Thank you, Dylan. And Michelle, could you please call the role? >> Alderwoman Schwitzer, >> present. >> Alderwoman Sonier, >> present. >> Commissioner Banton, >> present. >> Commissioner Bradley. >> Commissioner Fowler, >> present. >> Commissioner Garmindia, >> present. >> Commissioner Hubman, >> present. Commissioner Jorgensson, >> Commissioner Miller, >> Commissioner Williams, >> present. Is that right? >> Yeah. Uh, uh, Chair Boaz >> present. >> And you have a quorum of eight. >> Great. Thank you very much. Uh so I am taking over for Tracy tonight who is joining us online. So I will be um your MC for the evening and we have a relatively light agenda tonight with two action items and twoformational items. But first I would ask for a motion for approval of the minutes. >> So moved. >> Second. It's >> been moved by Alderwoman Sonier, seconded by Commissioner Williams. Call for vote. >> Alderwoman Schwitzer. >> Hi. Hold on. Would you like to make a correction? >> No, I was waving that way. >> I would like to make a correction. Sorry. >> Uh and the on the second page when we're talking about PDA 1625 PDU. Um part of it's just a typo. It says visibility. It should be visitability. >> Small typo. >> Would you like to amend your motion with the correction? Uh, I would amend my motion to include the corrections. >> Great. Thank you. We get a second. >> A second. >> Okay. And a new amended motion by Alderwoman Sonier and seconded by Commissioner Garindia. Call for vote, please. >> Alderwoman Schwitzer. >> I. >> Alderwoman Sonier. >> I. Uh, Commissioner Fowler. I. >> Commissioner Garindia. Hi. >> Commissioner Hubman. >> Abstain. Commissioner Jorgensson >> abstain. Okay. >> Commissioner Miller. >> Commissioner Williams. >> I. >> Commissioner Boaz. >> I. >> And Chair Banton. >> I. >> And the motion passes with Six eyes and two abstensions. >> Great. Thank you very much. All right, we will move into our first action item, which is um a redevelopment plan for 4500 Washington Avenue. >> Uh there is no public hearing for this, but we will start with a presentation from >> Thank you. How's it going? Uh, my name is Mike Craver. I'm a planner here at at PDA and I'm here to talk to you about a blighting study and redevelopment plan for 45 and 4518 Washington Avenue. There we go. Uh, yeah, just to review and recommend the blighting study and the redevelopment plan. You want to go to the next one? I have the developer here as well, but we'll go from here. Um right now a little site context. It's uh two adjoining parals on the corner of Washington and North Taylor A. It's a little over an acre. Um there is one building currently on uh one of the lots, the one facing North Taylor Avenue. Right now it's an an empty building. It used to be the LH building and I believe it was a either a nurse or a hospital or a nurses training facility or something along those lines. Um but currently it sits empty. Um and it's uh zoned mult I think it's multiple zoning parcels but the more restrictive one is the C multiple family dwelling district. Uh it's a a picture of the the building facing or fronting Taylor uh uh Taylor A. That building during this is going to remain there. They're they're planning to remodel it as opposed to to demolish it and build something new. And then the phase two of the project will include a second building facing or fronting Washington Avenue. Uh land falls in the central areas west uh designation. Uh it's a lot of housing. Buildings can be 20 to 30 stories. So there is some spots in there that are going to be really big compared to this. Just think it's just like a a threetory building. But there are a lot of smaller multiple family housing buildings in this area that are kind of more historic. So it does fit that that same criteria. Keep going. Um couple urban design standards that we have in this is the parking is going to be in the rear of the building uh behind both of the the current building and the new one being built. That curb cut on um Washington is going to be closed and the only access to this is going to be from that alley that I guess is technically off Taylor. Uh and then along with the tree line and all that, we have fencing. Won't be over six feet. It's got to be either I think ornamental metal or or something along those lines. So, it's not going to be like wood slats or anything like that. Uh little bit of the site plan. So on the one on the right, that big kind of vertical part, that's the LH building. That's going to stay up. It's just going to get remodeled during phase one of the plan that they have. And then phase two is going to entail construction of those two other buildings. And then a little bit of rendering on the left of what they say it's going to look like. And then just an aerial view of of where it is, that church up top. And then just the big building kind of see a lot of residential around that area. A little bit of commercial, but a lot of of multifamily residential. And I do have one of the developers on uh the call if anyone has any questions for them as well, but we can go from there. >> All righty. Thank you very much, Mike. We will move into commissioner questions and we will start um with Alderwoman Sonier. >> Um I don't really have too many questions about this. I think it's pretty um clear. I think I I I found just some of the comments interesting, but I don't really have I don't have any question no questions. >> Great. >> I sorry I see here that Zach or anyone on the development team, do they want to present something >> before questions? I apologize for jumping the gun there. Good evening. Zach WS1 SLDC. Uh the developers that's online. >> Okay. Um Elser supports the project. We have blighted two parcels. First parcel is a project that has funding currently and we support tenures at 90%. Uh second uh phase would be the new construction. That project hasn't been funded yet, but we've allowed for up to 15 years of tax abatement in case they get LITC uh tax credit for that project. Uh very Miriam uh you say stricter design guidelines on this one. Okay. Comprehensive. Thank you. >> Uh no, but on the community scorecard scores 45 allows up to 15 years of tax abatement, but we allow for 10 years at 90 for the first phase. be happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you very much, sir. Uh, anything from the developer? >> This is Fred Lasser. I was expecting Jeff Harden on the phone, but I think he had an emergency and couldn't attend. So, uh, I've been working with Jeff for about a little over two years on this project. It is a historic uh project uh uh eligible for historic tax credits which we are taking advantage of. We have uh submitted all that and the allocation has been received by the state and the part two approval from the federal government. U we're also working with PACE financing this and the uh project is is something that we we hope will uh will end the blight that's in this neighborhood. It's a fairly large tract of land that has been sitting idle for for some time. The building is u uh in in need of repair. Windows are missing. It's been vacant for a long time. I think uh recently Jeff has uh had a company uh go in and I think Spiritis has been uh clearing some of the brush in the back and and removing some of the uh uh debris that has been dumped on the property over the years and um getting ready to clean out some of the old furniture and clothing and things that have accumulated over the years. So, uh it it should be uh looking much better in the next uh couple of weeks, but we are excited about bringing this back to market. The first phase will be roughly 32 apartments. Uh at least half of those, if not more, will be uh affordable. And we think the uh use of the property will be uh it's primarily residential with with a little bit of a small office just for um developing a skilled skilled labor force to do maintenance and renovate other properties in the neighborhood. Leave it for questions. >> Very good. Thank you, Mr. Lasser. All right. Um, take two on the questions. We'll move into commissioner questions and we'll begin again with Alderwoman Sier. >> Um, I just wanted to know first that it's not there's no imminent domain in this. Um, I know that's something I'm going to have to say again should this make it to the board of alt committee. Um, I know you mentioned that the units are going to be affordable and I see a description here of seven studio units. nine one-bedroom units and 13 two-bedroom units for a total of 29 units. Um, could you elaborate a little bit more on what the the pricing will be for the units? >> Um, yes. I think the uh the rents will be first of all, it's it's a historic building and the way it's being renovated, every unit is a little different. The rents will range from about $1,000 a month to 1,500 for the larger units and multiple bedroom units. >> Thank you. Um and you there is only going to be one uh curb cut. >> I'm sorry I didn't uh >> It looks like >> Yeah. So the alley there will be the access. The one that's on Washington right now is going to be uh removed. So the only access to the parking or anything like that will be from the alley. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> You also mentioned something about imminent domain that uh Mr. Hart already owns the property. There was no >> Yeah. Yeah, I don't really have any other questions. I just did want to complement um some of the parking lot and landscape things that are mentioned in the plan I think are really good. I like that they were aligned up with our uh transportation and mobility um plan and the sustainability and climate plan. So um not a question. And I just did enjoy how many things were in alignment of, you know, this and with plans that we have in place from the landscaping, um, even the parking, the one curb cut. Um, it looks like there were a lot of considerations on just kind of like environmentalism aspect and also making it something that would be fluid and transition well into the neighborhood. I don't have any other questions. >> Great. Thank you. Uh, sorry about that. Um, Alderwoman Schweitzer, >> thank you. Thank you for the time and thank you for the presentations. Uh, the building looks uh really neat. Uh, and I appreciate the effort to, you know, save it. And also, you know, just kudos to the staff. I heard Miriam in the background say comprehensive uh because it's really neat to see the the design for the parcel and and see how it really will fit the fabric of the neighborhood. So, that's really neat. Um I am just kind of curious in general about the kind of type of investment that will be made and kind of the timeline for that. I know the abatement um proposal and I appreciate um Mr. Wilson for sharing that, but I would just love to hear more from the developer on that. Well, the the project has u has been designed. The uh I guess the blighting study and the tax abate are critical to uh making the numbers work. So, I think we've been uh going through this process and but I I believe the uh uh just the way construction goes uh once we get past this milestone, I suppose we have another two months to uh to get started, a lot of that effort will will be concurrent the the blighting process tax payments. So, still a lot of variables to know how much it'll all cost, >> how much it will cost. >> Um, the construct construction will be 6.3 million roughly. the uh then there's some soft costs on top of that and it's the uh uh that the overall package is uh I think all the cards are falling into place and but we uh everybody's been ready to go for about six months. So, we're anxious to get the last piece of the capital stock together and this uh effort here today helps us with the cash flow so that we can support adequate loan to >> plug the gap in the capital stack. >> Okay. Thank you. Um Mr. Wilson, can you just I know there's a chart here. I see in the there's an attachment for how much uh tax revenue should be expected to increase for the property and if you have those numbers in front of you I think it'd be good to have them said >> uh for fiscal benefit of the city would be 145,000 over 10 years and fiscal benefit of the schools 142,000 over 10 years. >> Okay. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the time to ask questions. Thanks everybody. >> Thank you very much. Um, Chair Boaz, >> no questions from me. I I too am really looking forward to having this building and site reused. It should be a real um addition to the neighborhood. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Uh, is there anyone else online that I'm missing? And I'll just move down the line here. Okay, great. We'll start with Commissioner Williams. >> Thank you. I'm trying not to breathe too hard. Okay. Uh so first, thank you. I I agree this um the urban design like regulations and standards in here are pretty detailed. I appreciated that. also agree would be nice to get this building back online and then of course make use of the adjacent sites that are vacant. Uh just for clarification, what are what's the height of buildings two and three? >> Two and three are the uh the future buildings. Those are twotory. >> Okay. >> I'm sorry. Three story. >> Threetory. >> Okay. Thank you. And then if I understood uh cor correctly from commissioner Schweitzer's question that uh basically you need these tax abatements to make the project happen like if you don't get them then essentially you have to find another source or >> deal. Yeah. I think we've uh uh I guess the way the economics of these deals work if uh you know we we look at the available cash flow and with the rents uh as low as we have them um and the cost of renovating these buildings even with the historic credits we we wind up with um very marginal uh cash flow and a big hunk of that is taken up with uh with property taxes. So by if we pay the property taxes, the amount of money available to pay off a bank loan is reduced. So we can't borrow enough money to plug the gap to put the whole capital stack together to start the project. So by by having the tax abatement uh and we've also requested sales tax abatement the uh uh materials. So, by having by not having to pay full taxes for a period of time, that allows that that cash to be supportive of a larger loan, which helps us get past starting. That's >> okay. Thank you. Oh, >> were you not done? Sorry. Okay. Thank you. No further question. Great. Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Garmindia, >> I also want to give my compliments on the, you know, a lot of the things we look for at the planning commission, even though it's maybe not quite our purview, is um, things that have already been addressed like placement of the buildings and having the parking be behind. So, uh, the use of native plants. So, um, in the landscaping, having a landscaping plan, um, it's all all well and good. I I like the historic reuse of the building as well. Um the only like I guess followup question I have is I was just looking at the parking to unit ratio and um so 113 spots um with 30 uh or with 65 units planned different sizes. So that would be about 1.7 parking spaces per unit roughly. But is that in line with our recommended spaces per unit? Um, or is that is there any was there any consideration for having I I don't know. I'm I'm curious if since that area is so well located, you know, towards Metro and um whether there was um is there going to be any consideration for um encouraging car-free households or do you think do we think all these parking spots will be needed and used by the occupants of these units? >> I don't know if that's directed to me or the staff. That could be for anyone. >> Well, I I think the if I may, >> this is uh Jeff Harden. Thank you all for uh giving me the opportunity. Uh part of the rationale uh behind the parking. Uh that was something that we thought about uh long and hard in making certain that parking lights uh for the parking spaces didn't bleed into the homes in the surrounding areas where you're waking up and you're looking at this monstrosity of the lighting, you know, uh shining in your face in terms of your property. terms of the volume of the units uh and and ratio in terms of the part park parking. You know, I I think the uh the initial thought was potentially having some uh uh plug-in stations where uh people could charge vehicles. That's something later on I was thinking about down the road uh in that space. So, we kind of would like to have that encouraged. Uh but again, it's a cost factor. Um knowing that we are on the Taylor line uh in terms of uh transportation um gives us a little diversity in terms of uh draw from the market whether it's uh student or or just housing situation but we think we need uh what we have in terms of the aesthetics of the design um and not to change the the economic model uh to enlarge units and and add cost to the buildown. I think that was the rationale behind, you know, putting the the number of parking uh spots that we have on that. >> I hope that answered your question. >> Yeah. No, thanks. I appreciate it. That's all my questions. >> Thank you very much, Commissioner Jorgensson. >> Yeah, I think this looks very promising, but my my one concern would be the tax abatement. I wonder if uh staff could discuss how we reach that recommendation and and what the standards are for these things and whether there's any wiggle room there. Um we scored the project first but with the community scorec cards kind of sets the ceiling for them for the project and the scored 45 points. Uh got 15 points for affordable housing, six points for that creates seven jobs at this location. The location the project scores five points. Rehab of of vacant building is another five points. Preserving a historic buildings five points. Uh total capital investment is four points. Uh within a bus quarter mile of a bus stop is three points and using outside outside funding is two points. That sets the ceiling at 45 points which is 15 years of tax abatement. Uh actually 25 years of tax abatement 10 at 90 followed by five 15 at 50. Then we do a financial analysis of the project. After the financial analysis, we uh came to a conclusion that this project can uh is allowed for 10 years at 90% of tax abatement. Uh that brings the return to the vessel at a reasonable regional a reasonable um median return. Uh for a project um without sange would be 6.6 to 5.6. Um, and this would uh actually I misread that. I'm sorry. The range for with incentives is between 9.1 on the high end and low end 7.1. With this abatement, we're looking at 6.6 return on this investment. Uh, Mr. Harden's been working on this project for a very long time. Uh, we're supportive of this project. Uh, Mr. Mr. How long uh your family's own project or building? >> Well, my father ran it as a community center for about two decades. Uh when it was the stroll over there on Taylor and um so as the gaslight p uh uh development expanded uh it caught up to my dad, he had already started. So uh long time. >> So we we've been working with Mr. Hardin for a while now. try to get close the gap on this project and with the tax abatement and the construction sales tax piece. This will help help close that gap. Um this project will go through the Tada uh process and then go to the school board for uh hopefully later this month uh get support from there uh before it gets introduced to the board alderman. So >> all right. Um, I guess my concern is just it's it's a lot of money to give up both for the for the schools and for us over 10 years or or longer. Um, and it's not like we have a lot of money to give away. Um, is this I think we all want our tax abatement standards to be very predictable so that developers have reasonable expectations of what they can expect. uh is there a way that we could change this within that framework or is this just what we have to deal with? >> I think I when I I may be a broken record here, but um when I first got to SLDC, we were had over 3,000 parcels on T that were tax abated. We currently have under 1500. So every year we shed more and more abatements off the rolls. But we had to from moving forward we had to be very selective of what projects we do support with abatement and the building like this screams for that type of investment. We are pumping uh we're investing in the future. Hopefully we uh put money into this project with abatement. This property will be value a great uh return to the city and schools in 10 to 12 years. So that's what how we look at investing. We're giving we're no longer giving out full abatements. So 1090 still gets some money to the schools in the city. So that's what how we approach projects and we're more particular on how we give them out now also. >> Yeah. >> Great. I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Very much, Mr. Fowler. >> Um I'd like to express um I'm happy to see this building uh you know move into something else, its next chapter. Uh start off with that. Um I just have a couple questions. They'll be really brief. um for Mr. Harden and Lifer I think. Uh how far along are you guys in the design process? I just want to get a feel of you know your 75% 60% you know is there any uh doubts or concerns or skeletons in like this moving forward? Uh understanding I heard you know Mr. Harden his family's been involved with this building for a long time. Just want to gauge how far along you guys are. >> You want me to take that or you want to take it? >> Go ahead Jeeoff. Uh we are uh basically uh full design uh just about on the drawings. Uh the uh HD architecture has done an an amazing uh job on uh uh the future uh look of this building and not losing its its historic impact. Uh but more importantly uh I know this building. So uh there are no bones that needs to be unearthed that we haven't already uh discovered. Uh as my dad would say, this building was a bomb shelter uh when it was built. Um it sustained a lot of wear and tear, but the core of this building is extremely solid. And I want to add one thing that I don't know if you guys have touched on it. Uh I I look at this not just an investment in terms of the dollars and cents. Uh but there's a veterans piece that's tied to this. And if you haven't seen the story on my father, uh you may want to Google that. That's Leo Harden Senior. Uh there's a veterans housing piece that's tied to this that's going to be operating out of the nonprofit space which is the former conference room of this building. And that was at the request of my dad whom we lost on the 14th of December last year. he was 95. So the stage of this project there's no un there's no hidden uh uh uh cost that we have uh seen as a formidable obstacle uh in the revitalization of this project. Uh it's it's ready to go and I think the city uh is going to be very grateful uh for the degree of impact that it's going to have from the space that we operate on that corner. >> Great. That's I think you you answered everything I wanted to know. Um other things that I usually cover the landscape requirements which and the parking, curb cuts, closing down, sidewalks, all the general stuff. I think our team here staff has done a great job of setting that stuff up. So we don't have those things to add at this part uh at this point. >> Um and thanks you, you know, we see these products come up and everybody gets a little worry worrisome of like will this go forward or will something come up. So thanks for uh one being involved at the very early stage and then uh you know keeping it moving. So I think that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. H. >> Uh I just want to mention I'd be very glad to see this piece of this neighborhood active again. Um I did have a question of when will it be active again? What's your anticipated you know to market date with the the various uh buildings here? >> I'll let you dive on that. Um, we're anticipating a uh 12 month construction cycle. Uh, so I think we're sometimes that goes into 14 months when you have trouble getting uh all the materials in when you need them. Um, so I would say given the uh time to get this through the system and get everything launched, we're probably 18 months from today if everything goes as we expect it to go. >> And that's all three buildings just >> that is the the hospital building um is the the first phase. Then once that uh is underway and moving, we we'll move into the rest of the construction. >> I'd like to add, if I may, uh the new construction space is actually being cleared uh as we speak. And uh it's in preparation for once we've lined up phase one. the theory and the thought process is to go right into the planning phase and finalization of that once we've got this this piece underway so that they will tagline and fall right behind each other. So I do understand the concern. I don't expect a full drag in terms of the timeline on it, but we want to be respectful of the folks that we are going to populate in uh uh the existing building uh as we plan and move forward for the new construction. >> Thank you. Great. Mr. Miller, >> you have a a couple of things. Um, do you have a major banking partner and a contractor already uh lined up for phase one? >> We do. We have several that uh uh we are working on that will be at the uh subcontractor walkthrough on the 15th. uh uh they actually be seeing the site for the first time uh uh in person. Uh so yes, we do. >> Okay. Okay. So you mentioned a subcontractor. So is there a general already in place or are you the general yourself? >> Uh MBG is the uh general on this. That's what we've selected at this point. >> All right. Okay. And what about the banking partner? the major banking partner >> regions is one and uh uh Fred, I'll let you speak to the transition of uh uh the other. >> Yeah, I think I think we do have some uh financing coming in from from PACE uh working with Pace Equity on that. Then the uh the historic credits. Um we we don't have the uh federal historic tax credit investor. We have the approval, but um we're negotiating with a couple of different banks right now to try to uh bridge that um uh and have that partnership put together. They would also be bridging the the state historic credits which uh completes the capital stock. Great. And my last question is about the management of the building. I mean, that's a pretty key. Uh, the rents you you listed, I don't know, Mr. Harden, if you were on, but the rents that were quoted, I think, are probably going to be a little low at 18 months. I think you're going to be uh Yeah, you they seem to He gave the uh your partner gave the range of a,000 to,500. um for the affordable and I guess the unafford I mean the market rate with the unaffordable the unaf is that correct >> well at present yes but part of the element of this uh this project is to not only be comparable to what's in the neighborhood but to also be cost-effective in terms of access to the broad market. So, um, we will monitor that. We understand the dynamics of it. Keep in mind, we're we're familiar with a lot of that. We're near the Fountain Park area. We know some of the the housing loss that's been suffered in the neighborhood, uh, which is which begs the need for this project all the more. But, uh, nonetheless, we'll be monitoring that as we go along. There may be some some some adjustments, but uh none that we think will will be a deterrent uh for the Lisa period that we're expecting. >> No. Right. Uh and I'm saying that yeah, you want you have to be fair to the market, but fair to yourselves and to the project. So my my last question has to do about the management, property management. Is there a professional property manager or your own firm? It's going to be the property manager. >> How will that work? We have one that's bidding the project uh uh property management on that, but I have a couple others that I'm looking at and I'd like to incorporate some, you know, hands-on monitoring in that regards. Uh so there may be some internal monitoring that we do from our end, but we will have the professional support of a outside firm that'll be working with us in that space as well. >> All right. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you, Commissioner Miller. Just a couple of quick questions for me. Um, you mentioned you are utilizing state and federal tax credits. So, um, I'm assuming that would mean that there's not going to be too many major changes to the existing existing building. But is there anything on the exterior, say something that was later added that isn't historic that you all are expecting to change? Any major alterations to the exterior of the building? >> Absolutely not. >> Excellent. And second question is for the um most westward new build. It's a little bit hard for me to tell on the site plan that's up on the screen now, but is the the front of that building aligned with the other houses on the street? I know that's one of the conditions on the urban design guidelines. >> It is. And uh quite frankly when that design was created uh it was done in concert with uh Jan Cameron at that time. Uh so we wanted to make certain that it did not uh dwarf uh the other homes uh around it. So it's kind of almost a I don't want to call it a brownstone effect but it bleeds into that bin. There's a turn in that Washington Avenue that we wanted to capture that the aesthetics of that turn. So, it does was a complement to the uh homes that are there and not a uh a bumpout, so to speak, if that makes sense. >> It does. Very good. Um it is a beautiful building. I think the site plan was done with care. Um you know, very excited to see this come to life. So, uh that's it for questions. Don would like to make a comment. >> Yes. So, Don Roy, the executive director of the Planning and Urban Design Agency. And part of what I want to mention is yes, uh, historic preservation falls into my agency and under my purview. And I want to thank you, Jeff, for the dedication of your family. And I can feel it as you talk about it wanting to save this important corner building. And the shout out you just gave to my staff of Jan Cameron is much appreciated. And Fred, known you for a while. appreciate all your work you do to help make sure the historic fabric of the city is maintained, productive, re revorated, um, and continues to be a contributor to the city, especially here on a corner. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> All right, with that, Mike, could you remind us of the staff recommendation, please? The planning commission finds said blighting and redevelopment plan for the four 4500 to 4518 Washington Avenue redevelopment plan to be recommended declared as blighted and the proposed redevelopment plan is in conformity with strategic land use plans doesn't say flex it should say uh med corridor west or uh central area west designation therefore recommends approval of the board of aldermen of the city of St. Louis. >> Yeah, you >> I just want to quickly add something. I think this recommendation slide is a good reminder of um I think the kind of purview and responsibility of the planning commission's recommendation and review of these which is really mostly about conformity with adopted plans. So um just want to kind of get that as part of the record. I don't know if David you want to add anything to that effect or um or not. No pressure. >> Just know that the purview of the planning commission is exactly as provided here. This is what the statute has directed you to do. So when you start wandering into other areas, you're possibly creating a record. If you make a decision based on the record you've created that is not in line with your role as you're directed by statute to carry out, which again is in >> Great. Thank you very much. Do I have a motion on the table? So moved. >> Second. >> All right. It was moved by Commissioner Hubman or Fowler. >> Hubman and seconded by Commissioner Garindia. Call for vote, please. >> Alderwoman Schwitzer. >> I. >> Alderwoman Sonier. >> I. >> Uh, Commissioner Boaz. >> Hi. >> Uh, Commissioner Fowler. >> Hi. >> Commissioner Garindia. >> Hi. Commissioner Hubman >> I. >> Commissioner Jorgensson >> I. >> Commissioner Miller >> I. >> Commissioner Williams >> I. >> Chair Banton >> I. >> And the motion passes with all present voting I. >> Great. Thank you very much and looking forward to seeing this uh get started. Thank you for joining us tonight. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. With that we will move into our second action item of the evening which is our planning commission prioritization. We got a little bit of a preview of that during the last meeting. Um, but Miriam is here to give us a little bit more. So, take it away. >> That's right. Action-packed action item number two. Um, next slide. I so I did present um most of this content last time and I'm I'm going to move really quickly through because I don't want to kind of unnecessarily uh repeat the discussion but um just as a reminder kind of the procedure for this um annual prioritization was developed a couple of years ago and the process goes like this kind of input from commissioners at the beginning of the year um sharing of a draft memo at the March meeting to kind of prompt further uh further discussion and refinement of the prioritization. And then here at the April meeting is when uh we present a refined version of that memo for uh kind of the planning commission's affirmation and adoption. Context this year is we are rewriting the city's zoning code. Um we have a lot of recently adopted elements of the city's uh citywide elements of the city's comprehensive plan. Neighborhood planning is >> um going up full steam. lots of ongoing projects. And so we're trying to think about um kind of strategically about what are gaps we can plug within that comprehensive work, but also how can we further implement um some of the principles of that adopted planning work that is not otherwise being implemented through um zoning or otherwise. Next slide. Here is a rough timeline of kind of all those ongoing initiatives. Um and uh referenced here also are some other housing related activities that as soon as HUD approves our action plan and CDA approves our subreient agreement, we can get going um with some of those things which include uh creation of pre-approved housing plan sets and and more. Uh next slide. Last year was the first year we had this annual prioritization process. This is just a quick status update on those four things. Um, minimum lot size, we reformed that, reducing it from 4,000 uh square ft per unit for single family to 2,000 and also some reforms for single family to reduce that barrier. Uh, enacted accessory dwelling units. Um, those were previously not defined, so they almost always require some sort of variance for approval. So we well well yes truly we all um and always in partnership with uh staff at the zoning section of the building division who also join us tonight um established a definition and also specific area regulations to uh facilitate ADUs enacted um data centers enormous complicated issue uh that the planning commission prioritized last year even before um there were any active proposals for large data centers in the city of St. Louis. Um but the uh I'd say kind of pace and intensity of this work really picked up once there were some active proposals. As you all know, we had an initial public hearing presentation of those draft standards in February. We are uh currently revising those regulations with a target to get them back in front of the commission for another public hearing and potential um vote in early May. And uh for members of the public um those will be posted and the the meeting date um no less than 15 days in advance of any such meeting. cannabis cafes. Uh there is a desire to kind of create a possibility for this type of new business in the city. This has turned out to be a kind of legally complex thing with changing state regulation on uh cannabis related products. Also a sort of inconsistency that would need to be resolved with local smoking prohibitions. Um, so we've made some headway on that, uh, but haven't fully nailed down nailed down what a kind of right approach would be. And I think a somewhat more expansive approach allowing indoor smoking of cannabis products in a public space would also require an update potentially to the city's uh, local um, kind of smoking exemptions process. So, still uh, in process on that. Next slide. This year we're looking ahead at um six priorities. Um three are zoning related um and there are uh three that are not zoning related. So I'll walk through real quickly these. So um next slide and then next slide. I think I did the transition thing. Yeah. So adaptive reuse provisions for school buildings. Um the idea would be to establish uh specific use and area exceptions for specific addresses. And last time we had a little bit of discussion about like let's not make it, you know, complete open season for potential reuse of vacant school buildings, but the um allowed uses and area requirements would be specifically listed in um the the text amendment here. So, this would be a a sort of quick interim thing so that we have it in place even while we're working on the zoning upgrade. I mean, I I think the way I've kind of thought about um this is even if this helps get one school building reuse project over the finish line and this interim period, that will have been worth doing, even though it it might not then be um exactly repurposed in the new zoning code. though there will be provisions in the new zoning code as well that reduce barriers to adaptive reuse of vacant school buildings. Next slide. So the second one here uh is related to um smoke shops in the zoning code. Next slide. Right now there's no specific definition for this use and they're handled as general retail which under 3500 square ft is permitted by right. And what this has led to is a sort of proliferation of this use without any standards for their operation and without any neighborhood opportunity for kind of input or even um kind of notification of these uses in their community. Um and these have been associated with sort of quality of life and nuisance concerns and also um even though this is kind of separately illegal outside of even um rules in the zoning code, these uses are associated with the illegal sale of THC product. So kind of a a public health concern as well. So uh the approach would be to simply establish a definition for smoke shops and there is one within the formbbased districts that we could borrow and then very simply treat as conditional in relevant districts. So there would be um just that opportunity for review and then establishment of conditions so that if those conditions are violated there's the potential for revocation. So, a little bit of an enforcement tool to ensure that um these are uh when permitted handled carefully and um we would be in kind of dialogue with other departments that relate to this issue as well. Next slide. Standards and requirements for gas stations. Next slide. Um so Commissioner Miller raised this point in December and um that gas stations and associated uses like accessory convenience stores um not only have they sort of proliferated in many parts of the city, but they're often located in areas that can have in inappropriate locations and end up having a very negative impact on surrounding neighborhoods, um quality of life, property values and our zoning code does have some site requirements and standards in the code kind of setting distance requirement requirements but I I think um you know and staff we've talked about we don't think they're sufficient and there are also um including but beyond zoning sort of enforcement challenges and operational concerns um and this will be certainly comprehensive compensively addressed and the new zoning code and map um both from a sort of urban design perspective but also with standard conditions and other um use standards. Uh however um again I I think getting that right really will take some time and also because the the issues we need to address are related to the use but also related to enforcement tools and just the kind of inadequacy of our current code and dealing with urban design and the new code will be I think a leap forward with zoning technology on that front. Share a little bit more about that later this evening. Um, but the I I think the idea and hopefully I captured it appropriately, Commissioner Miller, is to in this interim period, maybe not move forward with regulations that would would result in legislative action, but really lay some groundwork collecting research, presenting research into how other cities are handling this. Really make it a priority of conversation with other departments both within the zoning upgrade process and in addition to that. and maybe develop an informal policy guide perhaps adopted by the planning commission that could be a supplement to um PDA's input into board of adjustment decisions or even potentially board of public service decisions on conditional use permits which we do have kind of um for variance items at the board of adjustment we do have a weekly practice of writing memos about adopted plans and other findings related to variance items. So this this could be a supplement to that and used to guide more specific recommendations because currently most of these are I think fair to say permitted via a variance or conditional use permit. They're rarely permitted by right currently. So this could be an sort of intervention opportunity even in the near term. Next slide. And I know I said I'd be quick. I'm going to pick up the pace here. Next slide. um the idea of a bank of urban design regul regulations for chapter 99s. So some of the urban design regulations in the redevelopment plan today were by the way the result of great work by Zach staff. We provided a little bit of input um but it was his team that took the lead. The idea would be to have a um kind of standard base of those that we can pick and choose from in future redevelopment plans and partnership with SLDC. I think the zoning upgrade will be a huge step forward in terms of the kind of urban design regulations and the new code. So I think the approach would be to kind of keep this in the back of our head as we're working those out and find a way to kind of expand or complement the new zoning standards with these urban design regulations that could be kind of sight specific in redevelopment plans. Next slide. Next slide. um right-of-way vacations. So, the uh kind of giving up of public right of way streets or alleys for private use is something that the planning commission weighs in on. They've delegated that authority, you all have, you know, have delegated that authority to staff for review to weigh in in that process. Um however members of our team have pointed out that um now with the adopted transportation mobility plan there's an opportunity to establish much clearer guidance that can be used upfront with applicants to guide when right-of-way right-of-way vacations may and may not be appropriate. I think the city hasn't had that standard his that those criteria historically um but really should because these are big decisions um giving up public right of way for private use. Next slide. Next slide. And then this would be um something that that happens annually anyway, but updating um the priority priority areas for neighborhood planning. But in addition, we're suggesting this year is also a good time to update these I I'll call them minimum, but actually I won't that the standards for neighborhood plans. Um now that that team has had the benefit of and the commission the benefit of a lot of planning work the first phase of neighborhood planning areas, good time to kind of take a step back with and adopt refined standards. So, I think a draft of that has been shared with the commission. That team's um refining that and we'd bring it back to you all for consideration um this year. And that's the end of my presentation. >> Great. Thank you very much, Miriam. Uh we'll move into discussion. I'm not sure how much back and forth folks would like to have. Um maybe I'll just quickly go down see if anyone has has any comments or question for staff or any other commissioners. So um olderwoman >> uh thank you Miam. Um I'm really looking forward to us digging into several of these things. I agree with you. I think as far as the school zoning overlay um any school building being developed into a current use. I know that is like high up on a lot of our residents um interests and I think that they often hear from constituents that they want to see more of a collaborative relationship between the school district and the city and they want to see the city of St. Louis supporting um the school district in their efforts and I think that this is a good way for us to kind of collaborate and have some of his conversations and I think they'll be happy and so if the school buildings get used we get a chance to get in better relationship with them and work with him and if you know if the buildings can even become what we know our city needs which is family housing that is affordable that's an even bigger win so I'm really excited about that project um the smoke shops for condition use of zoning code I am looking forward to that as well um as As an older woman, I can speak to um the many instances and problems that I have with them. I actually have one uh now that is essentially operating um unregulated. And a lot of times part of the issue is we don't have the ability to negotiate certain conditions on the front end because they just go into zoning. Sometimes I'm not even aware or residents are not aware that there's something coming until they are open up their doors and their problems. Um which just is horrible for everyone involved. So I'm excited about that. I think uh the board of altman is notorious for some of our gas station conversations and commentary. So um you know I won't dig into that but I'm looking forward to that. And specifically I would love for us to talk about um any standards that we can put in terms of um in terms of disincentivizing concentrations of them um and making sure that they are spread out in neighborhoods and spread out in uh communities. I is something that I definitely look forward to being a part of that conversation. Um I think all of our you know public facing I think just all of these things are really um good and I in general even the neighborhood plan standards priority areas you know I think these are just all great things to discuss. Um, and I've really been impressed during my short time here as a commissioner at how much you all are able to get done from a staffing perspective. And I really like this approach of approach of outlaying the priorities so that you all's time and capacity can be used efficiently and everyone is aligned in terms of what we're going to discuss and and and when and kind of what the focus is there. And I know u many of my colleagues will be looking forward to some of these priorities making it to um our part of these discussions. >> Great. Thank you, Alderwoman Schwitzer. >> I appreciate these recommendations and these um these priorities. I agree that the guidance for the ride-of-way vacations would be really helpful the board of alderman when making those decisions. Um and all of the other things that Alderman Sier shared, I really agree with and I know my constituents would too. So, thank you. >> Commissioner Boaz. Well, I have nothing to add. Those are great comments that were made and I just will second them. Thanks so much. I'm looking forward to the to the year's investigations. >> Mr. Williams, >> quick clarifying question. Maybe I wasn't paying attention. Is this a prioritization list or is it is this a we're doing all of this list? >> I Well, you tell us. I I think >> I believe we can do all of these things. I think it'll be I think we can try to do all these things. I I think it it is a lot, especially with the upgrade um the the zoning upgrade underway and the neighborhood planning team, you know, they're going pretty full steam, but I do think this slate is achievable. Yeah. >> So, thank you, >> Commissioner Gindia. >> Uh I guess one question I have um is Should we be presenting these priorities with the ones from last time that data centers and can should those be in this kind of queue as well or of can we >> we make a recommendation to uh affirm this annual strategy. Is it kind of understood that we're still working on those? >> I believe so. If in the memo you think that's unclear, um, we can revise it. But in the description of the status, tried to capture those things and kind of the the timeline or approach for wrapping those up. >> Okay. I I don't think it's like critical, but I think it would be as we continue to do this process, we'll have more things that we don't get to finish or are still in progress. And it might just be um important to be clear what we're voting on is not to you know we're instead we're moving on from data centers going straight to school buildings you know so I think >> it would be important to to really clearly communicate that in