Public Meeting Tonight on Redevelopment Proposals in Richmond Heights

The City of Richmond Heights is holding at meeting this evening to show proposals for a redevelopment area called Hadley Township. The meeting will be held at The Heights on Dale Avenue from 7pm to 9pm.

The site is just North of the big box mess on Hanley created by THF Realty. Four proposals for this area were submitted to Richmond Heights, including one by THF Realty.

I’ve downloaded all four proposals but haven’t had a chance to review them in detail. I plan to stop by the meeting tonight to see them in person.

At first glance we see lower income housing being marked for replacement while across the highway multi-million dollar mansions have little to fear. The more money you have the less likely you are to lose your home to redevelopment proposals.

Click here to see more information on the project including all four proposals.

– Steve

Preservation Board Has Full Agenda for January 2006

The January 23, 2006 meeting of St. Louis’ Preservation Board will be a long one with two appeals of staff denials, four National Register nominations and ten preliminary reviews. One project not on the list is St. Aloysius.

I’m glad St. Aloysius is not on the January agenda but it has me worried that Alderman Vollmer will go the legislative route to destroy the spectacular urban setting rather than face the Preservation Board again. In short, if the buildings don’t qualify under the city’s 1999 ordinance to be issued a demolition permit then we shouldn’t allow a sneaky back-room deal, rubber stamped by 27 other so-called legislators, to make it happen.

The January meeting should be interesting, diverse and very long…

Click here to see the agenda items.

– Steve

Parishioner & Resident Wants St. Aloysius Saved

I wanted to share with you a series of emails I have had with a resident near St. Aloysius. This person asked me keep their identity private.

Here is the first email I received from this resident two days ago:

Thank you for your efforts towards saving the buildings at St. Aloysius.
Our family is for the preservation of the entire block.

I was baptized at St. Al’s, attended and graduated from the school. My sister was married there. My parents were married in the “bowling alley” underneath the Gym, while the church was being built, It served as the church for a few years and if you look closely you can see remnants of the windows and where the alter was situated.

We are now residents of the Hill and belong to St. Ambrose Parish. We have not heard anyone say they would like a housing developement on the spot. It sounds political to us.

Thank you again!

I wrote back asking this person to “speak up” — that the alderman, priest and developer needed to hear from people on this issue. Here was the response:

I would hate to have repercussions.
This is definitely the way I feel…….tell me I am not the only one. I feel it would be painful to see buildings torn down!

I can hear this person’s pain. They feel like they might secretly be the only one that wants to save the building, afraid to speak out. I tried to reassure this person they were not the only one from the neighborhood that felt the same way. Here was the last thing I received:

I do not think that any of the three you mentioned in your first email [alderman, priest & developer] care about how the parisioners feel (We were never asked) I believe that they are own their own mission!

A little more bold than the last email. This time they consented to let me quote what they wrote anonymously. I’ve deleted only a few bits that might have identified who this person is. This is far from the only such email I’ve received on my efforts to save these buildings. I think many felt strongly about saving the buildings but didn’t want to speak up or didn’t know how to go about having an impact. Myself and others have got the ball rolling, we’ll see if they finish the job.

– Steve

Vollmer Prepares Bill To Blight St. Aloysius

Alderman Vollmer’s latest bill is BB368, a measure to blight the city block known for the last century as St. Aloysius, and provide for 10-year tax abatement on the new development.

It looks from the wording that the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) will hear the plan at their next public meeting on Tuesday January 24, 2006 at 3pm (more info).

For those of you following along at home here are all the dates that I know of at this time where the public, especially neighborhood residents, can share their views:

Note: don’t be confused by the dates on the SWGNA website, those are meeting dates for 2004 — not 2006.

– Steve

No Public Meetings In The Next Month?

As my parents are getting ready for us to drive first to my niece’s house, and then to one of my brothers’ house, for Christmas I thought I’d get a little stuff done. First on my list is to look into the upcoming Planning Commission meeting.

I’ve attended Planning Commission meetings before but I typically don’t track them as closely as I do the Preservation Board. That is about to change. The first step is finding out the meeting date, time and location.

I went to the city’s Public Meetings & Notices page and got what you see at right.

“There are no public meetings listed at this time.”

I used the “in the past 12 months” tab to determine the Planning Commission meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30pm (1015 Locust, 12th Floor Board Room). This makes the next meeting of the Planning Commission on January 4th, 2006.

Other meetings likely occurring in the next 30 days, but not listed, are the St. Louis Development Corporation, Tax Increment Financing and Land Reutilization Authority. For those of us that don’t subscribe to the paper that publishes printed notices, the city’s website is our only means of public notice. Most likely this is a first of the year software issue, not a lack of actual meetings.

What does it say about our city’s website that the very site designed to tell us about meetings 31 days in advance has failed to actually do so. Is anyone actually checking their work or responsible for making improvements? This was the same problem last year.

I did a post on December 5, 2004 about this site. From what I can tell, nothing has changed in over a year. Most of the public notices listed don’t give you enough information to know what they are talking about. Many don’t have agendas. The ones that do have agendas, like the Planning Commission, often reference obscure information like city blocks and proposed project names so unless you are part of the inner circle you won’t know what it is about.

We need people to be involved in this city, at all levels. If we are going to get to that point we will need our elected and appointed officials to make information available to the public. Together we can work wonders for this city.

– Steve