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Fall Rehabber’s Club Classes Begin This Week

September 24, 2007 Events/Meetings, Midtown, SLU 5 Comments

The first class looks really interesting:

Fall 2007 Rehabbers Club classes begin on Wednesday, September 26 from 7-8:30 p.m. in Saint Louis University’s Humanities Building, 3800 Lindell Blvd., Room TBA! Tentatively, we will have separate classes on:

Sept. 26: Acquiring, Planning and Designing Your Rehab Project Confirmed speakers are: Dustin Bopp, architect, and Steve Patterson, REALTOR®

Future class dates and topics with speakers TBA:

  • Oct. 3: Ask a Lender: Choosing the Right Financing for You
  • Oct. 10: Historic Tax Credits: What Are They & How To Get Them
  • Oct. 17: Rehabbing a Live / Work Space & Green Rehabbing
  • Oct. 24: Ask a Lawyer, Ask an Accountant
  • Oct. 31: No class on Halloween
  • Nov. 7: Focus on City Neighborhood Revitalization with Rollin Stanley, Director of St. Louis’ Planning & Urban Design Agency
  • Nov. 14: Rehabbing a Property in a Redevelopment Area: What Does This Mean? (This class will also address the ins and outs of TIF, tax abatement and eminent domain.)
  • Nov. 21, No class, the day before Thanksgiving
  • Nov. 28: Working with Contractors
  • Dec. 5: Working with the City: permits, building inspections, occupancy inspections, local historic districts, LRA
  • Dec. 12: Panel of Experienced Developers

$10 per class, $90 for ten class series or $180 for twenty class series (Fall 2007 and Spring 2008)!

Parking: Onstreet, metered parking is available along Lindell. You may also park in the garage behind the Moolah Theatre and Lounge which is across Lindell Blvd from the SLU Humanities Building. The charge is $1 per hour for garage parking. However, you can park in the garage for your class and then go over the the Moolah after class to get a free parking ticket with the purchase of something at the bar or concession stand.

You may pre-register by mailing your check to our post office box: ReVitalize St. Louis, P.O. Box 63062, St. Louis, MO 63163 We will accept checks and cash at the door; sorry no credit cards. All donations are tax deductible since ReVitalize St. Louis is a 501c3 non-profit organization. More details will be posted on the Rehabbers Club website and listserve this week. Thank you for participating in the Rehabbers Club and ReVitalize St. Louis! Claralyn Bollinger Treasurer, ReVitalize St. Louis Rehabbers Club Czarina/Owner/Moderator c: 314.604.1570

I should add that bicycle parking is plentiful at the Humanities Building. However, despite having a Lindell address the building entrance faces south. The bike racks are near the building entrance. Signs will indicate where to find the class.

This will be my third time giving this class which includes many design do’s & don’ts such as a drop-in stainless sink with granite countertops (that would be a don’t). We’ll also cover bigger issues such as searching for the right property to meet your needs and managing the design process. For those that don’t know, most of my experience is in residential design. For example, at right is a kitchen I designed as part of a complete home make over in Frontenac while employed at Kirkwood’s Mosby Building Arts (you may know Scott Mosby as KMOX’s Home Improvement guru).

Co-presenting this first class is Dustin Bopp, AIA, is a personal friend of mine and an Architect with many years of experience in mixed-use design as well as historic tax credit projects. He will help shed light on how to work with an architect as well as some of the design issues faced around rehabbing old historic buildings. Bopp is a Project Director with TR,i Architects and is on the Board of Directors of the St. Louis Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

I look forward to seeing you Wednesday evening!

 

Loughborough Commons Community Improvement District Meeting Today, 3pm.

lc_cid92007.jpgThe Board of Directors of the Loughborough Commons Community Improvement District are meeting later today at the downtown law firm of Greensfelder, Hemker and Gale, P.C.  This ‘CID’ was set up to use some of the tax revenues collected at Loughorough Commons to fund improvements.  It is a quasi governmental entity and therefore subject to open meetings laws.

At right is the public notice found today at City Hall, click to view PDF copy.

 

St. Louis to Participate in National Park(ing) Day on Friday September 21, 2007

The City of Saint Louis is joining numerous other cities this year in promoting the National Land Trust’s “National Park(ing) Day 2007.” I received the following statement from St. Louis’ Director of Planning & Urban Design, Rollin Stanley:

National parking day is being celebrated in cities around the world including 23 in the U.S. Groups are invited to “adopt” a parking space on Chestnut Street just north of City Hall, between Tucker and 15th Street (to 17th if needed), or contact your local business association to participate along a commercial street. This event “greens” street parking spaces. Your group can simply lay tarp, sod, provide some potted trees and a park bench, or be more creative.