our next but as long as we're on the same page that those are still um those are going to be happening uh and then this will be kind of added to it Um, >> right. Yeah. I I think what I tried to capture in the memo is um data centers. I I think we'll move forward on the timeline I I suggested or I hope we can do which is bringing it back to you all in early May. Cannabis cafes I think if we arrive at a resolution before we have the new code can make sense to move forward on that. But um honestly like not certain we will like I don't I don't know that we've figured out exactly what the right thing is to do when there all of these kind of questions and the desired approach isn't yet clear. >> Yeah. And it might require additional or other legislation for it to then make sense. Yeah. >> To Yeah. to reach the true intent. >> Yeah. Um Nope. I think uh I'm and that was going to be my clarifying question was you didn't at the end of this say and I think we can do it all. >> So I mean how's everybody doing? >> And I mean I'll I'll say too it it's planning staff that works on these any item involving zoning um necessarily involves the zoning section of the building division and they've got their own workload and workflow challenges. um that are different from ours. So I don't want to speak for them though of course we talked before before tonight. Yeah. >> Um I guess the only other comment I have I think you know this is our second year doing this procedure and I think it's made my life a lot easier um when uh as far as brainstorming and and kind of direct like when when folks have um both members from the community and alders and uh a variety of different stakeholders have thoughts on changes that we should make to zoning related that I have a clear procedure to point them to and a timeline um like when this is when we as a body will vote on what we're working on for the year um and that it needs to have an a member of the planning commission kind of putting that forward or championing that issue um I think that makes that clarity um has been really helpful for um organizing uh you know and communicating with stakeholders so thank you yours I think this is an interesting list, but my initial reaction when seeing the number of items here is just that it's a lot. Um, and uh I just worry I understand I'm glad to say that or to hear you say that it's achievable. I'm not sure if that also means that it's the best use of uh staff's time when there are so many big items that you're already dealing with both in in zoning and PDA. Um, and I just think we have such a great staff. I don't want to be in a situation where we risk burnout or where we do too much redundant work when when some of these things are issues that will come up in the zoning upgrade as well, which we're looking at adoption hopefully next year and we're in April now. So that's pretty soon. So I would perhaps my explanation would be to cut out some of the zoning related things here. Um perhaps items three and four. I think the school one is so exciting. I'd want to do it right away. Um, those are just my thoughts, but I think all of these have have merit. I just also think that sometimes organizations get excited and take on too much uh and it feels like we can do it and then it's hard to do it all really well in the time we have. >> Yeah, I appreciate the concern of course. Um I will say the two zoning items we're recommending kind of we try to tee up for like enactment. Um we I think have ideas about how that can be done really simply. Um otherwise I don't think we would have proposed them with the upgrade so advanced. Um, I think the Bank of Standard urban design regulations, I think as we get into the zoning upgrade, we may discover like, oh, maybe we don't feel it's so necessary, but I or we may not discover that. Um, so I I think it'll be good to keep it in the back of our heads. Right. So perhaps if we decide today to move forward with these, there could be a later time where we get feedback from you and hear, okay, this is going to be a maybe more than we expected or it's not going to have the impact that we that we think and maybe we can reconsider. Is that an option? >> Strategy. >> Excellent. >> Said that more lightly, please. >> There's a section in our procedure called departures from the strategy. So there's a contingency plan. So things aren't going as planned. uh planning office staff can will present to us and let us know. They will that's what they said. >> Who drafted that? >> All right. >> Thoughtful procedure. >> Okay. Love that. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Commissioner Fowler. >> Great job. Thanks. You covered some of what I was going to say. Um I like all these things. I think they're all great things to shoot for and priorities. Um, I was just worried about um, not to say waste the time, but some of these things could be like, hey, this works in the background and we just kind of capture this in the zoop. Um, I'm worried about getting six things done in the course of the year with other things that come up. That said, I like all these things. I think they're all important. Um, I think but we just cover this in the departure from the our plan. So, that's kind of covered. Sorry, just repeating that. The other thing I'm trying to figure out in my head is how do the gas stations one um trying to think getting ahead of us trying to figure out how we push for more um true food options instead of gas stations and I'm trying to figure out how to pivot that. But I'll save that conversation for later. Not going to get us derailed. But that's I want to plant that seed though of how do we do that? Is it something that we can do? because I know the areas that we're talking about for gas stations, it's kind of in this area, it's because it's a crime issue. At this area, it's because there's no other options for people to get food. So, um I don't want any rebuttals, but just throwing that out there. >> Enough for you, Keller. >> All right, Commissioner Hubbin. >> Um I like your thinking. I think you'll I I think it's good. We're kind of managing expectations essentially. I think we're certainly willing to measure our expectations according to what comes up and what doesn't come up. And if things extend into the next year, I think that's fine. I think it's great that they're on the radar and just I like the approach. I like the issues. >> Thank you, Mr. Miller. >> Yeah. Well, Mary, I appreciate your editing the comments. I think you're right on target accomplished and it uh accomplished what I wanted to. Um I do think it's an ambitious list, but I think we all could come up with three or four more that we'd like to tackle and that are emergencies, but I think Paul summed it up. I mean, we're not finished with data centers. And if anybody thinks we're going to be finished with data centers this year, um you know, so we're not none of these things are finished. The other thing Marian and I had a good talk about the the zoop planning process. There are mind little time bombs along that way that are going to require a lot of digging in to different specific items. you know, we have um detention facilities, we have group homes, we have a lot of things in the zoning code that things that we didn't have 50 years ago and that we're trying to get in that are going to require deep thought and many years of iterations to deal with them. So, you know, the thing about the gas stations, we're not going to solve gas station issues, but we're definitely going to kind of what I'd like to see us do is supplement what's going to be anticipated that's going to be in the zoning upgrade. Some of the questions are going to have to be anticipated. Nobody's going to come in and say, "Oh, we got it figured out." And it's going to be an iterative process. So I, you know, wanted the staff, let's try to get ahead of some of that thinking so that we're we're kind of prepared for the context of it. And that's going to happen on several issues. I mean, Miriam, you mentioned there was 10 or 12 that you thought they're going to require some deep digging in our part as we go forward. So, um, I'm looking forward to it. I I think is we got to start. I got a couple more that I could add, but I'll wait till next wait till next year. >> All right. Thank you. Um, yes. I'll just echo my fellow commissioners. It's it's great to hear that we're all concerned about staff and your your ability to um do all these great things. You know, we want to make sure we're not overworking you here at the commission. So, but we also appreciate your willingness to um help us look into these priorities. Um I think it's something that a lot of us have had on the top of our minds for quite a while. And um to Commissioner Garindia's um comments earlier, it's great to have a a process for bringing them up and also helping prioritize and then perhaps changing track throughout the year if if need be as different items come up as I'm sure they will. So, um, I just want to extend my thanks and gratitude to you, Miriam, and Don, and the rest of the staff for helping us move these items along and looking forward to hearing about them more throughout the year. >> Yes. >> Um, sure. >> You mentioned that we there would be 15 days notice given before a hearing in regards to data centers. Has there been discussion on how to communicate that and clarify that publicly because there's a lot of misinformation uh in the public going on about timeline? I think there was a meeting where there was like an amendment to something. I just saw a lot of public discussion that I think maybe was misinformation misinformation based off what you said. So, I'm wondering if there's been any conversations about just providing that clarity to the public that, you know, there's a commitment on our end that there'll be at least a 15-day notice before there any any hearing would take place. >> Yeah, I think Yeah, I can only speak to the the regulations. Um I Yeah, I think yeah, at minimum we could make sure that's captured on our website so when people go looking, they get that information and assurance. Um, and >> reshot it and send it to my constituents. So, that's great. >> Sure. Yeah. Um, and then communication. I I we often lean on some partners. >> I don't think I've seen that, but feel free to share that with me and I'd be able to look at and see what we can do to uh clarify that. >> It's pretty rampant. So, I would recommend maybe we just talk offline about how to put out a statement or, you know, I think officials just clearing it up, not even getting into the waffle of public discussions, especially on social media, but I think just a way to put out some public information that that's a commitment from our end because I think that there's definitely some great misinformation there. Okay. Thank you. >> Glad you two are having that discussion because remember some of the topics the ceiling the city is dealing with have some silos as to where they're going. Meaning there may be at this venue or in our venue or somewhere else. So reminding that to the mayor's office is a good thing because there's not like a data center portal for all things data center that's being managed. So we we do try and share all things data center on our portal. >> Please do. Yes. >> Yeah. So but as soon like I guess we haven't we've talked about the date and we haven't um I guess cross all the tees and dotted the eyes yet. >> Yeah. What I can for the public I I had pulled commissioners for their availability. the best availability looked like May 7th and we have found a space because this boardroom will be under renovation. What we're trying to work through now is staff has some scheduling conflicts that we're trying to see if we can resolve. But I don't want personally to um kind of delay any further than is just logistically necessary because I know there's I feel that that there is a need and I know there's a public desire to um move the process forward and getting some regulations and standards in place. Is there there's a hope that there'll be a vote on the regulations on the May 7th meeting? Are there plans to uh display I guess like our agenda would have what we would be voting on officially by that date? >> Yeah. So the the date of the hearing will be posted 15 days in advance as will the updated recommended regulations. Now, discussion could lead to any number of changes during the meeting, but the um regulations that would be voted on will be part of that 15-day advanced posting. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Did the staff engage any experts in this process? >> Yes. Um >> and the staff has become experts to Yeah. We're trying um yeah I think experts from a variety of perspectives you know we kind of environmental advocates we we have engaged and I'm I think going to not name any but no we have tried to engage experts from a sort of spectrum of points of view so environmental um advocates also people who develop um data centers or operate them and also firms that design data centers. They have been really helpful on informing kind of well, you know, the standards that are state-of-the-art and that we should as a city consider just expecting as a baseline. Um, we've also spoken with people who understand much better than I ever will. I think the um landscape of utility policy and how all of this could impact rateayers. So yeah, we we've tried and and um people in other cities and also um people that are cities who operate in the same like regional transmission territory that we are within the not MISO but myo regional transmission territory. Um, and yeah, people at other cities to see what they're doing and what seems like it's worked well and not worked well. But if anybody online or commissioners have recommendations about other people who may have expertise to lend, I always interested in a conversation because there's a lot to learn. I just wanted to make comment that we are unfortunately on the bleeding edge of developing rail regulations, zoning regulations. Um, and when I I did a scan of what other um, uh, cities have passed in terms of related to data centers, um, when I was doing like a legislative scan and the only thing I saw over and over again were moratoriums, aka kicking the can down the road. So, um, I thank our staff for, um, I guess we're putting our neck out there with trying to put regulations on paper. >> Why don't we offer Miriam a seat somewhere? >> That's all. It's all good. It's been a team effort. I'll say big team. >> All right. Well, thank you, Miriam. Thank you, commissioners. Assuming no more questions, could is there a recommendation for this? >> Um, actually I I didn't write one out, but I think it would be to vote to a affirm the priorities for the coming year as presented in the memo. >> So moved. >> Second. >> It has been moved by Commissioner Miller, seconded by Alderwoman Sonier. Call for vote, please. >> Previous role. >> Call for previous role. Any objections? Hearing no objectives, we have passed with previous role. Thank you very much. >> All right. And >> observation. >> Yes. >> One, we're very much appreciative that this came up as a task for us to undertake and have as a regular basis from last year. It's really helpful um and and important to be able to say, okay, let's get the whole collective body making some decisions as opposed to things dropping in. So very much appreciative of that. Um and of course there's a lot of work on people's tables. Um and so have some prioritization is good. So >> very good. Thank you, Don. >> All right. With that, we have twoformational items tonight. Um the first being a plan area 6 update which looks like we'll get from James. Good evening commissioners. My name is James Fister, senior planner with the planning urban design agency. It's a treat to see you all this evening. Uh I don't need anything from you tonight. This is just anformational update. Uh and I'm very excited to share this because uh normally I'm speaking to you about, you know, more citywide initiatives, whether it's the zoning text amendment, uh or the land use plan. Uh but I have uh been joining partially the neighborhood planning team uh under plan STL and I'm managing one of the plan areas in Plan STL and it's plan area 6, one of the more recent ones and it is covering the Mark Twain I70 industrial neighborhood. And I uh apologize to you all and to Dylan. Our