:

Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to look into what speed limit would provide optimum gasoline efficiency given current technology. He said he wants to know if the administration might support efforts in Congress to require a lower speed limit.

Congress in 1974 set a national 55 mph speed limit because of energy shortages caused by the Arab oil embargo. The speed limit was repealed in 1995 when crude oil dipped to $17 a barrel and gasoline cost $1.10 a gallon. (source: AP via CNN)

I think a lower speed limit would help save fuel and save people money.  Averaging 55 mph rather than 65 mph on my 500 mile drive to Oklahoma City will add over an hour to my travel time — just shy of a 20% increase. A real savings in fuel is worth a little of my time.But perhaps my car would do better at 60 mph?  Like Sammy Hagar, I can’t drive 55.  60 I can do.  70 is out of the question.

One of the new applications I’ve downloaded for my first generation iPhone is a mileage tracker.  It will be interesting tracking my mileage and fuel expenses.  It show the MPG on the last fill-up as well as an average.

I’m also finding other drivers frustrating.  I know that Jack Rabbit starts are good at wasting gas but so is taking forever to go when the light does turn green.  If that 6th car back misses the light and has to sit through another cycle they are just wasting gas.  Someday more cars will have to technology to shut off the engine at such stops but in the meantime we all need to pay attention and get through the lights. We don’t have to race to the next signal but we shouldn’t take forever either.  Getting the lights timed better would also help.

These gas prices are here to stay.  They are not high at all, just higher than what we’ve grown used to.   They will go higher too.  Interesting times ahead as the general public grapples with this new reality.

We Are Still A Beer Town

InBev upped the offer and A-B’s board said yes, that we know. For the moment at least this change of control of A-B won’t affect most of us in our daily lives.

I’ll admit that my heart sank a bit after reading the news this weekend.  I still miss names like Boatman’s Bank, Mercantile Bank and so on.  Times change.  Big & little guys get bought out every day.    The fact is the Busch family sold the brewery in 1980 when they took it public.

We will continue to produce beer just as they have for generations.  The big changes, if any, will be in the corporate tower.  The middle management types probably need to polish up their resumes.

In terms of the urban landscape around the brewery I don’t anticipate many changes in the short term.  In the long term I’d like to see some new 2-4 story structures line the outside edges of some of the surface parking lots.  Filled with restaurants at the sidewalk level the could serve employees during the week and become a walking destination for nearby residents in the evening.

Before I moved downtown I would use Broadway as my scooter route from my southside home to downtown.  I would enjoy passing the brewery — the aroma, the gargoyles, and the knowledge that a long standing tradition was continuing at that location.  Hopefully it will continue for many more generations.

I didn’t like the aroma at first.  I was 23 when I came to St Louis with a friend on our way to Washington DC.  That Saturday in August 1990 we arrived at her mother’s home on Lemp just North of Arsenal. The hops were strong that day.  A Sunday tour of St Louis convinced me to make this my new home despite that strong odor from the brewery.  In the nearly two decades since I’ve come to appreciate, and at times crave, that wonderful smell of hops.
We are a beer town.  Besides A-B we have some other great micro brewers.  I even know several people in town that home brew.   Beer is in our blood, its a part of who we are.  That can never be sold.

Forestry Dept Begins Long-Overdue Street Tree Maintenance on Washington Ave

A few days ago I did a post on the deferred maintenance along a stretch of Washington Ave (posted at 2:43pm on Wednesday). The main issue was the fact that nine out of 41 trees (over 20%) had been cut down and not replaced between 14th and 18th. Of course I had a picture of each and every stump to illustrate the point that maintenance was lacking on a street that underwent a massive (and costly) streetscape makeover just over five years ago.

Earlier today employees from the city’s Forestry Dept ground out one of the nine stumps. Eight remain. Still I was encouraged (and a bit surprised) to see the crew out doing this work on a Saturday morning. Perhaps today was just a test to see how long each might take? Also they’ll need to ban on-street parking in the remaining areas to get their equipment into place.

Above, getting the grinder into position required blocking the crosswalk for a few moments.

By 10:30am one offending stump was gone.

The crew cleaned up the mess and left. Hopefully this Fall we’ll see a newly planted tree in this spot and the eight others.

On a related note New York Magazine last year had an interesting article on the worth of street trees:

The standard formula says a dwelling with a tree in front is worth .88 percent more than a home without one.

That is $880 per $100K. The ability to clean the air, create shade and absorb water runoff is all part of the value. The loss of nine street trees in a distance of four blocks thus devalues the whole area.