A sod lounger perhaps. A small water element. Be creative. Bring your “green” materials onto Chestnut Street and select a parking space. Feed the meter just as you would if you were parking your car. Then prepare your space for the day or part of the day. When you are finished, pack up your materials and leave the space as you found it.

If you have questions, please contact Rollin Stanley at the City of St. Louis Planning & Urban Design Agency at 259-3426.

Mr. Stanley indicates they’ve had a good response including, “some artists; a college group; local architects.” Stanley asks that efforts not start until after 8:30am as building inspectors are parked there before then. Unfortunately Mr. Stanley will not be present on Friday as he will be speaking at an event in New Orleans.

OK, I’ve done my civic duty to help spread the word about this potentially good event. However, the intent behind the effort is to create park space where it is needed. So St. Louis’ choice of Chestnut — bordered on both sides by park space — seems foolish at best. Furthermore, most of Chestnut at this area is angled parking which may look a bit odd and potentially hidden between two larger vehicles. You’d think they would have picked something more logical — a street surrounded by buildings on both sides — like Washington Ave for example.

For more information check out a video from the 2006 event in San Francisco as well as http://www.parkingday.org. I’d like to see more of these “parks” spring up throughout the city although it may be a challenge to get something organized this late. Maybe something along Euclid? South Grand? St. Louis Avenue next to Crown Candy? Cherokee? Washington Avenue in front of Copia?

Maybe next year. Artists and gardeners, mark your calendars for September 2008.

UPDATE 9/19/2007 @ 2:35pm:

I just checked the website of the Downtown St. Louis Partnership and I found no mention of this event at all.  Their calendar of events lists a music event on Thursday at Union Station as well as the Taste of St. Louis this weekend but nothing about this or the meeting on MetroLink Thursday afternoon.   The City’s own Calendar of Events fails to mention this as well, although it does include the meetings on MetroLink and the Taste of St. Louis as well as the concert at Union Station. The city’s press release website also doesn’t show any announcement of this event — I went back as far as May 1st looking for a call for participants or an announcement of the event but found nothing.  Ditto for Mayor Slay’s campaign site — the place where much information that should be announced through the city’s own press release system ends up.

 

Final Public Open Houses for MetroLink North & South Routes

Earlier today was the first of three open houses regarding routes for the future expansion of our MetroLink light rail system. That meeting was held at the Fifth Missionary Baptist Church on Natural Bridge. Additional open houses will be held on Wednesday & Thursday. From the notice:

We need your opinion! Come to one of the final public open houses in September on expanding MetroLink in the City of St. Louis. You will be able to review the evaluation results of the different routes being considered and tell us what you think.
The same information will be presented at each meeting.

Southside
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Meramec Elementary School • Gymnasium
2745 Meramec Street • St. Louis, MO 63118
Presentations at 5:30 & 6:30 p.m.

Downtown
Thursday, September 20, 2007
3:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Regional Collaboration Center • 12th Floor
One Metropolitan Square • St. Louis, MO 63102
Presentation at 4:00 & 5:00 p.m.

This is the final round of public meetings on the current study. Keep in mind, there is no funding source to actually build anything. For more information see www.northsouthstudy.org

 

City Needs To Follow Ordinance Regarding Posting of Signs on Trees

The ordinance regarding the respect for street trees is pretty clear:

22.48.100 Attaching items to trees.

No person shall attach or place any rope, wire, sign, poster, handbill or other thing on any tree or shrub now or hereafter growing in any street or public highway of the city, nor on any guard or protection of such tree or shrub. (Ord. 49772 § 2 (36), 1960: 1960 C. § 242.060.)

Yet I see violations all the time — from the city itself!

IMG_2814.JPG

The above would be a public street tree with a public notice stapled to it.

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Getting in closer we see it is a notice about a zoning conditional use hearing — for Larry Rice’s “Alternative Energy Center.” I’ll write more about this situation prior to Thursday so I don’t want comments to be about Rice and all that associated baggage.

IMG_2815.JPG copy

No, this is about street trees and making sure they are properly cared for. It is clear from this and many others that the city doesn’t respect its own trees. I presume someone posting about a garage sale could be cited for such an offense so why shouldn’t the offending city department?

The fine for removing the sign is $500 but what is the fine for posting the sign on a tree?

 

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