clicker's not working and I got a lot of slides and I'm going to move fast. So, it might be a little little herkyjerky and I apologize, but I'll I'll try to move swiftly because I really want to engage uh in some discussion and answer any questions that you might have because this is the first time you're hearing about uh plan area 6 uh in this setting. So, there are a couple things that make plan area 6 unique. Uh first and foremost, plan area 6 covers exactly one neighborhood within the city of St. Louis. All of our plan areas previously and the ones that we have planned cover a cluster strategic cluster of neighborhoods. This is just for the Mark Twain I70 industrial neighborhood. It's in the northnorwest portion of our city pretty much right at uh Interstate 70 and the city limits. And there are two main goals with this plan. One, craft a communitydriven data-informed neighborhood plan that meets the high standards of this body and the standards set forth by plan STL, but with an expanded focus and emphasis on local and regional economic development opportunities that are present in this neighborhood. Next slide, please, Dylan. So, I'll spend a couple of slides just sort of describing the area for those who aren't super familiar. So this is the uh boundaries of the neighborhood and the boundaries of the plan area, the study area itself, I7 to the north, uh natural bridge to the south, Kings Highway to the east, and the city limits to the west. Next slide, please. Just some aerial imagery. Uh next slide, please. You can really see uh in the yellow that is all of the residential areas in the neighborhood. That's another thing that makes this neighborhood unique. There are only about 800 residents in the neighborhood right now. They are all on these residential blocks to the west of Goodfellow. The rest of the neighborhood is occupied by a mix of commercial, industrial, lots of industrial, some manufacturing, and a decent amount of vacant land. I'll spend some time talking about it. Go back one more, please don't. I'll spend some time talking about this later, but the sort of gray shaded areas with the blue dotted outlines are the opportunity areas uh that have been identified through this planning process. These are vacant or soon to be vacant large parcels that are a pretty fantastic uh opportunity to reinvigorate the industrial area here. uh bring lots of you know jobs, lots of makers back to an area that has a long and proud legacy of industrial and manufacturing. Go ahead, Dylan. Next slide. Uh this >> owners of those large parcels. >> Oh, we'll we'll dig into it. But one of the opportunity areas is owned by the city. Another or the other two are currently owned by the federal government. one of the opportunity areas. Uh the city has the right of first refusal and the disposition process is sluggishly moving along. The third opportunity area. Uh the disposition timeline is kind of up in the air, but we're setting our plans now so that if slash when this site becomes available for the city, uh we want to know what we're going to do on it. Uh this view, uh you know, shows us looking east, southeast a little bit. This is the city limits. This is a major entrance into the city. The boundaries are there for this neighborhood. Uh 150,000 vehicles pass the intersection at I70 and Goodfellow every single day. Around 40% of those are big trucks. This is a big opportunity not just for, you know, recreating an entrance into our city, but taking advantage of the existing traffic, uh, getting more cars, getting more trucks in and out of this industrial area in a way that makes sense, that is safe, that is supportive of the neighborhood, and really brings jobs back. Keep going, Dylan. Uh, tons and tons of advantages to the location of these industrial areas. uh proximity to the riverfront to the airports to major hubs of of commercial and innovation activity right now whether that's ranking and amic cortex and the hospitals and the universities the NGA campus uh WashU and U Boeing just a little bit to the west and northwest um really really strategically located. It's hard to overstate how great it is to be right there on Interstate 70 in the heart of the city. Um really high quality rail X access uh still exists throughout the neighborhood. Lots of spurs to the major rail lines there that are still exist uh untapped potential there or previously tapped potential that is no longer being tapped. Go ahead Dylan. Uh so because this plan area is a little bit different from some of the ones that uh plan STL has been doing work on and has adopted plans for uh the RFP uh for services here was geared much more towards people who are used to making um you know industrial scale uh plans. We wanted a team that showed not just highquality neighborhood planning experience, but experience working in bustling economic uh hubs uh with a focus on manufacturing and industrial. So the project leadership is uh interface studios. You might recognize that name. They've done some planning work in St. Louis. Most recently the design downtown STL plan uh that was adopted in 2020. So they know uh a lot of the players and a lot of the leadership that that persists in in the region and that's been really helpful. Uh there are three local subconultants public design bureau well known to our department and this body for engagement but also lock Mueller and Meny Consulting taking on transportation and sustainability and infrastructure planning. Next slide Dylan. Uh there are two phases to this plan. The first one is about 90% wrapped up. I say 90% wrapped up because uh nothing's done until it comes to this body and the neighborhood blesses it and the planning commission blesses it and we adopt it. But the first phase is focusing just on those opportunity sites I nodded to earlier. uh there was a a identified need when we were deciding to uh plan for this area to move quickly in establishing a vision and a plan for those three major vacant opportunity sites. So that actually happened the majority of the work happened last fall between August and December. I'll I'll spend some more time walking out or talking about that. Uh, but now we're in the heart of the actual neighborhood plan, sort of traditional pre plan crafting process. That's what we're in now. Go ahead, Dylan. So, a close look at these opportunity sites. As I mentioned, opportunity site one, uh, locally referred to as the slap site, St. Louis Army ammunition plant site. It's vacant. Uh, the city owns it. LCR owns it. It is almost entirely cleared. There's a still a standing building on the southern portion of the property. Uh but SLDC is in the process of contracting with a firm to clear it. So that is the uh most promising near-term uh redevelopment site. The other two sites are owned by the federal government. Uh opportunity site 3, which is the former Goodfellow Federal Center, uh we're in that slow process of disposition. uh SLDC and the city thought we would be further along in that now, but the government shutdown from last fall slowed some things down a little bit and also there are some additional EPA reviews uh underway. These sites uh have a lot of contamination and there's a varying degrees of cleanliness throughout the sites. Uh it is most likely that the slap site and the Goodfellow Federal Center will never have residential uh uses on them. That's fine. That's not really where this plan is is is leading. Uh but they will be cleaned uh whether by the federal government or by us to make it safe for commercial warehousing, uh industrial manufacturing, things of that kind. Opportunity site 2, which is the the former US Army Reserve site, it's vacant. All signs are pointing towards the federal government wants to get rid of it. We just don't really have a conversation stream about that at this time. Um you might notice that the boundaries of opportunity site 2 have changed a little bit. There's a dotted yellow line. That's because some really fortunate for the the area reinvestment by the US JobCore facility which is on Stratford at Goodfellow almost. um they are reinvesting in their property. They are a really high quality jobs training program and they actually have around 300 students living on their campus and they're uh they've been building. So it it it's good reinvestment. It's kind of shrinking what we thought would be the opportunity site boundaries, but it's you know they've been a great partner and they've been involved in the planning process so far. Next slide, Dylan. uh in order to help craft a plan or a strategy for these opportunity areas, we put together a working group, um there have been some really fantastic conversations, some challenging conversations from uh very intelligent local and regional stakeholders, Greater St. Louis, St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, Missouri State, uh AMC, the Freightway, MDOT, Amron, Spire, and and more. Uh there's been representatives from both residents and uh existing businesses in the area in these working groups as well providing their their input and guidance. Next slide, Dylan. The feasibility analysis for the opportunity areas was sort of uh this beautiful dance between the planning goals which are on the screen here. Um those were established by the working group um but largely determined by the city PDA and the neighborhood planning team and SLDC what the market can support and what the uh present site constraints are for the neighborhood or for the opportunity sites. Next slide Dylan the final report of the the feasibility analysis for the opportunity sites will be made public with the full plan. So that's why I kind of said oh we're 90% done with this. We want to make sure that we're not, you know, stamping anything until the full neighborhood plan has also been completed. Uh there's a we want to make sure that, you know, all of the traditional neighborhood planning process is h happening in concert with the sort of expert market analysis of what's feasible on those opportunity sites. I don't imagine it to change that vastly, but you never know what what comes to light through these these planning processes. But high level, what uh this plan is going to be proposing for these opportunity sites is what we're calling a modern flex industrial campus or district. some sort of district-wide planned redevelopment that's focused on a a specific uh size and um you know market attractiveness for like flex midsize industrial and manufacturing. Um our economic development subconsultant did some really fantastic analysis about what St. already has and what it's missing. Looking at the existing building stock all across the city for industrial and manufacturing, what's lacking. Um, so we're kind of looking at these sort of uh mid to smallcale uh flexible uh sites where you know firms that grow out of some of our great incubators and innovation centers in St. Louis can move into rather than having to go elsewhere because we just don't have the size or location. that's appropriate for whatever these firms want to do or produce. Next slide, please, Dylan. This is uh not something to fall in love with. This is just one uh you know, draft of what a potential site plan could look like for the new opportunity sites. None of these, we're not married to any of these uses. Um but I wanted to show you the some of the things that we're thinking about. We're thinking about introducing new circulation throughout the the area. We're thinking about a mix of uses on and off these major parcels while also acknowledging that there's incredible opportunity outside of the opportunity areas at Natural Bridge and Goodfellow on the west side of Goodfellow uh just south of I70. Um so these are these are the directions in which we're thinking but nothing set in stone. Yeah. Next slide please. Now all of this sort of uh bleeds into the actual neighborhood plan creation which is underway now. Uh in last fall, we uh sought applications for the neighborhood planning committee. Uh it was formed officially January of this year. Uh there are 15 members. We're we're pleased that every single resident of the neighborhood who applied to be on the neighborhood planning committee was accepted and is on the committee. The rest of the members are business owners or property owners uh within the neighborhood. But we also have one long-term resident who no longer lives in the neighborhood, but she is an experienced local architect, and we just thought her her voice would be be really powerful. Um, we've got a mix of public meetings, neighborhood planning committee meetings. We also have a full slate of roundts with local stakeholders and interviews with business owners uh including uh representatives from Union 70 which is one of the largest sort of um industrial campuses existing inside of the neighborhood. Um and all of that will be happening in this month and next month. Uh it's a pretty quick process as you can see. We want to adopt the plan by uh the end of this summer or early this fall. Um and it's it's possible when we have a geography that is uh tighter and we have a an incredibly motivated resident population and business community within there. Uh we we can do a lot of things well and quickly. Go ahead, Dylan. We also are benefiting from one adopted plan just to the north. The Mark uh the Walnut Park east and west and Mark Twain neighborhood plan was just adopted and plan area 4 to the south and to the west. That's underway as well. So we're all working in concert us and the plan STL team. Next slide, Dylan. Some early takeaways from our engagement is that there is really fierce pride in this neighborhood. There aren't that many of them. Uh but even the residents or the residents and some of the business owners really enjoy living and working where they do and they want to see it uh you know reach some some grand heights again. Pretty much everybody is united around the notion that this plan is about jobs. Um this neighborhood has about 3,000 less jobs in it than it did 10 years ago. A lot of that has to do with the federal government closing down its offices there. But there are just less people going in and out of the neighborhood to work. Uh, and it's noticeable. It's also nice that the residents are very proud of the industrial legacy. This is a direct quote from one of our NPC members. We want to make things again. Uh, they want there to be jobs in the neighborhood. They want those jobs to be attainable by the people in the neighborhood. Um, there are uh myriad of concerns about public safety, particularly dumping being adjacent to St. Louis County and the maintenance of infrastructure in and around the neighborhood. There is a sense of a lack of support from the the city, the amorphous city. So, we're trying to rebuild that relationship. Uh, also residents and businesses are showing a a willingness to shift from previously adopted plans in order to capitalize on the opportunity of these sites and of the industry. Here, mostly I'm nodding towards plans for the slap site. Previous plans have indicated that it should be regional commercial activities. Uh there's still an appetite for retail and commercial in the neighborhood, but the positioning of the site, the fact that it's in city ownership, uh the conditions on the site, I think we're starting to learn that maybe the best option is to have it be more productive. Industrial manufacturing, that's all going to come out in in in the plan. Next slide, please. We've drafted a vision statement. It's fantastic. We've got a couple of goals. We're working on strategies. Next slide, please. Uh there are about 20 slides of just existing conditions. Uh in case you all ask me questions, I will refer to them, but we're not going to go through them all. Uh that's the end of of uh my presentation and I would love to answer any questions if you have them. >> I'll make one comment that uh this federal land that's been involved. Congressman Clay was very very helpful in us getting the old slap site. Uh the dance that's now being done about the current disposal of the federal land uh seems to have a few more dance steps than used. Put it that way. >> All right. Thank you. I'm just going to open up any commissioners that have any questions. >> I've got one. Um >> I drive that all the time and you're right, it's well used, but MDOT, there's some real challenges with access on 70, the