New Town at St. Charles

arch city · PostJan 02, 2005#12005-01-02T20:11+00:00

Located just off Highway 370, Missouri's High Tech Connector, New Town at St. Charles will be a thriving "town" with more than 4,000 residences built in nine phases, with a carefully planned mix of homes in addition to a large town center and four neighborhood centers.

The New Town at St. Charles will be close to amenities such St. Louis Mills, Riverport, Missouri Research Park, and Lambert International.

At a cost of $1-billion dollars, it's the largest "new urbanism" development undertaken in Missouri to-date. The New Town at St. Charles will have restaurants, salons, retail stores and more. Most of the homes and commercial buildings will be designed in the same architecture of St. Charles City's French Victorian Main Street area.

Below are an architect's renderings of The New Town Gateway Commercial District.

Aerial layout of The New Town Gateway Commercial District.

Links:

New Town at St. Charles

Discover 370

St. Louis Mills

Main Street St. Charles

PostJan 02, 2005#22005-01-02T20:21+00:00

Here's an aerial of the Phase 1 currently underway. Definitely not a picture for urbanphiles!

beer city · PostJan 02, 2005#32005-01-02T20:35+00:00

It is actually a good development, and on of the largest "true" new urban developments masterplaned by the father of new urbanism himself. I say true, because it follows all of the planning elements of new urbanism and is not just new-old looking buildings, which so many of these projects turn into.

I hate sprawl and uncontrolled growth in outer regions, but I drove out to this project 2 weeks ago, and I think it is pretty nice and here is why-

More dense than typ. St. Chuck development

It is really being laid out as well thought out new town enviroment with a balance of housing, retail, and schools and not some schlocky retail life style center with a couple of bogus so called "lofts" that has the same density as a typ. suburban strip center

Close to Old Town and French town, some of the nicest 19th century restorations and enviroments in the Midwest

North of all the current Sprwal, therefore centralizing the west-plex better, and maybe thwarting sprawl expansion to the south

Surpisingly close to North St. Louis county, not a long trip to downtown, very close to the airport.

Better architectural quality than most subdivions

Commitment from the developer to adhere to the "new urban" masterplan laid out, and closely monitered by Andres Duany

Provides a urban enviroment that hopefully a generation of those growing up around it will come to recognize as "home" and not "scary place that I can not understand" when they journy into St. Louis and see the real thing

arch city · PostJan 02, 2005#42005-01-02T20:57+00:00

Great. I could tell from reading the information on New Town that it seems very different from other developments that have sprung up in the region - Winghaven in particular.

Although Winghaven is nice, it doesn't seem as "urban" in design as New Town. For example, Winghaven has Mastercard abutting it. The Mastercard campus looks suburban plopped down near an "urban" designed community. Then suburban-styled apartment communities are nearby. The amenities between the two aren't the same either. New Town is planning schools, libraries, live-work spaces, a YMCA, etc.

My only concern is New Town's on a flood plain despite the fact that a new levee will be built.

New Town live-work space.

mcarril · PostJan 05, 2005#52005-01-05T06:53+00:00

I'm pretty excited about this development as well. As my wife and I decide where we're going to settle down, this development is looking like it may be a compramise of sorts. I was raised in the City and she was raised in Chesterfield. I guess oppocites attract. Although I'm still trying t bring her around to the charms of urban life. A couple of concerns though are the fact its in a floodplain, and the potential cost. Neighborhoods like this around the rest of the country have appreciated in price rapidly. It is amazigng to see a suburban developer like Whittiker do something like this. Its a nice change as well. Check out www.tndpaper.com to see similar developments around the country.

yidnamu · PostApr 30, 2005#62005-04-30T20:47+00:00

Link

NB - I did a bit of rearranging. If you want to read the entire thing, see above.

Agreement worked out on New Town

Jason Lee

Of the Suburban Journals

O'Fallon Mo Journal

ST. CHARLES

Officials with Whittaker Builders Inc. want St. Charles to lower some fees for its New Town development and freeze others for several years under a revised agreement negotiated between the developer and city officials.

The proposed agreement, expected to be considered May 3 by the City Council, also would require the city to process building plans and permits for the project more quickly.

In return, Whittaker removed:

- a provision included previously in the agreement that would have penalized the city up to $5,000 a day for delays.

