Kirkwood’s City Council is moving into the next phase of a potential redevelopment of the City’s 50-year-old Community Center and the construction of a Performing Arts Center in downtown Kirkwood. At its October 20 meeting, City Council approved a resolution accepting the proposal of Hercules Construction Management to serve as the City’s "Owner’s Representative." An Owner’s Representative will assist the City in the near term with selecting a potential Construction Management at Risk firm and assisting with negotiating a contract for design services.

More info: http://www.kirkwoodmo.org/content/City- ... pment.aspx

Today's Webster-Kirkwood Times has a piece about the proposed vision of parts of downtown Kirkwood. This image from the paper is essentially viewed from above City Hall looking toward the Southeast. KIrkwood Road is the same as Lindbergh Boulevard here.



The article as at this link:
http://www.timesnewspapers.com/Articles ... ld-Be.html

Here is the same area now from Google Maps:
https://goo.gl/maps/KqSzutzai8U2

^^^That's a pretty nice concept, but I'd rather see it spread north and south along Kirkwood Road, rather than to the east. I guess they're being realistic about land acquisition.

Very neat plan. Most ambitious thing in Kirkwood since the Station Plaza got built over the old Target. Land aquisitions shouldn't be too hard as 5 Star Burgers is moving out of its Kirkwood location very soon (I used to work there). Kirkwood Glass has been struggling recently (I heard) and their location doesn't really make sense. My only concern is the building housing Fantastic Sams and Jimmy Johns. Still relatively new and Jimmy Johns just moved in very recently.

If they can extend the Grant's Trail to DTK that would be amazing. Would be a great excuse for Kirkwood to add some kind of bike infrastructure.

My wife and I downsized & sold our house. We couldn't find a condo where we wanted so we are now renting at Kirkwood Station Plaza. We love it. Great view of the plaza and lots of places to walk to. I was sorry that 5-star burgers closed. I really liked it, but I guess location plus new competition doomed it.


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Word on the street is that the Kirkwood location closed because the landlord jacked them when it came to resign a new lease. Same thing happened to Culpeppers when it closed at that spot. 5 Star Burgers was ALWAYS crowded and is still a growing presence in the STL area. Don't be surprised to hear of a new location in the works sometime soon. Hopefully something in the city proper this time.

I went to the preliminary presentation at Kirkwood City Hall last night by a spokesperson from DPZ and Jacobs Engineering. It was all about their ideas for improving the Kirkwood downtown district bounded by Clay, Tayor, Bodley, and Woodbine -- the area running North and South from the train station. DPZ was a designer of Seaside in Florida, and New Town St. Charles.

They had a lot of stats and charts from Jacobs, and they brought up a lot of ideas for improving walkability, parking, and new urbanism ideas on how to retain what Kirkwood has now and make it even more desirable.

They looked at transitions from downtown business buildings to pure single family residential, and suggested that Kirkwood could re-zone areas on the outskirts of downtown for, what they called, the missing middle level of housing. By that they meant small condo buildings that have 4 of 6 condos each, where each condo can have windows on three sides.

They used this graphic:


They said the US had lost of lot of skill in making small condo buildings that almost look like large houses from the outside, but serve as a nice affordable transition from business buildings to single family. And it can increase density of folks living near downtown.

They also talked a lot about walk-ability. For that you need safety, places to go, short blocks for good connections, and interesting things to see on the way. Kirkwood has too many parking lots along streets which make those streets less interesting to walk.

They broke downtown Kirkwood into A streets with all 4 features, and B streets that are OK and maybe necessary, but not as walkable. You could zone A streets to require zero to 1 curb-cuts per block and maybe all-brick, say, to keep them your top interesting streets to walk, whereas B streets you could relax that, but never with parking lots along the street. So McDonalds would then know not to ask about building on an A street where they might need a drive-thru. They could be allowed on a B street. Interesting stuff.

Final polished pitch will be short and presented to the Kirkwood City Council and public tomorrow evening.

Nice! Sounds like a good pitch. It will be interesting to hear what comes of it.

Is this the same Kirkwood that recently tore down a commercial building downtown for a parking lot?

framer wrote: ↑

Oct 19, 2017

Is this the same Kirkwood that recently tore down a commercial building downtown for a parking lot?

And they spent millions for those 40 spaces. That came up in the discussion. The folks who own buildings across the street from that say they get fewer walkers because nobody wants to walk past parking lots. Hopefully KIrkwood will follow DPZ advice going forward and never allow any flat parking along a downtown street again. They showed that there is way more than enough parking if people will go one or two blocks over.

Kirkwoodies got spoiled before Billy G's opened when you could park right in front of where you were going. DPZ pointed out that small businesses may lose some customers who used to park right in front, but likely gain new customers who now park 2 blocks away to get to Billy Gs, and end up waking past their small stores for the first time, and later visit. As they say, it is somewhat healthy to have some level of parking problems. As Yogi said, nobody goes there anymore -- too crowded.

gary kreie wrote: ↑

Oct 18, 2017

They said the US had lost of lot of skill in making small condo buildings that almost look like large houses from the outside, but serve as a nice affordable transition from business buildings to single family. And it can increase density of folks living near downtown.

Like 75% of Ucity? Interesting to get that form into Kirkwood somehow without looking out of place.