curvature of the road, the grade change there to increase usage of trucks. There's going to have to be some major reconstruction as you go forward. Has that been I know that's been discussed probably. >> Yeah, we are. Speaking of dancing, uh MDOT is um challenging to get a lot of hard information from. They also are a decent sized land owner in the neighborhood, mostly because of strange weird remnants of rideway. Um there's a oddly shaped parcel in between Riverview and 70. um that there's a long-term lease for someone storing trucks on it and they aren't telling us anything about it and we sure would like that to become productive land again. Uh but we are we are continuing to have discussions with MDOT also with um the regional freightway to see what are the sort of long-term visions and long-term needs. Uh something that we haven't done yet uh is engage with our uh regional uh planning organization but uh that's on the list as well. >> Are you good? >> Yeah. So I have a question. Um Goodfellow itself is enormous going through this area. >> It is wider than Interstate 70. Yeah. Uh at Goodfellow. >> So >> what they're doing right now? Well, right now there's a uh resurfacing and safety improvement project that's ARPA funded. It's under construction right now. Okay. We're we're basically considering those improvements temporary. This plan will come out with, you know, enhanced recommendations for what the corridor should or could become, but at least for right now, there's the safety improvement project underway. >> Okay. >> Thought they were reducing a lane. >> Uh yeah, I believe they're losing a lane on both sides. So, it's going from >> eight >> eight to six. Yeah. So still, >> yeah, I just it's uh >> I know this is an industrial area, but that corridor clearly seems to have a blighting impact in its current state and um much less the mismatch between the probably the modal demand and the facilities that are provided along it and all of those. I just you hadn't mentioned that that was part of the study. I was just asking if that's >> one of our early thoughts is how do we like we want trucks to get off 70 at Goodfellow. How do we get them off Goodfellow as soon as possible? So, we're, you know, we are trying to tease out what would interior circulation look like if we can get people off Goodfellow either right at the north of Slapsite or they come down to Stratford and come off there and then trucks are not going between Stratford and uh Natural Bridge unless they're for some local delivery. Um, so we're aware of that and that is a big concern of the residents. Nobody wants to walk along uh Goodfellow. Nobody wants to bike along Goodfellow no matter how great the uh um the bike paths will be on there right now. It will change. >> Encouraging good driver behavior can be an issue too, right? So yeah, um that's all I wanted to Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'm just also looking forward to what Lock and Minky has to say about what to do here. I mean, I want to see some grandiose ideas about what to do. Um, I mean, I think about yeah, just going on good fellow. It's like it's a highway. It's too wide, which leads to uh bad behavior. >> Uh, at least so far, man has been really helpful in um uh rainwater management and flooding in the district. uh we we know in some capacity we're going to recommend as a part of a district-wide development is uh district uh rainwater management so that it's not on the individual property owner. It's more handled at a district route because right now there's no flooding concerns because there's no one using these parcels to complain about uh flooding issues. But we know if these become if there's a lot more pavement, a lot more buildings, we're going to have to address it. Did you mention was there like a market analysis or economic development study done as part of the plan? >> Uh yeah, as a part of the uh opportunity sites uh feasibility study about like what the regional market can support from a use standpoint on these parcels. >> Did they make a report for that? Can I see? >> Uh you can't see it yet. Uh it's in text draft form. Uh, our plan of stale staff is still reviewing it. Um, critical partners in this have been SODC staff. Uh, so Rob or Steve Davis, Peter Phillips, we're going to let them review it as well because they've been integral in in um in crafting all of this. We also are treading a little carefully. We don't want to tip the city's hand too much about how great and how redevelopable these parcels were, lest the federal government say, "Well, actually, we want a lot more money for uh these sites." Uh, but I would I would be really happy to discuss in a in a meeting some of the findings. Um, there are some uh early findings in these slides here. Uh but I I don't um I don't know if time will allow us to go through them all. Actually, no. I I excised them. I apologize. Um but our um Kevin Hively, who's the economic sub, he uh has done a lot of work for Target, for Ross, Dress for Less, and one other large retail firm. and he used some of those uh relationships and he pulled data and uh he was not hopeful about the general sort of commercial or retail uh prospects for these large sites. >> Um one of the dynamics that we certainly have to be conscious about is the area to the north and north city has lost 25,000 people. So the market dynamics of being within these neighborhoods that have facilities being near you is tough. >> And so we're trying to make sure that in the neighborhoods to the north that have lost some u key facilities that it's possible to have them come to this site. So that's very much a dynamic that they're looking at. And as Sterling knows, just south of this site, there is a Snook store. Uh, but we're always get a little nervous about whether we're getting them to be vital in staying. So, we're really appreciative of the mix of talent in this team about market and support and incentives that we can use to help get this stuff. >> Two two more questions. Uh was there any uh like research into the other industrial sites along 70 in the region and how this sort of sizes up comparatively >> or or add on to that question identify and like some gaps in the way they are functioning. There hasn't been a deep dive into how nearby industrial operators are fairing, but there was a warehousing and uh industrial like building analysis just like what's the age, what are the floor heights, what are the load weights of existing structures in the city. And we're not doing that great. We have a lot of very old smaller scale industrial buildings. So that at least is informing what the you know sort of recommended building type on these opportunity sites may be. Um I think that's that's all I've got. >> And then my last one was is were was there any convening of like uh leaders in like the key industries of St. is to ask what their perspective is on. >> We we have had um there's been good synergy with the uh zoning upgrade. There was an industrial users uh roundt that plan area 6 meaning me uh attended and took part in that was informative. Uh we continue to have um interviews with organizations like uh AMC STL has been very supportive but 39 North Cortex um we we know that there are good examples of major district level redevelopment and incubators that have happened in the city that we want to learn from. We're not trying to recreate that. we know the sort of flavor that we want to uh attach to this district. It's advanced manufacturing. It's it's it's uh it's industry innovation rather than you know like the tech medical stuff that we already have existing in the city. So we're trying to learn from the people that have have done it well so far in the region >> and Rob or and GSL were working on those type of things before we started to say let's focus under the umbrella of neighborhood planning. >> Yeah. James, let me have one more question about the the um plan to have SLDC and I wanted to kind of direct this to Don to SLDC to participate and sit in on this planning process which is key. >> But the same concepts apply to our residential plans. >> Yeah. Our residential plans point out we have economic challenges in a lot of these neighborhoods and we give them site plans. We give them land use plans but we don't really give a way to get the financials to work driving valuation is a economic thing and I think SLDC you know we're talking about spreading ourselves thin but I think that component could be added to our neighborhood plans to help them because there's some consistent it's not like they have to do it for every plan all five or six of those neighborhoods plans have the same economic profile and could be assisted by having SLDC focused on the residential and the small commercial versus the industrial. >> Yes. >> So yeah, I I believe one of the commissioners last month said, "Are you learning anything from these neighborhood plans that we can just, you know, like use in the like in successive plans?" And I think that will be key in updating the uh standards for plan STL plan adoption that we're going to do later this year. Um, also we are working closely with the other plan areas because uh, Commissioner Williams made a good point about the existing industrial areas in plan area 2. There are also large pockets of existing industrial just south of Natural Bridge in plan area 4. And we don't want them to reinvent the wheel we're actively >> riding on. And one last thing, so you you mentioned Union 70s, they've been pretty successful. What are the the feedback and their feeling? Um the other Kim Line, >> it's a big chemical. They've done a lot of expansion in the area. They're east of Union. >> Yep. >> But they've also done some expansion. What are So what are those those users that are there right now that have been there in 15 20 years? What are they involved? Yeah, th those are the ones we're trying to loop in. Now, it's easier. It's been easier to engage with Union 70 and also Park7 is a smaller business complex on Goodfellow because it's easier to, you know, get one representative from them. Um but uh there is a surprising amount of vacant or at least underproductive privately owned land it right there in between Union and Kings Highway. And it's a goal of this portion of the planning process where we're sort of shifting focus away from the opportunity areas to lend what we've learned from those three site analyses to apply them on these smaller disjointed sites or to help people like Chemline to sort of scale up what they're doing. Um that sense that the the you know there's been no help from the city is kind of pervasive in the area not just from residents but from the business owners as well. So, a lot of them have no interest in talking to me and I'm trying to rebuild that relationship because it's it's time to to hear, you know, what are the things that we can we can do better because that that's what the the plan's for. >> And you'll be back before us another time. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Uh I'm really excited about this plan. Uh my knowledge of the area is extremely limited. I've I regularly worked and partnered with a warehouse on San Francisco and Kings Highway. >> So I like that that tiny little corner of the plan I I really only traveled, you know, there and back. Um they were and just that smallcale industrial um could be so much better. Um and but I have no idea about all the stuff behind it. So, um I'm very excited to um have this plan be completed and to learn more about this area. Um so, and I think um I think the as much as we should have SLDC be involved in neighborhood planning, I would love to see I guess more um I guess clarity on how neighborhood plans influence SLDC priorities, too. So, >> um maybe um the commissioner next to me make that happen. >> And remember, one of the things that sometimes that's forgotten is all chapter 99s need to be in compliance with the neighborhood plans. >> Uh very, this is just my own independence on not had any other conversations. Um but uh speaking as a board member of SLDC specifically um I'm definitely we are definitely having conversations about how we might be able to support the implementation of these plans. I think we've been uh very pleased and happy with the community engagement and definitely are aware that members of the public who have engaged do also have a level of frustration of you know how many times we sit at the table. Um, and so I can say that as a collective, like as a board member for SLDC and then as an alderwoman, I can say that, you know, I think that we should have conversations um about sustainable opportunities of funding neighborhood plans. Um, we have Ecodo taxes and many other things. I think that it would be worthwhile to have a conversation. It may have to accumulate a while before you might be able to do it. Um, but I definitely have heard the the frustration and share the concern that these great plans will sit on shelves and so um I'm definitely interested in being supportive of having political conversations of additional funding opportunities and you know whatever entities need to be at the table um to make sure that these things do not just sit on desk and we're great at the time and but in 20 years we haven't like taken steps further and I think that definitely should not be a responsibility of the planning commission um solely. I think you guys have done your parts once you produce the plans and it is uh other agencies such as SODC and other you know entities and leaders who have to step up and figure out how to really get it to the next step of execution. >> So I'll give you a sidebar of that. Uh SLDC is not eligible for a direct appropriation agency. >> They do get a subsidy via us and we're changing the job description because we pay for some of our staff. It's the transition managers to help with their cities engagement and we're changing the job description such that if they are to get funding from us, they will do planning. >> Fabulous. >> And I I do want to take this opportunity to shout out Chvet Wayne who is the neighborhood transformation manager uh for this neighborhood. She has been an a really invaluable asset in getting community members and stakeholders and businesses on board and also the support of the local neighborhood improvement specialist Jordan Simon. So this really is a multi-EP departmental effort >> transition to now that as we adopt and you were there when we adopt >> is is about getting implementation having it's nice to have somebody that's participating some engagement but also now is the plan is task Any comments from folks online? >> I have one more question, quick one. Um, you've talked about the opportunity sites, but this is described as a neighborhood plan. What's the level of investigation or recommendation for the rest of the, you know, the rest of the neighborhood boundary, I guess? >> Um, we are, you mean outside of the opportunity areas? What's the general recommendation? Um there are some redevelopment tools uh that the opportunity sites will likely or could take advantage of that the rest of the industrial ne like neighbors could also take advantage of the some of the uh implementation tools that will apply to the opportunity sites will apply to the rest of the industrial areas. when it comes to the uh residential or commercial areas, we're we're still goal setting. Now, um this is a small area uh of residential, really uh fantastically intact, not a lot of vacancy in the neighborhood. Uh very few vacant lots in the neighborhood. So the a lot of the strategy around the residential areas is uh strengthening and reinforcing rather than rebuilding. Um what are those sort of uh what are the connective tissues uh that we can support in the neighborhood rather than you know rebuilding things from from the ground up. uh but the community is very interested in the commercial corridors themselves and what are the ways in which the city whether it's from an infrastructure standpoint or an incentive standpoint to bring businesses and uh foot traffic back to those areas. That's what we're we're investigating now. Uh and already uh the alderwoman Pale Boyd has been a great partner in it and we look forward to continuing that. Is there any value in extending that internal circulation pattern that's conceptualized right now into the connect it to the other industrial areas of