- a condition that would have required the city to cover half the cost of a street inside the neighborhood.

- a prerequisite that the city construct an electric trolley that would link New Town to the Ameristar Casino. As an alternative, the provision now states the city would have the option of splitting with the developer the cost for a feasibility study of the trolley's construction.

Also under the same legislation is a 108-acre expansion that would include an additional 1,400 homes, bringing the project's total to about 5,700 units. That addition was reduced from 1,800 because of concerns from city staff about the density.

The bill also:

- includes a provision that would lock in the city's sewer connection fee rate at $500 over the span of the entire New Town project, expected to be under construction for up to 15 years.

- states the city would be required to lower New Town's fees if a rate lower than $800 is given to any other subdivision development in the future.

- sets the sewer and water connection fees for New Town's commercial buildings at lower levels in place last summer for residential property.

- requires the city to seek the state's consent to allow the city's Public Works staff to certify that New Town's plans meet state guidelines for sewers, drainage and water. [Whittaker feels the city would approve plans quicker than the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which typically inspects such issues.]

- gives the city the option of taking over maintenance of New Town's many lakes and canals, but wouldn't be required to do so.

- no longer requires the city to support an expansion of MetroLink across the Missouri River to New Town, a request included by Whittaker in a previous version of the agreement.

- states the city would consider reducing fees owed by Whittaker to the city if Whittaker gives financial incentives to attract a Fortune 1000 company to locate in New Town

stlmel · PostSep 08, 2005#72005-09-08T14:22+00:00

Saw this article on StlToday. I still have problems thinking that this whole project is going to get flooded someday but I do think it's really neat looking.

Source: What's old is new again in St. Charles development

arch city · PostSep 08, 2005#82005-09-08T19:05+00:00

Here are some photos I took just a few days ago. It's really a nice, but sterile, little town that's coming together.

Heading to the town.

Grand Canal

matt drops the h · PostSep 08, 2005#92005-09-08T22:15+00:00

Maybe a bit sterile, but this has to be the best large-scale planned residential development that St. Louis has seen and probably will see...

I mean, if this were the quality of infill development in the City, some of us would be more than content, minus the perhaps excessive use of vinyl.

Once concern: the streets in the New Town look like any old subdivision's streets. Any attempts to de-modernize or at least stylize these streets?

Expat · PostSep 08, 2005#102005-09-08T23:56+00:00

When it is finished, when the trees get taller, and the landscape matures, it will be beautiful. With the canals, it reminds me a lot of Celebration, Florida. In "downtown" Celebration, during the holidays, they drop fake snow from the buildings. At least New Town won't have to drop fake snow. If they are going to build subdivisions, they might as well be nicely done, so I like it. But, I am afraid I would stick out like a sore thumb in this New Urbanist Stepford.

10-intuition · PostSep 09, 2005#112005-09-09T05:27+00:00

that Old Town is coming along nicely, like Expat said once all the trees mature it will be nice!

Is this development being built on a flood plain?

smsplanstu · PostSep 09, 2005#122005-09-09T16:12+00:00

Density comparable to historic St. Charles and more, that's one statement!

stlmel · PostSep 09, 2005#132005-09-09T19:11+00:00

New Town is built on a floodplain. In 1993, a lot of the land surrounding Hwy 370 was underwater including where New Town is located is built on. It reached as far as where St. Louis Mill is now.

brickandmortar · PostSep 12, 2005#142005-09-12T16:55+00:00

New Town is being built on the 500 year flood plain, I don't know if it flooded in '93. The farmland to the north is considered 100 year flood plain. Chances are good that New Town won't be underwater if we get flooding here.

trent · PostSep 12, 2005#152005-09-12T18:38+00:00

After watching the devastation in New Orleans, it makes me more hesitant of the extent of Mother Natures wrath. We can talk about being ready, having a great levee system in place, but the bottom line is that Nature can play the one-upsmanship game with us until the end of time, and Nature will keep winning.

I think this is really turning out nicely, it seems to be a beautiful development. I just wish is was going somewhere closer to the city.

southcitygent · PostSep 12, 2005#162005-09-12T20:03+00:00

The "Grand Canal" reminds me of River Des Peres during high water on the Mississippi.

southslider · PostSep 13, 2005#172005-09-13T14:42+00:00

Except the canal doesn't connect to any river, thus the rivers can't back up into New Town by way of these canals or its lakes. Just like its lakes, the canals are really just beautified detention ponds for a development with extensive land cover and impervious surfaces, helping mitigate flash flooding during heavy rains.

trent · PostSep 14, 2005#182005-09-14T01:32+00:00

Gotta love manufactured ambience.

