Poll: Would You Support A 3/16¢ Parks/Arch Sales Tax Increase

In November voters in St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County may be asked to approve a 3/16¢ sales tax increase:

An obscure bill moving through the Legislature includes a provision that would allow residents to vote — possibly in November — on raising sales taxes in St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County by three-sixteenths of a cent (0.1875) for the Arch project and other area parks. (STLtoday.com)

The CityArchRiver group and Civic Progress say the sales tax revenue is needed to pay off bonds to complete planned improvements to better connect the Arch to the city. Much of the money would fund parks in each taxing jurisdiction:

Susan Trautman with the Greenway District says only 30 percent of the tax would go to the Archgrounds. The rest would go towards improving local and regional parks and trails.

[snip]

The tax increase would only last 20 years and collect enough money to pay for a $120 million bond issue to help pay for the project. (KMOV)

Voters in Illinois may also be asked to support a small tax increase as well. This is the subject for the poll this week — the poll is located in the right sidebar.

– Steve Patterson

River City Casino Has Surprisingly Good Pedestrian Access Route

River City Casino, located in south St. Louis County, opened for business two years ago yesterday. I’d visited the site in 2010 shortly after it opened but last week I visited again — this time as a pedestrian. I knew from my prior visit in my car they’d done a good job with sidewalks but I wanted to experience it first hand.

The #40 Broadway MetroBus I took ends at the Catalan Loop in far south St. Louis. According to Google Maps, the walk to the casino from the transit center is one mile. Many places I seek to visit using my power chair can’t manage to connect just 50 feet to the door so I was still a bit skeptical.

Overall I was highly impressed by what could have been a pedestrian’s nightmare, like Loughborough Commons. Good pedestrian circulation, just like vehicular circulation, doesn’t happen by accident. Someone made pedestrian access a high priority. Perhaps River City’s owner, Pinnacle Entertainment, was sued because of poor ADA access at another location? Or the professional design firm(s) included it as a design priority? Or St. Louis County required River City to plan for pedestrians in addition to cars? However it came to be, this shows good pedestrian access is possible when planned in advance. You can view an aerial image here.

Hopefully the pedestrian network will serve them well as they expand this year:

Construction works are scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2012 with an expected completion in the second half of 2013. The new expansion at the Missouri casino will add a 200-room hotel, a 10,000 square-foot multi-purpose event center and a covered parking structure with capacity for approximately 1,700 vehicles. Additionally, the $82 million project will create nearly 100 permanent jobs and 350 construction-related jobs. (Source)

I’ll return next year after the new work is completed to see if hotel guests can walk to/from the casino via sidewalks.

– Steve Patterson

THF Big Box vs. Planned Creve Coeur Downtown

This story caught my eye back in July:

THF Realty, a major developer of Walmarts and other big-box stores, is sniffing around the Orchard Lakes subdivision just north of Creve Coeur and near busy Olive Boulevard and Interstate 270.

A company representative met with subdivision trustees on June 3 to discuss a potential buyout of the entire subdivision, according to a subsequent letter from the trustees to subdivision homeowners. (STLToday)

Not surprising since vacant highway-adjacent parcels no longer exist. The subdivision of 256 single family homes is adjacent to I-270, extending more than half the distance from Olive to Page.

THF Realty wants to make sure all those motorists driving on I-270 can see the generic big box development they are planning.

I knew where the subdivision was located but had never driven any of it’s streets, so last month I drove each street in the subdivision.

I grew up in a subdivision of similar vintage as Orchard Lakes. From a check of St. Louis County records these houses were built between 1961-66.   There is nothing particularly unique about the homes or the subdivision itself. With a few exceptions, all the homes looked well maintained. Many have newer windows and roofs.

Few sidewalks exist in this subdivision, it’s not at all urban. Not rural either, decidedly suburban. There is no orchard, probably never was.

There are lots of very nice mature trees though.

Orchard Lakes is in unincorporated St. Louis County – barely. Creve Coeur has annexed commercial property along Olive Blvd but they didn’t want the adjacent residential areas. For a while now Creve Coeur has been planning to remake Olive & Ballas into their downtown.

In April 2002, the City of Creve Coeur adopted the Comprehensive Plan. Together, with the Pedestrian Plan and Design Guidelines, these plans set a standard for protecting community assets and strength- ening community character. Among the numerous recommendations made in the Comprehensive Plan are several for the Central Business District. Specifically, the Comprehensive Plan recommends the creation of a downtown (or town center) in the vicinity of the Olive-New Ballas intersection. (Plan PDF)

Orchard Lakes is just north of their proposed downtown/central business district:

The strong real estate market in Creve Coeur is anticipated to continue to be a basis for strengthening residential areas while at the same time stimulating major reinvestment in aging or underutilized commercial areas.

Clearly Creve Coeur’s planners didn’t envision the surrounding residential getting replaced by high traffic big box. To a degree this is what Creve Coeur gets for incorporating only the commercial areas along Olive, but not the adjacent residential to the north. Will be interesting to see if either gets built.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: Should zoning laws allow kids to sell cookies, lemonade, etc in front of their homes?

The St. Louis region made the national news this month:

In Hazelwood, Mo., Carolyn Mills and her daughters, Abigail, 14, and Caitlin, 16, have sold Girl Scout cookies from their driveway for years. But after a neighbor complained that the cookie stand created too much traffic and was causing dogs to bark, city officials told the Millses that selling cookies there violated the city’s zoning code.

Hazelwood officials say scouts are allowed to sell cookies in the city but must go door to door or set up at a place like a grocery store parking lot (with the store’s permission). So while the front yard snack stand is one American tradition, the lawsuit is another. The girls urged the family to sue, and it did. (NY Times)

Other national coverage:

• Perez Hilton
• Huffington Post

But the lawsuit didn’t go far:

CLAYTON • A St. Louis County judge [Circuit Judge Maura McShane] has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the mother of two Hazelwood teens who were ordered last spring to stop selling Girl Scout cookies in front of their home.

In her dismissal, McShane wrote that the Mills first should have exhausted their appeals asking the city to reconsider barring cookie sales before taking the case to circuit court. (STLtoday.com)

This  recent history is to introduce the poll question this week: Should zoning laws allow kids to sell cookies, lemonade, etc in front of their homes? The poll is in the upper right corner of the blog. Results on Wednesday August 31st.

– Steve Patterson

Civic Space in Rock Hill Missouri

The Rock Hill Public Library is just down the street from the Rock Hill City Hall. Both are located in generic strip centers, with the library in the newer of the two.  One benefit is each is near food, the library has a pizza buffet next door while city hall is next to a chop suey place.

With the most important civic spaces in a municipality just a storefront among many it is no wonder they don’t care to save the historic 19th century church I posted about on Tuesday. How could I expect this community to value history, good design, or anything without a massive asphalt parking lot?

– Steve Patterson