Appeal on Variance for Drive-Thru… Tabled.

After sitting through a four hour long meeting we are not any closer to an answer on residents’ appeal of the variance for a McDonald’s Drive-Thru.

The Board of Adjustment, based on their questions, was not impressed with the Florida/Pyramid/McDonald’s proposal. It seems this group is also caving from pressure for more urban design in the area.

Between testimony Jennifer Florida approached me indicating they were willing to build the building up to the street rather than set back as designed. While it helps it does not mitigate all the other valid concerns about noise, trash and traffic.

The Board of Adjustment will likely reopen the hearing after Pyramid/McDonald’s has submitted a new site plan showing the layout with a building up to the street. I think Florida indicated they’d build to the street in the hopes the Board of Adjustment would deny the appeal. This would leave room for them to say the plans that were approved were not up to the street.

If the city is going to continue to ignore sound planning by allowing a drive-thru at this location I’d rather it be built up to the street. But I want this to be perfectly clear, I believe the various fast food establishments in the area are undermining the true potential of the area. If the McDonald’s closed in October as Florida suggests would happen, I think that in the long term we’d be better off.

– Steve

Audio From First Drive-Thru Hearing Online

To help establish a record of the testimony from the first hearing on the McDonald’s Drive-Thru conditional use hearing I have posted a series of 15 MP3 files. These files are the complete recording from the hearing in the order in which it was held on February 16, 2006.

You can hear for yourself how Jennifer Florida describes the quite suburban McDonald’s as “urban-style” and how franchise owner James Proctor indicates the new location will be open from 5:30am to 11:00pm.

Due to the size of the files I have placed these on a separate server. Click here to visit the site and take a listen.

– Steve

NoDrive-Thru.com Launched Over McDonald’s On Grand

I’ve written so much about the poorly designed anti-urban McDonald’s proposed for South Grand that it is all running together. If you are just finding this information it may be a bit overwhelming. To help facilitate finding the articles I created a “McDonald’s on Grand” category some time ago. Articles are posted with the latest at the top so if you need to catch up start at the bottom.

To make it even easier to communicate the message I’ve registered NoDrive-Thru.com (as well as without the hyphen, nodrivethru.com). Both domains will lead people to this site and my category on McDonald’s.

As this controversy continues NoDrive-Thru.com will branch out from here and become a full-fledged website as we continue to spread the message of aldermanic abuse, anti-urban planning, deep pocketed developers, and a questionable fast food establishment. In the meantime be sure to tell people to visit nodrive-thru.com for all the latest.

– Steve

Florida Changing The Redevelopment Plan To Allow Drive-Thrus

This post was going to be about the city’s Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (aka LCRA) amending the Gravois/South Grand/Meramec redevelopment area at their meeting next week on the 25th. But, guess what, the LCRA amended the redevelopment plan at their April 4th meeting. The next step is the Board of Aldermen. The public notice given: an agenda posted of the lobby at 1015 Locust. No notice to property owners within the blighted area or even a posting in the City Journal (whose sole purpose is to provide public notice).

The LCRA Board consists of the following:

Judith Doss (Chair) of St. Louis Hills
Artie Whitmore of the Central West End
Chris Goodson of Lafayette Square (major developer doing projects such as the City Hospital & Eden Lofts)
Larry Williams, Treasurer for the City of St. Louis.

Today I spoke with Chairwoman Judith Doss. I asked her if she was aware of the opposition to the McDonald’s. She was not. Doss indicated they had a letter of support from the Alderwoman and therefore assumed the residents of the area were OK with the change since they did not have a letter of opposition from anyone. When I mentioned that none of us were aware of the April 4th meeting she said our Alderman should have told us. Well, Ald. Craig Schmid who represents the bulk of the Gravois Park neighborhood where the McDonald’s is proposed was unaware the LCRA had amended the redevelopment plan — I gave him a copy of the paperwork! Back to Doss. When I said the Alderwoman intentionally wouldn’t tell anyone about the change and that we don’t frequent the lobby of 1015 Locust (where the LCRA agenda is posted) she said they can’t do anything about that. How convenient.

I’m sure Doss wouldn’t want this kind of development along Hampton near her St. Louis Hills home. Nor would Mr. Whitmore want this in the CWE or heaven forbid we even suggest such a thing near Goodson’s Lafayette Square. Even Florida’s own neighborhood of Tower Grove would not permit such a thing a half a mile to the North. But it seems to be OK in less affluent areas of the city.
… Continue Reading

Reminder: Protest of Ald. Florida’s Drive-Thru Saturday 12:30pm

Tomorrow, Saturday April 15, 32006, will be the protest of the proposed McDonald’s at the corner of Grand & Winnebago (map). Here is a brief recap:

The site in question is part of a larger development area that specifically excluded drive-thru establishments.

Ald. Florida, developer Pyramid Companies and McDonald’s have been crafting this plan for a while even though publicly Ald. Florida assured Gravois Park residents that the McDonald’s would not go on this site.

A City zoning reviewer has granted a variance to permit a drive-thru on the site, causing concerns of neighbors.

Residents have filed an appeal to overturn the variance and are interviewing attorneys.

Tomorrow at 12:30pm is your chance to stand up and be counted. We need everyone to show Ald. Florida, Pyramid, McDonald’s, the Mayor and the rest of the city that we don’t want to live among suburban fast-food establishments. We want the city to act like a city and be urban. That means buildings up to the sidewalk and very limited parking in relation to building area.

If you want to catch up on all my posts on this issue click here. The oldest posts will be at the bottom with the most recent (this post) at the top).

See you tomorrow!

– Steve