the neighborhood or or no? >> That that would be great. Uh we're sort of constrained by the railed and also by the footprint of Union 70 itself which crosses the railed. Um, but we are going to be making some recommendations about Riverview and Bircher and total circulation throughout the neighborhood. The only thing that we've actually produced options for at this point is in the opportunity sites, but it we're considering it. >> Okay. I was just thinking the opportunity to take more truck traffic off of your main arterial pipelines through these internal circulation patterns. >> There's also uh ownership issue issues. A lot of the streets within the neighborhood, particularly within Union 70, have been vacated and are private streets owned by Union 70. >> Um there are a couple of streets that are owned by the city by uh >> LC. Thank you. Um and and those are really great opportunities, but also looks bad when they're not wellmaintained because we own them. >> Thank you, Chris. Thank you. >> Right. One last comment for me. Um, I do just want to echo I think Commissioner Fowler's comment that, you know, it's this is such a unique neighborhood in the city that we don't, you know, normally focused on on these residential areas and how to bring them in to have a whole area basically to dream big and a blank slate is is a unique opportunity. So, I would encourage to think and it sounds like you are thinking of ways to really move forward with that. One thing that I do want to um ask though is um if and how the planning team is talking about how we're connecting it is sort of an insular neighborhood and the fact that it's so industrial connecting to the neighborhoods surrounding it. Um for example, you know, maybe one day in the future Green Line something will continue up Natural Bridge and you know connect to the neighborhood. We heard in the adoption of the plan last month that the residents just to the north of here lack quality parks, green space. Has there been any consideration for using some of the vacant land for that? I know they're separated by a highway, so that makes it challenging, but just some of those things on how how this can connect to the communities around it. >> Um, yeah, great points. We're particularly to green space, we're considering it. There is a uh frequently used uh public park in Pine Lawn just across the city limits that the neighbors at least within this neighborhood say they use regularly. Uh Barrett Brothers doesn't get that much use. It certainly did when some of our legacy residents were growing up. To that point, uh of the members of the NPC who are residents, the shortest tenur one is 12 years and the longest tenur one is 53 years. Three of the members of the neighborhood planning committee have lived in the neighborhood for more than 50 years, one of them for more than 30 years. So, I'm I'm really leaning leaning on on them and so far they haven't let me down. They're great. >> All right. >> Thank you very much, James. >> Thank you all. >> All right. With that, we will move into our lastformational item of the evening. >> And you very important stuff. I want to remind you as James walked up a mention, he's actually part of Miam's staff that were loaning to help. >> We're one big family, >> right? >> I was even working on a joke about how it's like when you have family who lives down the street. I feel like that's the zoning team now. And we come over with Oh, we should bring food more often. Anyway, um yeah, so I I just want to start by saying, you know, Miriam Keller of the Planning Urban Design Agency, but this zoning upgrade work has really been a huge team effort. Um and Mary Hart Burton is here with us tonight, as is um Andy Powers on her team, who maybe you haven't all gotten to know very well yet, but has very quickly hit the ground running with us as part of this work. Um so, zoning upgrade. Oh, actually, do you have the other PDF pulled up? Um, so Code Studio couldn't be here tonight, but I thought it would be good to kind of just make sure the commission is aware of where all things stand and kind of the high level of um what we are putting out into the public for discussion and uh comment with the zoning upgrade. I'll follow up by email to make sure you have kind of easy access to all these materials, but just wanted to give you sort of a quick picture of where things are, the types of ideas that we're putting out there with the draft districts, standards, draft use tables, and um the draft map. There's a lot of draft zoning now. Yeah. So, quickly project overview and timeline. this review of course um you keep going down. So I don't need to explain to you why why we're doing this but big opportunity for kind of a holistic update to our zoning code. Here's still the timeline we're on which is um that we just put out that draft modules one and two. Modules are kind of what we're calling these mini phases within the project. um and got those out at uh some workshops and a virtual webinar and a bunch of other things in late March, early April. And now our next module is to develop draft development standards which would layer on top of those district standards and address um things like parking lot design, signage, uh parking standards, and so on. kind of these citywide uh standards that may not be district specific. Our fourth module um is administration. So all of the decision-m processes in zoning, how are those to be handled? Still on target for a full public review draft by this fall and um yeah, that's good with the cursor. um by this fall and that would be just still a big draft available for refinement through uh the winter. So if you scroll down um you can see just a lot of ongoing engagement through public events in person and virtual. We have our resident advisory committee as well as we do the our technical advisory group. Uh we're calling the users working group because ultimately they'll use the new code as well as an interdep departmental uh technical group and a bunch of stakeholders roundtables. James mentioned the industrial operators roundt we had we also had a small business session looking at some of the questions that the draft code raises and so on. So scroll down. Yeah. And then phase two uh um this uh will contain many additional opportunities for review and revision. We'll also be working out how exactly got we get this new code and map online in a really user-friendly way. And then this second phase two will also include the actual kind of approval and adoption process of the code. >> Yeah. Phase one, which is why we're staying on schedule, is funded by ARPA, so we're meeting those um spending deadlines. Um don't fear, we we are uh phase two will be funded by that pro housing grant, which was kind of an intentional strategy to give us more flexibility with time to get this over the finish line and not rush the city in doing this. This is not something that should be rushed. Though I would say overall this is a fairly um uh spritly timeline for a zoning code update. So the exact timeline for phase two we're still working out. I think once we get to this full draft this fall, we'll have a lot more wisdom on um kind of the level of relative kind of comfort the city collectively has and moving toward adoption. Next uh next slide. Yeah. So, draft districts, this is where we are with the code. Of course, the new districts map, district standards are all taking cues from the strategic land use plan. So, this diagram and that is the strategic land use plan. And this diagram has the sloop land uses across the bottom. And then there's a series here that shows how these relate to new draft zoning districts that kind of offer a more um varied pallet for achieving like sightspecific implementation of the land use goals of the land use plan um and kind of with respect to neighborhood context and existing conditions. So those neighborhood ones I'll address first. This first one is neighborhood cottage. So, this is a special zoning district um that we haven't mapped hardly anywhere in the city other than where this is the existing typology, but this would be a special district for things like tiny homes, manufactured homes, home parks, um or even like cottage courts has been a point of feedback we've been getting. Um this would be exclusively residential outside of home businesses, or at least that's what we're proposing in this draft. Um, and so that is kind of a unique one. We've only mapped a little bit, but this would offer a tool for facilitating those housing types um, should they come forward through like a reasonzoning process, >> like co-ops being there, >> like shared kitchen. >> Yeah. Interesting. That kind of gets into Yeah. like building code and special residential use questions and are Yeah. What are the zoning barriers, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I think there's, you know, I guess the question would be like what would be the zoning barriers in any of the base districts to a co-op? I think we should avoid those barriers. Um, but yeah, kind of a shared common space on a block might be more easily achieved through this neighborhood cottage district. So, these next three neighborhood districts we're terming um A, B, and C. And um these allow sort of different levels of kind of flexibility in the number of units on a lot. Neighborhood A, you'll see, allows up to two units plus one ADU per lot. This would be maxing out at 2 and 1/2 stories. and B, neighborhood B would allow up to four units per lot. And then we jump up to three stories. Neighborhood C up to eight units per lot allowing up to three stories. In all of these um these are, you know, almost exclusively residential, right? Um with just uh home businesses being permitted but not commercial uses. But next slide um is this pallet of neighborhood. I don't know if that word works for anybody else, but this um set of neighborhood mixeduse districts which take also this kind of graduated height approach, but generally allow for ground floor um kind of smallcale commercial uses and relatively more um flexibility in the density of housing. but they would be restricted in height to three stories, five stories, eight stories um kind of with respect to where density and height would be appropriate in the city. So the purpose of this is to facilitate that kind of interior to a neighborhood corner commercial um that right now we don't really have I would say a distinct zone for that. We have these zoning districts that are really, I think, built for a mixeduse commercial district or corridor context. The intent here is to um allow for um a little bit more of a mixing of uses within residential districts. you know, we've gotten feedback that um I think there's a desire to even allow a little bit more mixing of uses within primarily residential areas. We've also gotten feedback that people would like less, you know. So, I think with all of these things, we're trying to both get the options with these districts right and then to map them carefully. So that is all the districts related to those neighborhood sloop designations. The next category of zoning districts are all mixed use and you can see the relationships here between the sloop land uses and the zoning districts are a little bit more complex. So again, trying to um to the best of our ability like match context um with appropriate heights and so on cuz some of especially the central areas designations were really broad brush in this loop as you can remember. We kind of had an example of that tonight where the central areas west allows up to 20 stories, but you know, actually regulating land use that way in that specific location would not be very contextsensitive. So, I'll walk through these mixed use districts. Um these generally are just um differentiated by their allowed height with in some cases a um higher intensity or a mixeduse district allowing more height also allowing slightly more um variety of uses. So we have MX3 or the mixeduse threestory buildings um with in all of these MX districts parking would be prohibited between the building and street. Not yet are we regulating um the amount of parking at this time. It's like addressing parking location in these district standards. So that's MX3, MX5. Um, a maximum height of five stories with any combination of residential, retail, office, or civic uses. I should say that's true of all of the MX districts. It could be any combination. Um, so we're not requiring an active ground floor use. Um, it could be residential on the ground floor, it could be entirely office, it could be entirely residential, or it could be a mix of any of those things. uh MX15 and then we've proposed this MX unlimited height district um to allow for some flexibility and creativity in places like downtown where that type of height is appropriate. though we would have some sort of overlay to um kind of limit height around the arch so um the arch isn't overshadowed or um it views aren't aren't blocked so that the policy we kind of have in the city's L district would be maintained in some new way. Um, we do have this commercial general district which would be the only district that allows autooriented uses such as shopping centers or gas stations conditionally in every case or drive-thrus. Um, the building shown here of course is the target at Hampton. Uh this would also this district would also be used in um smaller parcels where there's an intent to continue to allow a little bit more auto orientation with the uses. However, the district standards for this do require and all all this draft, right, at least some part of the building to be brought up to the street. So, um, and in the draft we put out residential uses would not be permitted in this district. We've already gotten feedback that, you know, why do that or, you know, maybe think about that differently. Um, and I I think we've also gotten feedback that, you know, we don't want any auto oriented uses in the city anymore. Kind of on one end of the conversation. on the other end of the conversation, a little bit of a like, you know, these uses will continue to exist in our city, so we need to appropriately guide them with a district like this. We've even gotten a little bit of feedback of like we've been either too generous with the mapping of this. We've also gotten feedback we've been too sparing with the mapping of this. So I think we have a lot of work to do to um rethink or carefully consider this type of idea. So again all very preliminary draft. This is all draft the industrial district. So you can see we have three um industrial mixed, industrial light and industrial heavy. So the industrial mix would allow very light residential uses like maker spaces, creative studios and so on. um as well as retail and residential with a maximum height of five stories. Industrial light would be um areas where we're not allowing residential because industrial uses are a little bit too intensive for that to be compatible. Um industrial heavy would um be reserved for the heaviest industrial uses in the city. And then we have kind of a collection of other districts. Um these campus open space districts and a new potential agriculture district. Um, so the campus districts, I think we're still thinking this through because some current campuses you make use of the underlying zoning districts currently. Um, and some hit barriers and some kind of are fine with that. Um, but other campuses like medical center, Danforth campus use the community unit plan tool. I think we're trying to figure out what would be a consistent policy moving forward for um providing some sort of long-term predictability for these institutional owners um while also some transparency for the community to understand those long-term plans and what is allowed and thinking especially about the edges of campuses to make sure that those are compatible. Um but we do in this draft have a sort of fivetory more neighborhood scale campus and a 25story more urban campus. Two open space districts. One for parks and community space which would be certainly publicly accessible. The other for open space like uh cemeteries or storm water management facilities. Um and then a next slide an idea about what we're calling like or what would be a floating district for agriculture. So, not mapped, but an option that folks could reszone to. Um, urban agriculture permissions would exist in