Ald. Florida & Co Submit Revised Site Pan for McDonald’s

As expected, the beleaguered team of McDonald’s, Pyramid Companies and unofficial spokeswoman Ald. Jennifer Florida submitted a revised site plan for the controversial McDonald’s proposed for the old Sears location at 3708 S. Grand. Last month when Ald. Florida told the Board of Adjustment they’d return with a design following Toronto’s excellent urban design guidelines for drive-thrus I was quite skeptical. Based on the new plan, I was right.

They’ve made a few simple changes — mostly good but still a long way from even approaching anything like what is suggested by Toronto’s standards. First, they have reduced the amount of extra paving which permits a planter area along the Southern property line. Similarly, they’ve created a 20ft+ landscape buffer at the alley with plantings and a 6ft high solid wood fence. Curb cuts on Grand have been reduced from 30ft wide each to 26ft wide. The main thing they’ve done is reduce the drive between the building and public sidewalk — this allowed them to move the building closer to Grand. Again, a good baby step but far from urban.

While the building is nearly abutted to Grand it is set back from Winnebego. To be truly an urban form it should conform to the corner. Three curb cuts is one too many. Lighting is from four poles and may potentially create excess light outside the property boundaries. I’d rather see more smaller lights so as to illuminate the parking area but not all the neighbors. All of the neighbor’s valid concerns about noise, pollution, trash and traffic remain unchanged.

If McDonald’s wishes to continue operating in this area they simply need to rebuild on their current location and not inflict their ill on a new set of adjacent homeowners.

– Steve

Patterson & Florida Duke it out in St. Louis Magazine

If you haven’t seen the June 2006 of St. Louis Magazine be sure to find a copy. They did a short piece on the McDonald’s issue going through various issues with a point-counterpoint format with quotes from myself and Ald. Jennifer Florida. In “Round Five: The Opponent” here is what Ald. Jennifer Florida has to say about me:

“He’s a minister of disinformation. A zealot, the take-no-prisoners no compromise type.”

I consulted the Merriam-Webster Dictionary for the term ‘disinformation’ and here is what I found.

Function: noun
: false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth

If I am a “minister of disinformation” I’m doing a lousy job. All those Sunshine Law requests for documents and audio recordings does not look good on the resume of a MoD. Then, to top if off, actually publishing the letters, statements and actual audio to allow people to review the facts themselves. Not to mention publishing a well-read website with my name appearing prominently, not exactly covert. What was I thinking?

Ald. Florida, on the other hand, seems to be making an outstanding run for MoD. For example, deliberately telling Gravois Park they’d not be getting the McDonald’s in their neighborhood while working behind the scenes to do just that. That my friends is disinformation done right (well, wrong… you get the point).

Now ‘zealot’ is a different issue. Typically you see the word religious as a preface and we mostly acknowledge zealot as a derogatory term. I’m quite certain Ald. Florida did not intend to offer a compliment by labeling me a zealot.

Again, from Merriam-Webster:

Zealot:

2 : a zealous person; especially : a fanatical partisan

Zealous:

: filled with or characterized by zeal (zealous missionaries)

Zeal:

: eagerness and ardent interest in pursuit of something :

Ardent:

: characterized by warmth of feeling typically expressed in eager zealous support or activity. synonym: see impassioned.

Impassioned:

implies warmth and intensity without violence and suggests fluent verbal expression (an impassioned plea for justice)

You know, I kinda like the progression above. Perhaps zealot isn’t so bad? An urban zealot, arden urbanist, or impassioned urbanist. What I am about is pretty clear in over 600 postings on this site. Few, if any, agree with me 100% — that is to be expected from thinking individuals. But I have to ask what is it that Ald, Florida is about? What is she impassioned about?

But I am supposedly the “take-no-prisonors no compromise type” of zealot. So my pursuit of this issue is an indication of being excessively ardent. I suppose if I were in Ald. Florida’s awkward position I might agree. From day one people have said the McDonald’s should not be relocated and she has continually said that is not an option — that it will indeed happen and she is just trying to make the best deal. If anyone in all of this is excessive in their position it would be Ald. Florida. She is refusing to even entertain the notion of looking at rebuilding the McDonald’s on its current site. Through many postings here I have continued to illustrate various viewpoints, explain the logic behind them and show viable alternates. To a degree I think Ald. Florida could be willing to seek a compromise but politically she doesn’t want to appear weak. She may well be getting bad advise from higher ups that view her as expendable — better for her to take the fall than themselves.

I do want to end with one more quote from St. Louis Magazine (you’ll need to get a copy to read the rest). From Ald. Jennifer Florida as quoted in St. Louis Magazine:

“This strip has been commercial for 30 years, and, looking at it, it’s all messed up anyway.”

Finally something out of the mouth of Jennifer Florida that I can think is her genuine feeling, “it’s all messed up anyway.”

