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

We “Defer” To The Alderman To Know What Is Best

I just got off the phone with Alderman Fred Wessels, Chairman of the busy Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee (aka HUDZ). We were discussing a bill that will come before his committee next week on the Planned Unit Development on the site of the former St. Aloysius.

I commented how other aldermen just allow an alderman to do whatever they please. He rephrased it as “we defer” to the Alderman because they know their ward and neighborhood best.

This deferment practice, otherwise known as aldermanic courtesy, is destructive to the future of St. Louis. On paper is might sound good but what it really does is divide our city into 28 smaller villages. This is much like St. Louis county with all its municipalities competing with each other for a fixed tax base and no coordination to creating a unified development plan.

We need our legislative representatives to question, probe, and challenge each other in the interest of making sure development decisions are in the best interests of the city, not just that particular ward on that particular day.

By deferring to the wishes of a single alderman the other 27 aldermen are negligent in their duties to protect the interests of the constituents that elected them. I expect the legislative body of this city to look out for the city, not curtail to the wishes of one person.

We need elected officials that can look out for the interests of the city as a whole and at times that might mean not deferring to an alderman. They deferred to former Ald. Bauer when he removed the 24th Ward from the Preservation Review process and subsequently angered the residents they removed him from office and elected someone to reinstate the Preservation Review process in their ward. Had the aldermen not deferred to Bauer but instead told him, through not voting for the legislation, that the process was good and it protected the interests not just of the ward but adjacent wards in the city as a whole. But they didn’t.

In my view any alderman that votes to approve legislation that directly or indirectly leads to the unnecessary destruction of St. Aloysius would be just as guilty as Alderman Vollmer.

Wessels’ HUDZ Committee meets next at 10am on Wednesday January 18, 2006.

– Steve

Aldermanic Options for Razing St. Aloysius

My last post on St. Aloysius had to do with the notion of effectively spot zoning the one city block by removing only it from the City’s Preservation Review ordinance. A couple of others options exist for Alderman Vollmer to go around the appointed volunteer body that reviews demolition applications.

First is to pass an ordinance removing the 10th Ward or much of the ward from the Preservation Review ordinance. By doing so he avoids the look of favoritism for a single property owner, in this case a private developer from Wildwood. This could have dire consequences for the ward in the future.

When a building owner applies for a demolition permit the City’s Building Division checks to see if it falls within a historic district (local or national) or within a preservation review district. If so, it seeds the request over to the cultural resources office for review. The staff at Cultural Resources looks at the building in question as well as the criteria of the enabling ordinance to make a judgement call. This was done to give some oversight so that we don’t accidently erase buildings of value. They staff routinely approves demolition of buildings after reviewing the criteria. In the case of St. Aloysius, they approved two of the six structures on the site. The other four they sent to the Preservation Board for a decision. This is a valuable process for protecting our heritage.

Removing all or part of the 10th Ward from this process will mean buildings could be razed without any public input.

The other option Alderman Vollmer may seek is a Chapter 99 Development Plan. In short this is a process of blighting the property and passing an ordinance for the redevelopment. This is complicated and the public doesn’t generally follow along. Of course, the other 27 aldermen in the city will use “aldermanic courtesy” and approve the ordinance no matter how they or their constituents feel about the damaging affects it will have on the city as a whole. The city has a brief summary of the process which you can read here.

Finally check out the Suburban Journal today. The Southwest City Journal has an article by Shawn Clubb titled “Developer to appeal decision on St. Aloysius.” [Note, the Post-Dispatch and Suburban Journals do not offer permanent links to their articles so I cannot provide valid links to them as much as I’d like to.]

The alderman, developer and neighborhood executive director are claiming nobody objected to the proposal. I’m getting calls and emails from neighbors thanking me saying they either weren’t aware of what was going on or thought it was a done deal so why bother.

I seriously doubt any of them ever asked the neighborhood a balanced question like, “Would you rather see all the buildings razed and replaced with new single family homes or would you like to see the church, rectory and convent converted to condos with new single family homes on the west end of the site?”

– Steve

Belas Artes Latest Business in McKinley Heights

Many of you are probably familiar with the former Marty’s Baking at Russell and Mississippi in the near south side neighborhood of McKinley Heights. Like the various places before Marty’s, I felt it was too small of a space and not open enough to the sidewalk.

In place of the old Marty’s is the refreshing Belas Artes, a self-described “urban oasis.” For me it is a very pleasing and open storefront design, good beverages, an interesting lunch menu (warm Apple & Brie sandwich w/small house salad for $4.50!) and another place to sit with my Mac and work.

Of note is the new bike rack located out front. It is not my favorite design but it is certainly not the worst on the market. I appreciate the consideration for cyclists and wish more businesses would do the same.

For another take on Belas Artes check out the new healthy food blog for St. Louis called, the Curious Kitchen. The author, Lois Brady, is a close personal friend and believe me she knows healthy food. I was lucky enough to have some of her vegetarian Hoppin John last night.

Just up Mississippi from Belas Artes (@ Geyer) is another locally owned business, Four Muddy Paws. If you have a dog or cat forget about the big chain stores for your pet supplies or grooming. This store operates in another old corner storefront. Owners Matt & Jeff have done a great job with the color scheme on the exterior, the window displays and the merchandising. They are also carrying some really nifty pet journals, called My Furry Tales, written by another good friend.

Across Mississippi from Four Muddy Paws another mixed use building is being renovated. As places like Lafayette Square and Soulard become both fully occupied and higher in price we’ll begin to see other areas benefit from the interest in living an urban lifestyle. McKinley Heights is very convenient and just a short walk over I-44 to Lafayette Square.

While you are looking for a home in the neighborhood be sure to stop and support the local businesses that are making a difference.

– Steve

No Break for the Workers at the New Busch Stadium

At 2:30 A.M. on this first day of 2006 I drove past the construction site of the Cardinals’ new stadium. To my surprise the lights were on and workers were busy trying to meet the completion deadline for the home opener this Spring. Seems like they could have found a way to stop work and turn off the lights for one night?

Happy New Year!

– Steve