Urbanizing A 1980s Suburban Municipality Is A Lengthy Process

In April 2007 the St. Charles County municipality of Dardenne Prairie held a design charrette led by new urbanist firm DPZ, the goal was to plan a walkable town center.  Dardenne Prairie was incorporated in 1983 and they wanted a town center? Were they crazy? I attended several of the charrette events to observe the process.

Many of the residents attended came ready to oppose anything different than the standard suburbia typical of St. Charles County.

Over the few days I witnessed the local residents buy into the urban/walkable vision. Not urban as in high rise buildings but buildings defining the streets and connected via sidewalks. Urban as in not suburban. In 2009 the city hall was finished but I didn’t get out there until earlier this month.

When I arrived I briefly chatted with Mayor Pam Fogarty, but I’d arranged to meet my friend Alderman Scott Kolbe for a tour.  Dardenne Prairie has three wards with two aldermen per ward for a total of six. These municipal offices are non-partisan. Buildings near the road and on-street parking are all part of Dardenne Prairie’s new urbanist City Plan.

While city hall opened in 2009 the park opened in September 2011.

Kolbe tells me residents of the subdivision directly behind the park welcome the activity and encourage people to trespass through their yards to reach the park. I can imagine a paved path in the future. As I left city hall people were walking to city hall. If you connect the dots people will, at least on nice days, walk rather than drive.The sidewalk has to replace the roadside drainage ditch for that to happen. Down the street a senior housing development conforms to the new city plan, built up to the sidewalk with a pedestrian entrance facing the street.

It will be years before Dardenne Prairie has a complete walkable downtown but they are putting the right pieces in place to make sure each new private development contributes toward the long-term vision. – Steve Patterson

Update: Tuck-Under Garages On Delmar

In December 2010 I posted about standing water at an unfinished house at 4343 Delmar, the post included the following image.

Nearly a year later the problem remained.

And earlier this month I drove by on the 18th…the same.

So I was surprised a few days later when I drove by and saw city workers pumping out the water.

The house was started in 2008 but the city condemned the building on March 16th. City records list the owner as Brainchild Holdings LLC, a venture of Third Eye Investment and Development, Corp. and One Vision Homes, Inc. Three other matching buildings were finished, sold and are occupied.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: How Expensive Must Gas Get Before You Take Transit Instead of Drive?

The headlines are full of stories about rising gas prices & transit use:

Ridership on public transit, which is measured by number of trips taken, hit its highest level in the mid-1940s — roughly double today’s rate.

But with the widespread adoption of the automobile and America’s suburbanization in the 1950s, public transit use steadily declined until the early 1970s, when gas prices spiked following the Arab oil embargo. 2011’s ridership rate is the second highest since 1957. (CNN/Money)

The rate of transit use was double in the 1940s? Half the population used twice the transit of today!

The poll this week asks how expensive would gas have to get before you took transit. The poll is in the right sidebar, mobile users need to switch to the desktop theme to see the sidebar.

– Steve Patterson

LED Street Lighting Is Impressive

Thursday evening I was waiting for the #4 MetroBus at Natural Bridge and Newstead (map) when I looked up and noticed the streetlights were LEDs.

I don’t know anything about the fixtures themselves or when they were installed but I like the coloring of the light — not yellow like the one old fixture still in front of the Julia Davis Library. Apparently these are part of a test program.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqm9wfX1wjc

Per the above story a “fixture and bulb for LED lighting can cost more than $600 or five times as much as the city spend on a street light right now” but potentially cut our electric bill in half.

– Steve Patterson

Charless Home To Close, Future Uncertain

A longtime St. Louis institution won’t reach its 160th anniversary:

The Charless Home, which opened in 1853 as the “Home of the Friendless,” will soon be the home of no one.

Bethesda Health Group, which bought the facility in 2006, said Monday [3/19/2012] it will close the home by June 30. Low occupancy and financial losses are the culprits, said Ken Bass, Bethesda’s senior vice president of senior living. (STLtoday.com)

If you’ve been a longtime reader here you might recall my post from June 6, 2006:

Despite the spin in the Post-Dispatch back in April the Charless Home, founded in 1853, is not “merging” with or being “acquired” by Bethesda Health Group. The folks I talked to tell me Charless’ Board is essentially paying Bethesda to take the south side landmark. The Charless Home has prime real estate at I-55 and South Broadway (map) yet the board has voted to give the real estate and millions of dollars to Bethesda in exchange for… well, nothing.

The board, comprised mainly of Clayton & Ladue socialites, is making a huge mistake. I’m told the Charless Home has nearly $17 million in the bank, hardly a distressed non-profit. A few board members voted against giving Charless to Bethesda and instead suggested they take on medicaid patients and consider constructing independent living housing on their grounds. (Full post)

Monday’s article says “ownership will revert to the non-profit Charless Foundation.” The Foundation does have active registration with the Secretary of State (view) but it’s unclear what will become of the property. The property, located in the 9th ward, is in a “preservation review” area so any proposed demolition would be reviewed by the Cultural Resources Office.

I sent an inquiry to the official board contact and received a reply indicating committees have been set up to gather information to help them asses their options.

– Steve Patterson