– Steve

Preservation Board Agenda Raises Legal Question

Seldom does the presence of an item on an agenda raise a question of legality but that is exactly the case with 3524 Victor. In March the owner appealed a staff denial to allow him to keep windows he installed, without a building permit, as these windows did not conform with the historic standards for the area. That is pretty much the process: staff denial followed by Preservation Board denial. Next step in the case of historic districts is to appeal to the planning commission.

But the item appeared once again in April. Apparently the Alderman, Stephen Conway, asked the board to reconsider. Gee, I guess those silly little ordinances don’t apply in the 8th Ward. In April some on the Preservation Board didn’t even want to discuss or vote on the issue as it seemed beyond them in where it should be in the process. I agreed. But, they voted once again to uphold the staff denial. The property owner, however, was not present at the meeting in April. For those keeping score, we’ve got one original staff denial and two board denials.

Is the third time a charm?

The enabling ordinances for the Cultural Resources Office and the Preservation Board are pretty clear when it comes to appeals. In some cases they go to the planning commission and in other cases directly to court. The staff and counsel, by placing this item on an agenda once again, are making a mockery of the system and setting a precedent where alderman can simply keep asking to have an item placed on the agenda month after month until they get the answer they are seeking.

Even more troubling is the Washington University Medical Center plan to raze now 32 houses they own in the Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood. For more information on this aspect please check out The Ecology of Absence as they’ve done a great job following these buildings.

– Steve

School Board to Vote On Cleveland Tuesday

I’ve been told, by a credible source, that the St. Louis School Board will vote on a proposal from Superintendent Williams to “get the students out of Cleveland High School.” Many from the local community, including Alderwoman Dorothy Kirner, had asked the school system to keep Cleveland open until more detailed assessments of the condition and cost of repairs could be made.

The meeting is apparently set for this coming Tuesday, May 23, 2006 at 5pm at HQ on 11th. Two board members, Flint Fowler & Bill Purdy, that were expected to vote to delay any action will apparently be unable to attend.

I can accept that Cleveland may not stay open as a school but it seems like the action is being made hastily (like so many decisions). I can’t help but wonder if we are not getting the full story.

– Steve

Urban Alternatives For South Grand

One of the common arguments used by those trying to push a bad plan through the system is to ask, as Ald. Gregali did, “Has anyone come up with a better plan?” This statement is so infuriating as it implies if private citizens don’t go out and design alternatives they should not have a say in their immediate surroundings.

Myself and others have repeatedly said the senior housing should go on the old Sears site and the McDonald’s should rebuild on their current site. But talk is talk and as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, I’ve got the next best thing — drawings.

Let’s look at one at a time…

Former Sears Site @ Grand & Winnebego:

Click here to view PDF of alternate Senior Housing & Street-Level Retail

3-Story building includes 56 apartments and 11,000sf of retail/restaurant space.

Has 60 parking spaces to be shared with the housing and retail. I’m told that senior housing projects often have a less than 1:1 parking ratio.

A slight revision is being prepared that would have the parking accessed from the alley which would eliminate the curb cuts on Winnebego and therefore keeping the on-street parking intact.

This site is actually larger than the current McDonald’s site and we were only able to get in 56 units (vs 87). As we’ve not seen a site plan for the proposed senior housing at the current McDonald’s I can only speculate. One would be they were proposing considerably smaller units and/or they were expanding the site to the West.

The former Sears store that was razed in the late 90’s was three stories in height so it is fitting that we put back a 3-story structure so the street has the massing it once enjoyed.

In case you forgot, here is McDonald’s proposal for this site.

Current McDonald’s @ Grand & Chippewa:

Click here to view PDF of alternate McDonald’s at current location.

Grand is narrowed by 10ft, closer to its original width. I’d hear this was planned for the senior housing project as everyone considers Grand to be excessively wide at this point. I’d even go along with the city helping with the infrastructure costs to narrow the street back to the way it was before the wide right turn lane was added.

Current standard McDonald’s prototype is placed at corner of Grand & Chippewa and room is provided for additional street-level retail facing Grand. By using McDonald’s standard model we’ve retained their internal layout and service windows so as not to disrupt their efficient work flow.

On-street parking is assumed along Grand. A section of curb may need to “bulb” out to provide a sufficient bus stop in this area. Ditto for Chippewa.

A retaining wall would be required along the West edge of the property to make up for a roughly 8-10ft drop in elevation. The retaining wall need not be this high as the parking lot could have a slope to the West. Required ADA parking is provided on the flat section near Grand.

The current McDonald’s has a single curb cut along each Grand & Chippewa as does this proposed concept.

These alternative plans for the two sites in question provide the housing, retail and McDonald’s in a much more urban fashion that I believe everyone could accept. The urban form being present on both sides of the street can serve as a basis for a new urban zoning overlay for the entire blighted area (1 mile from Utah to Meramec, 61 acres) that would help guide future development.

– Steve