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote: ↑

Oct 15, 2017

Very neat plan. Most ambitious thing in Kirkwood since the Station Plaza got built over the old Target. Land aquisitions shouldn't be too hard as 5 Star Burgers is moving out of its Kirkwood location very soon (I used to work there). Kirkwood Glass has been struggling recently (I heard) and their location doesn't really make sense. My only concern is the building housing Fantastic Sams and Jimmy Johns. Still relatively new and Jimmy Johns just moved in very recently.

If they can extend the Grant's Trail to DTK that would be amazing. Would be a great excuse for Kirkwood to add some kind of bike infrastructure.

The paper said 5 Star closed because they were informed of road construction and thought the pain would be too much. Also apparently they got a good deal on the building.

I'd love for Grants Trail to hit Kirkwood or Webster Groves or any kind of walkable commercial district somewhere along the way.

gary kreie wrote: ↑

Oct 18, 2017

Thanks for the summary; I wished I could have gone to one of these presentations, but it was a busy week. I'm encouraged that somebody seems to have the right idea about downtown Kirkwood.

One more thing I'd love is more bus frequency through DTK. If only the Lindbergh bus could run every 15 minutes instead of hourly, you'd hardly need the shuttle.

So the 5 Star space is being taken over by Wasabi. Opening December 14.

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... kwood.html

Here are the final charts from DPZ and Jacobs Architects on their downtown Kirkwood Master Plan suggestions. Fascinating to read suggestions and rationale. I like that at the end of the 91 charts, they have charts they call Zoning Code Acupuncture where they propose targeted changes to the zoning code. Those charts circle the exact zoning paragraphs they believe would address the changes they suggest -- often with exact mark-ups.

http://www.kirkwoodmo.org/mm/files/Plan ... small1.pdf

Key Recommendations:
• Remove code and procedural barriers to developing
smaller multi-family housing projects that will address
demand for “missing middle” homes.
• Actively recruit unique retail to the corridor, particularly
businesses that offer special shopping experiences and/
or successful integration of eCommerce into their
business models.
• Attract more non-chain, fast casual restaurants where
people can grab a quick meal without table service.
• Address parking from a holistic perspective, and
consider transitioning surface lots in prime areas into
higher and better uses.
• Encourage developments that integrate the existing
character of Kirkwood with more modern elements that
are attractive to younger consumers.
• Test the potential market for co-working space in
Kirkwood by doing a pilot project in a currently underused
space.
• Deleted: Commission a hotel market study.
• Consider instead an indepth
retail study.

And here is a one-hour video of the presentation of the charts by DPZ lead.

^ I had no idea that DPZ was doing this. No I kinda wish these pdfs would actually load.

Loads of good stuff in there!

quincunx wrote: ↑

Mar 07, 2018

Loads of good stuff in there!

Such as road diets, infill construction, housing and "Kirk-Walk". I like the "Kirk-Walk" concept a lot, I hope that comes to fruition.

quincunx wrote: ↑

Mar 07, 2018

Loads of good stuff in there!

Agree, the summary and amount of information being one doc is pretty impressive.

I was taken back by the graph showing net population change from 2010 to 2015 believe for respective MSA counties. You get a true sense of the western shift of the region if you ignore state lines and how much gain on the western end of MSA is really at the expense of Metro East as of late which hurts in the long term..

As a lifelong resident I have to admire how ambitious this plan is. Kirkwood has been more or less stagnant since the construction of Kirkwood Plaza. Some thoughts I have:

-I am particularly excited about developing the South side of Argonne. Being such a wide street I always thought it was kind of a waste between the Custard Station and Kirkwood Station. It's already a great corridor but it could be way better.

-The walking area North of Washington surrounding the Walgreens looks amazing, but I have doubts about its feasibility. However if they manage to pull it off it will be a great case study of how to turn box stores into a walkable neighborhood. I also wish them luck getting rid of those gas stations that have become institutions on that corner.

-I totally agree with the need to build some better parking infrastructure. We have so many surface parking lots that would be perfect candidates for mixed use garages. Particularly the site on Jefferson next to PJ's Tavern where perfectly good retail buildings were torn down for surface parking

-One of my favorite parts of this plan is the Kirk-Walk. The area is currently used for parking but already contains a pleasant urban character due to the restaurant patios and rear business entrances. Combined with parking consolidation into a garage to the north, Kirk-Walk looks like one of the most feasible projects on this list. Would be a great bang for their buck.

-Extending Grant's Trail into downtown is the biggest no brainer in this whole document. Why it hasn't been done already is a mystery to me. Connecting the trail turns Kirkwood into a premier biking destination and would bring in new customers to our downtown from all over SOCO. On a slightly unrelated note, the trail really should connect to the Broadway Stip in Carondelet as well, it would be a boon to the area and honestly just makes sense.

^ Kirkwood is one of the communities like Webster Groves and the county that would benefit from a heavy rail commuter offering shared with the UP/BNSF from Alton, IL to maybe as far west as Pacific, MO. Something for morning and evening commutes along with specials timed for games, major events at Busch/Downtown. Think of my time living downtown Lisle IL a short walk away from Metra trains/service.

No need for massive build out vision or plan but something along the line of the Nashville commuter service. A lot of the infrastructure seems in place for Amtrak corridor trains River Runner and Lincoln Service. Just need a few more cities and stations to add

“There’s Not Enough Parking!”

https://nextstl.com/2018/03/theres-not-enough-parking/