many, many other districts. This district would be reserved for more intensive commercial scale agriculture involving machinery or large numbers of um livestock, animals. So you know we we have had a round table with kind of urban farmers in the city to talk through this idea but also how we should think about um urban a provisions in our base code uh the base districts. So all of this a work in progress. Okay. So that was a run through the districts. Each has now a draft of these standards that show just real real basic dimensional standards. And you can see um we are taking a more form forward approach with this which is you know the intent here. These are um much less detailed than those in the formbbased districts. We um you know we don't anticipate necessarily like regulating material or building type or things like that that our existing formbbased districts do. But um we are trying to get the dimensional standards number one very clear and legible to users of the code but number two just kind of getting some of those urban design basics right. So each district will have a spread of these standards and we're still workshopping all of these. And then we also have a draft use table. So specifically noting which uses would be allowed either um by right conditionally or not permitted. And also many uses would have um use standards which lay out kind of um just in in addition to where things are or aren't allowed um how they would be expected to operate and kind of under what standards um they could operate. Um, all of that is still being drafted as our specific definitions of all of these things. So, again, just working draft and we have taken a a shot at mapping all of these districts citywide. What's that? >> Oh, okay. >> We're having we're having fun draft. Yeah. Uh so um the we shared all of this in some workshops and we didn't you know sit everybody down. It's like hey look at the citywide zoning map tell us what you think. We kind of raise some specific questions that's the draft map kind of raises for specific parts of the city. So for example um one of the facilitated discussions we had at the public workshops was looking at the draft map for patch because it raises some questions about sort of residential and commercial and industrial adjacencies. Those questions are applicable to many parts of the city of course also raised some questions about flooding applicable to many parts of the city. So yeah, some great discussions at these workshops. Um, the process for developing this draft map was referencing of course the sloop as the guiding document with some reference to the existing zoning code and some care in reviewing the existing form-based districts. Um there was an internal working draft for a minute where we just tried to as staff identify like real big red flags and address those before the first public draft was made available. I expect oh well I am certain because we've found many things already in the first public draft that you know there are certainly many mistakes there are certainly many things that will need to be changed in that but the approach we're taking here um intentionally is to get these drafts in front of the community sooner rather than later in the process so we have as much time as possible to collect input and refine. And what's cool is code studio has um I mean I mean zonix is pretty cool but also code studio has yeah great idea Dylan um made all of the draft map oh our competition no uh the draft map draft district standards and draft use table are all online in a sort of interactive commentable format. Um, so that is all on the website and um, boy are the comments coming in which is great. So this will be up through the end of May at which point we'll close things down for a couple of months so the team can review all of the comments and put out another iteration um, of the draft map and draft use table and everything else in July at which point we'll also have the draft uh, development standards to release. So that was a lot. I know this was a relatively light agenda, but uh >> that platform is it a way to like export all the comments into a CSV? >> I'm sure on the back end there is um I don't think the public could. I don't think I could, but the platform that Code Studio is working with, yeah, they they'll have all sorts of ways to do that. So yeah, the intent of this presentation was, you know, code studio is not available, but just wanted to make sure the commission was available of the status of all of this work and um what is to come next. We're trying to work out um that code studio would be available for um potentially a a more comprehensive update and discussion at the June meeting, but we're still trying to nail that down. And at at that point, we may have more of a summary of the feedback that we've received so far. >> Outside of being engaged citizens as how can we be most helpful as a plan? >> Well, I think spreading the word. I think the thinking about June was or kind of some milestone where we have the initial round of like feedback consolidated is that I think getting the commission's um sort of partnership in reviewing that and discussing some of the tradeoffs and ways to balance that feedback in future refinements will be really helpful because um I can guarantee we receive exactly opposite points of feedback um in some of the policy approaches here, some of the mapping choices and so on. I can guarantee because we already have um like I described on that commercial general point. Um I assume the conversation around you know do we want an exclusively single family zoning district will be another important discussion point when we get to parking standards in the development standards that'll be an important discussion. So, I think um as we sort of illuminate and get initial feedback on these like big zoning policy issues, it'll be really good to discuss that with the commission. Uh yeah, I guess a followup on that is like tiebreaker like planning commissions or is this a tiebreaker uh vote on some of these stickiest issues or is that a terrible responsibility that we don't want? Um >> you're you're saying can you >> would is is a way the planning commission can be helpful serving as a tiebreaker when community feedback is otherwise divided. I yeah I think so. I think on so many of these things it often won't be um you know like a a binary decision but yeah I think for the planning commission to provide guidance on um the right sort of balanced approach on some of these sticky issues but yeah I mean the of as you all know the the first official action in this process will be for the planning commission to recommend this code to the board of alderman. So I think that yeah that is exactly the commission's role. >> When you say if this this plan will have will address parking regulations, is there a possibility it wouldn't address parking regulations in terms of like >> we have every option available to us? We could not have a parking minimum. We could have a parking minimum. We could have no parking minimum but a parking maximum. We could do that differently in different districts. We could have um well, I'll leave it there. A whole spectrum of options, but it it's absolutely not a requirement that we require a certain amount of parking. Are you saying it's going to be up to kind of the political discussion is or the community engaged portion? >> Yeah, I think the direction of the strategic landings plan was to have a lot of care about where parking is placed and how it's related to like the pedestrian realm in the interest of walkability. And the direction was to certainly reduce unnecessary parking requirements. Um but we've had a lot of discussion with code studio about how like creating these numbers is just of the you know number of spaces per unit or per number of square feet foot of you know the example that they've used is like well a good restaurant needs a lot of parking. does every restaurant, you know, it it's really >> it's as much art as science. And there is a trend in cities to drop parking requirements all together and let um tenants and builders of buildings decide how much they need for their um use to succeed. But is St. does is that the approach St. Louis wants to take? >> We're not there yet. I don't know. and we're looking at the path to evaluating. You want to just make a little mention about the what I call the three wise men that have been asked to join the team. >> Yeah. Um part of the team are um well they were the also the panelists at the kickoff event um but people who have kind of overseen successful versions of this work in other communities um kind of esteemed uh leaders in this space and they've worked in many other cities and I think we'll be able to when we hit some sticky uh forks in the road. They'll be able to provide some guidance as well. >> I think Don wanted you to name them. >> I would like you to name them then. >> Okay. Oh, no. Uh >> oh, never mind. >> Too late for this, huh? >> Oh, Miriam, is signage included in the zoning? >> It is. Yeah. said that will be part of this next module. Yeah. Um the diagnostic found that that was I think the top generator of variances. Um so it can be a real snag for a lot of businesses in the city. I think a lot of people are eager for us to take a kind of common sense look at where we need to be with that. >> Great. Any other comments? Anyone online? All righty. Thank you very much, ma'am. With that, we'll move into our esteemed executive director's report. >> I'll have many notes here. The first one I want to lean to is as you well, as you know and you've seen even our patents, our patent is very much quality documents, the time and effort to put the presentations together. The workload these days both in terms of time uh in terms of quality that breaks off part of the planning on time is like listening. So when we branded the planning urban science with the cultural resources office and planning uh and our two boards I at the time said we're going to have a meeting as opposed to at 9:30 in the morning another time during work day to be able to have discussions like this with our board members and to make it more readily accessible for for public that just adds a little bit to the workday But the next part of course is you're seeing we're working in so many times and working so hard and diligently so many times. Uh it's in many ways rewarding. It's many ways to make sure you have a good weekend so you get away from it. But it's also this now being a reflection. Scott had to leave a little early. Uh you haven't seen uh Alisia here tonight another meeting. Uh what I'm going to is those senior staff members um if you sat outside the mayor's office or you perhaps much inside you'll see that our senior staff in these various topics of their expertise are often going to the mayor's office to be a participant in a meeting with somebody from another city key regional thing uh to help provide input guidance and uh etc. on a topic that we know. Uh, and that's pretty amazing and wonderful to see because it also reminds us how knitted together the stuff is that we do. So, uh, three cheers to the staff, three cheers for them working very very hard in long hours. Um, neighborhood planning and the tornado has been getting intertwined. You remember that we were made some amendments to the the vil the areas of the vil uh when we adopted it for for being related to the tornado. Jonathan's still working with that uh um neighborhood planning um has still active plans that are working on but mostly as what we've done from our talk with you guys is covered almost the entire north city with our neighborhood planning efforts. Um we're just um worked on a procurement process for our consultants for the next area which is planning area 7. I'll just say in general it's the one that's encompasses Dutchtown and some neighboring areas. Uh and we put out three RFPs to help that. One is our traditional give us a team, this is where we're going follow and respond to that. Um, we got 13 responses of teams from across the country. We've selected one that are going on to ENA. We also at the same time did two other RFPs and we were having fun and enjoying it because because the um Christina is part of our selection process. uh we had one uh Jonathan has been uh very much involved in thinking let's do things active in our communities when we're doing citizen participation and and that's those popup events and you know pretending you're putting in a crosswalk and whatnot. Uh so we solicited uh uh team members firm firm with teams to to uh submit to that. We've selected a team that will be doing that. And then as I mentioned, it's in the Dutchtown area and the neighborhoods around it. Uh the uh percentage of new Americans that are in that geography is huge. Uh and we added Gilberto from the office of new Americans as one of our adviserss as we were doing the the development of the RFP and the scope of work and evaluating them. Uh, and so we're not we're getting a team that will do pop-ups. We're getting a team, not the biggest team, but with all the energy to do uh translation services and then we just tech the bark much bigger than that. Um, it's to be a able to not only speak the words, but be proper in your your actions, understanding who should be what's the cultural stuff that you should be engaging with. And we're pretty excited about who we have for that. We're very excited about Gilberto helping with with advising them. And I think it's frankly going to be a really really fun and heartwarming u process that works in these these new neighborhoods. Uh we've already mentioned the data centers the work on that is being incredible. Uh we we do realize that at times when there's different lanes working in city government uh we got a closeness to Mary and her team but we have to also drag in not drag in make sure we get others in to help uh be working at the pace that we're working uh to be advising that. So that's a big thing. Uh the other thing I've I I put down at the bottom of my list is with new SLDC leadership here uh and um the one of the key things we have to think about a little bit more is our context in the region and we know we have Greater St. Louis Inc. And thankfully the Taylor family helps make sure they have a bias to supporting the central city but they are looking at the whole region. So you know they have places with you know hundreds of acres that might be a place for a data center. So they they'll be doing that. Where I'm getting at is we've come in particularly remember the river divides us. we've come so >> well it defines actually is is is uh the vast population is in Missouri and the vast population is in those suburban cities in Missouri uh in St. Lois County and then beyond. Where I'm getting at is over the decades that I've been here, the use of incentives has somewhat changed in that where the area of blight and need and we've had the the city the state toolbox to use those incentives. Well, now they're showing up more and more in the county jurisdiction. And you know, one of the things I frankly hate um is that the Chesterfield Valley was flooded and then it got protected with a flood wall and uh don't like that. That's a physical thing. But I'll merge over to there are now places like having a new downtown in Chesterfield. They're getting incentives to create that. And so, you know, and they're in a place where market dynamics are pretty positive. That's a longwinded to say that I'm quite concerned about that. So, one of the conversations that we're going to have with Stephen as the new director of SLDC help understand how we're competing in the overall region particularly our colleagues that are using things under state government that was mainly meant for uh places with real bright blight and challenges. how they're using it and they're using that in a way that makes it a competitive tool to us who's used to most of be getting that the use of that tool to make us be competitive. Uh and so glad uh Steven's here. That's in a certain part of things that we have to have our context going forward. So with that, thank you. And uh uh I don't know where we're going, but we're we're going for a drink. All right. Thank you very much, Don. With that, we are come to a close. We have a motion to >> adjourn and move. >> So moved. Second >> and seconded. All right. like >> the devil.