PostOct 04, 2005#192005-10-04T23:11+00:00

So I was working today, and for those who don't know (in fact I don't think anybody does), I work for a medical company as a rep, and spend a lot of time in lounges at area hospitals (both in StL and outstate MO and IL). I was doing my usual, which is hogging the community paper trying to pass the time until I could get my case started and I couldn't help but over hear some lady talk about her son who just graduated from college. He was looking for places to live and was apparently fond of New Town in St. Chuck, as well as the new place in Kirkwood. He liked the idea of being able to walk to all of his amenities, and not have to rely on a car. But he was having a problem being able to afford the high prices of these 'neighborhoods'.

Apparently, from her perspective, and his, a lot of YPs were moving to these places...and it was the 'hip' place to be. Barely able to contain myself at this point, I felt the need to interject.

I told her that if her son was truly looking for a place where YPs are flocking, and to areas that are much more affordable than New Town and Kirkwood...look no further than St. Louis City.

'I think there's too much crime there for him. I'd be worried about him living in the city.' She said.

'Too much cime?' I said, 'I've lived in the city for years now and have never had an incident of crime of any kind.'

'Really? Where do you live?' She asked.

'Two blocks off of Grand on Connecticut Street. I'm within walking distance of everything I need, including Tower Grove Park. There's a Schnucks a few blocks down Grand, a Market around the corner and an International Food Market just up the street.'

'I don't know how he'd feel about that.' She replied.

'How much is he looking to pay in rent?' I asked.

'Well, that's sort of a problem. A lot of the places in New Town are over $700 a month, and that's too steep for him, fresh out of college. He's looking into finding a roommate so they can share the load.' She told me.

'$700?! I pay $425, and I live by myself. For $700 you could live like a king in my neighborhood.' I said, 'And where I live is only one of many great neighborhoods in the city where you can live affordably, and not need a car at all. Even downtown is becoming the new hotspot for YPs. Really, I don't know how anyone would knowingly move to a place like New Town, where they manufacture the urban ambiance, when you have an entire city that is just packed with it...and it's cheaper!'

'I may have to have a talk with my son about this.'

*(this conversation was not taken verbatim, it merely recalls from an obviously fuzzy recollection of thoughts that were exchanged during a 5 minute talk)

ucityman · PostOct 05, 2005#202005-10-05T01:02+00:00

trent, people like you are awesome. there's no better feeling than convincing somebody to live in the city or to open up somebody's eyes like that to a different perspective

for me, i love telling people that if i leave for college, i will DEFINATELY come back to st louis afterwards. then i get to explain why, which is even better.

other note, i'm very grateful that new town has actually let people out there realize that alternative ways of living do exist. I applaud somebody raised in the suburbs that considers new town, because if they like it, hopefully they'll start flocking to the real neighborhoods of this real town

warwickland · PostDec 25, 2005#212005-12-25T10:31+00:00

word of this development has spread into the darkest most car dependent and unlikely corners of the st. louis region. it's amazing to hear somebody talk so positively about a place that has been designed at the human scale, as opposed to pandering to the automobile. who would have known...

maybe they'll find out about that older, much bigger development...

Expat · PostDec 26, 2005#222005-12-26T02:14+00:00

^ People are craving something more all over the country. In the long run, this could be a good sign.

jcity · PostJan 02, 2006#232006-01-02T08:00+00:00

I wish all new development in the city looked AT LEAST as good as New Towne. Especially the brick townhouses, they pretty much took a photo of Soulard or ONSL and designed accordingly. Does seem a bit sterile, but for St. Charles Floodplain sprawl, it looks very impressive.

marmar · PostJan 02, 2006#242006-01-02T19:31+00:00

The sterility comes for the most part from a lack of craftsmanship and construction technique of a hundred years ago which is too costly today to produce in that old method. The new structures will almost never compare to the originals in big projects like this until someone comes up with a way to really accurately reproduce those quailities cost effectively.

jmedwick · PostJan 03, 2006#252006-01-03T07:52+00:00

Its called plastered styrofoam.