Where Is Our New Zoning Code?

Over a year ago St. Louis adopted a much heralded new Strategic Land Use Plan that was going to pave the way for future development in the City of St. Louis. It does a great job of organizing the city into various areas and giving brief descriptions setting out a vision for each. However, our 1947-era zoning codes are still the law. These codes give us the suburban model as standard practice and require special efforts to build what we should be building.

St. Louis is hot right now. We’ve got buildings being renovated all over the city and new construction is popping up in many neighborhoods. If things go well we will continue over the next 5-10 years to see more and more new construction.

But what will this new construction look like?

Will it be the suburban model of generic building surrounded by parking lots or will it be the type of sensitive scale mixed use buildings that we are seeing in areas like Lafayette Square? Lafayette Square, you will note, doesn’t rely solely on the zoning code because they have their own historic district standards which mandate urban design. They have no worries about a drive-thru lane.

But what about the rest of the city?

We were quite dense and urban at one point in our history. Those of us that consider ourselves urbanists want — no demand — that we put ourselves on a course to become much more urban in the near future. The Slay administration is doing so only in small doses — mostly downtown.

Sorry Francis, that just isn’t enough.

Get the zoning code updated — NOW!

– Steve

PS added @ 8:30am. The new code should be form based zoning.

The McDonald’s Saga Continues

This morning’s hearing on the proposed McDonald’s at 3708 S. Grand was interesting to say the least. On one side we had folks from Pyramid, a McDonald’s rep, the McDonald’s franchise owner and Alderman Jennifer Florida. On the other side you me, a number of nearby residents and Alderman Craig Schmid.

Here is a brief summary:

The part after the meeting was better than the meeting. I watched as residents had words with Ald. Florida (I always like a free show). Myself and others opposing the project are getting organized for the bigger fight on remaining hearings on the project. Look for the campaign to kick off in the near future!

Earlier today I was finally able to get a copy of the site plan for the project. OMG, It is worse than I had expected.

The plan is also interesting in what it does not include. The “F” Neighborhood Commercial District requires a number of things before permitting a conditional use when adjacent to a residential district. One item is:

f. Parking areas shall be screened at all property line with a 10-foot landscaped strip contiguous with or directly across an alley or public or private easement, other than a public street, from any existing residential use or dwelling district. Parking area screens shall consist of a minimum 2-foot high berm and a masonry or wood barrier that is at least 70 percent opaque and not less than 6 feet in height and shall be maintained in good order.

In this case they show 15 parking spaces along the eastern edge of the site which is across an alley from a residential district. But the plan conveniently omits the required 10-foot landscaped strip along the alley. Out front we’ve got another issue:

g. A landscape strip not less than 3 feet in width shall be provided along all public streets and shall contain 2-foot high solid landscaping or a masonry wall not less than 2 feet in height except that these elements shall not be required in approved driveways. Street trees shall be installed in the tree lawn, between the public sidewalk and public street, when the tree lawn has sufficient width, or street trees with gates shall be installed in public sidewalks where the sidewalk has sufficient width and is on an earth base with a minimum of 25 feet between trees not including driveways. A minimum of 15% of the lot area shall be landscaped, including screening areas.

Looks like they might have 3 feet of landscaping at one point out front but barely. No landscaping is indicated on the drawings other than to indicate a few areas as landscaped. Lots of asphalt though!

The building occupies only 10% of the total site. 10%!!! Sorry, you can’t get any more suburban than that!

Ald. Florida said the project was “pedestrian-friendly” yet I see no evidence of such. At no point is a sidewalk provided for pedestrians to walk from the public sidewalk to the entrance of the establishment. If you are coming from the neighborhood to the east your only means of entering the site is through the 30-foot wide in/out drive and then walking through the drive area to the front corner of the building. If you are on Grand and wish to enter the restaurant you have the same situation, you must enter the site through the automobile entrance & exit areas. And if you are in a wheelchair you must wheel about 85 feet as if you are heading toward the drive-thru lane before you get to the one ADA ramp. Yeah right, pedestrian friendly my…

No bicycle parking is indicated either. From the looks of things this does not appear to be any different than a McDonald’s they’d build along a suburban highway exit ramp.

Once I get the document in PDF format I’ll do another post so everyone can see for themselves.

