St. Charles County Council backs riverfront plan

By Mark Schlinkmann

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

04/24/2006



ST. CHARLES COUNTY



The County Council on Monday night threw its political support behind a $500 million riverfront housing-entertainment proposal featuring a marina and a three-quarter-mile canal for pleasure boating.



The project, from St. Charles developer Michael Sellenschuetter, would be along the Missouri River between the Interstate 70 and Page Avenue bridges. The plan calls for a string of condos, restaurants, bars, shops and possibly a hotel. New public parkland also would be developed, much of it on nearby Bangert Island.



"I can't think of a better front door to St. Charles County than to have a viable development between those two bridges," Council Chairman Bob Schnur said. He said the council's resolution endorsing the preliminary concept will help Sellenschuetter gather support from other public and private entities.



Most of the project would be privately financed, but Schnur said it's possible that the county would help pay for recreational trails on the island.



The plan calls for the island, just south of the I-70 Blanchette Bridge, to be linked to the riverfront by smaller spans reserved for pedestrians and bicyclists. The 5-to-7-mile trail system would include the Katy Trail, part of which would be relocated from the riverfront to the island. Sellenschuetter said the island would remain otherwise undeveloped...



Read More

ambitious, will be interesting if he can find the support. Would go a long way to making St. Chuck more than strip malls and trac housing (though I do believe downtown St. Chuck is a nice place)

Ambitious is right. Looks nice. I'll bet the suburban families will love strolling along the River. Maybe we could get this guy to look at the St. Louis Riverfront.

The City of St. Charles is becoming more distinct from the County of St. Charles. At its heart, the City of St. Charles has the Main Street historic district, the nearby historic neighborhood of Frenchtown to its north, and now some infill of attached residential and even future live-work units to its south between South Main and the casino.



Stretching from New Town to this newly proposed development towards the Page bridge, St. Charles has the opportunity to have its own urban corridor along the Katy Trail and Missouri River from Page Avenue to New Town. But of course, outside this narrow corridor, or virtually everything roughly west of MO 94 will still be strip-mall/subdivision country.

^It's funny how Time works its magic. After all, 100 years ago, St. Louis' Central West End was considered "out in the sticks".

St. Charles is a weird hodgepodge of eras with the historic river city, mid-century ranch house burb, and 1980s-1990s car burb. I can only imagine if this riverfront development might spark more Metrolink talk or maybe....dare we say.....rebuilding the suburb as urban?



One can only wonder!



The development of the southern riverfront will displace low-income folks visible from the Katy Trail. It was a great capitalistic location for poverty due to flooding.

SMSPlanstu wrote: It was a great capitalistic location for poverty due to flooding.

I guess now its a great capitalistic location for high-end development due to levees.