Locust St. Now Two-Way West of 14th!

What a difference! Today I drove the full length of Locust Street from 14th west to Teresa (just shy of Grand). For the first time since I’ve lived in St. Louis, I was able to drive eastbound on Locust. It was like a totally different street!

Heading westbound from downtown you see new markings on the street when you are approaching 14th Street behind the library. The right lane becomes a right-turn only lane while the left lane is forward or a left turn. Ahead you can see temporary two-way signs that will likely stay around until people have adjusted to the change.

Driving down the street I noticed myself not wanting to drive as fast. With only a single lane in my direction and cars coming the other way in their lane it just didn’t seem like a high-speed escape route anymore. I knew if would feel different but it was more profound than I had anticipated.

… Continue Reading

Proposed McDonald’s, A Story of Aldermanic Deception & Suburban Design

Alderman Florida flat out lied. Not an omission of a few details. No sir, a bold faced lie.

I sat next to Alderman Florida on Monday as the proposed McDonald’s at 3708 S. Grand was discussed before the Commercial District Committee of the Dutchtown South Community Corporation. She claimed to not have any graphics to show the group of the proposal, instead she showed site plans for the nearby Southside National Bank project. Yet, in her possession was a site plan for the McDonald’s project. When questioned on the subject she claimed the site plan she had was not the final plan. Digging a deeper hole she said a current site plan did not exist, that nothing had been submitted. We were puzzled at the idea of a public hearing on the zoning of a drive-thru could be held without a site plan. The truth is it can’t.

Florida also tried to play dumb on the details of the proposal, claiming she didn’t know if they were using the full site or not.

Alderman Florida briefly unfolded the site plan and I was able to get a good look at it. The plan uses the full 40,000sf site (approximately 200ft x 200ft), includes new curb cuts on Grand and Winnebego, lots of parking and a drive through. As is typical with these fast food places, the building is set back from both streets with drive lanes between the public sidewalk and building. On the Winnebego side parking, a drive and the drive-thru separate pedestrians from the building.

Florida described the McDonald’s as an “urban-style” building. Let’s see, we have a large site where roughly 5% of the land will be covered in building with the remaining 95% in asphalt. Plus the building is set back from the sidewalk and is only one-story in height. I’m just not seeing anything to make this urban. Oh yes, I forgot, it has red brick. So taking the standard formula painted concrete block McDonald’s and put some red brick on the place and all of a sudden it is urban? Sorry, I don’t think so.

Damn, I hate being lied to.

Right to my face no less!
… Continue Reading

Political Reform Needed in City of St. Louis

A year ago I was in the middle of a race to become alderman for the 25th Ward. As we gear up for elections this year it has caused me to think about the current state of local elective politics. Two things need to change to make the system more open and truly representative.

First, we need to drop the partisan elections at the local level. The current system of having Democrats and Republican’s means little at the local level. The partisan system helps keep the entrenched in their places and does nothing to improve the quality of the elected officials. Besides, local Democrats have no philosophical relationship with state or national Democrats.

The next issue is money. Lots of it.

How is it that an Alderman can take his treasury from an aldermanic account and use it to run for License Collector? I think some of our elected officials worry too much about the cash and not enough on what we need to move forward.

I propose this for local elections — limit campaign contributions to the annual compensation of the job sought. If the job pays $32K a year that is the maximum for any contested election cycle. No more of this amassing over $100K in campaigns for aldermanic races. What does the mayor make? $150K or so? Fine, that would be the ceiling on campaign contributions for mayoral candidates every four years.

And no moving money around from one campaign to another. If people donated to an aldermanic candidate then that is what that money is for, not for financing a bigger and better race later.

And while we are at it I think the campaign treasuries should go back to zero the day after the election. If a winning-candidate has $5,000 left after the race then it needs to go to a non-profit or to the city’s general revenues. That puts them back at zero. This might seem counter-productive to get them to not chase local Abramhoff’s but hear me out. If a strong candidate for alderman is either unchallenged or only marginally challenged then they have little incentive to build up to their $32K limit knowing they’d have to give it away (not back). This would hopefully level the playing field.

Without the old guard Democratic machine to keep newcomers out and a limit on simply buying into the race by intimidating potential opponents with your bank balance we have a chance to evaluate candidates on crazy criteria like performance and vision.

– Steve