Update 10/10/25: The Maje Residences by House of Hoard are back in a new, fully zoning-compliant form at 507 S. Holmes. Several pictures were provided in Monday's Architectural Review Board agenda, beginning on pg. 193 of the pdf. After receiving ARB approval, there won't be much to do but start building. Exciting stuff coming to… Continue reading The Maje Residences: 7 Townhomes Next to Grant’s Trail
A few weeks back I began my exploration of the proposals that had been submitted to Kirkwood City Council in response to the RFP the city issued on the two city owned surface parking lots on Jefferson Ave. We first looked at IPG's proposal for a mixed-use boutique hotel and parking structure on the East… Continue reading PJ’s Rejected Proposal Shows the High Price of NIMBYism
Last week I wrote that the city had officially rejected IPG's proposal for the city-owned East Jefferson Parking Lot. That plan would have added a 66-room boutique hotel, shopping, and a net increase of over a hundred parking spots to Downtown Kirkwood, but it was only one-half of their submission to the city. Today I… Continue reading IPG Part 2: Council Rejects Another $33m of Investment
Kirkwood is set to apply for a Surface Transportation Program (STP) grant funding for the final phase of Grant's Trail extension to Downtown Kirkwood. The application will first go before City Council at tomorrow's meeting (Jan 18) and then will be submitted to East-West Gateway (EWG) for consideration. EWG is expected to announce the applications… Continue reading Final Phase of Grant’s Trail Comes Into Focus
The natural way neighborhoods have traditionally developed was as follows: People decide to live in an area and then a smattering of businesses that cater to those people open up shop nearby. Or perhaps the opposite happens: Some place is well-suited for business (maybe a canal is built, or gold is discovered, or, as in… Continue reading Urban Villages: A Vision for a Quainter Kirkwood
Kirkwood has issued a request for proposal (RFP) for two prominent city-owned lots in Downtown Kirkwood according to a newsletter from Council member Liz Gibbons. The two lots, 107-115 W Jefferson, and 125 E Jefferson are both zoned for B-2 General Business, the city's most intensive use. The eastern lot sits right next to the… Continue reading Lots Leveraged: RFP Issued for Downtown
Early this summer, Kirkwood released the fruits of a multi-year effort to study the extent of our attainable housing crisis and propose some solutions for how to fix it. That effort, known formally as the Attainable Housing Study , was developed by PGAV and URBRNRX, presented to the Council for comment and review, and ultimately… Continue reading Attainable Housing Study: 19 Solutions Examined
Update 10/02/2023: New Renderings were made available in Monday's Architectural Review Board agenda: Additionally, in an interview with the St. Louis Business Journal, the developer stated that price ranges for non-penthouse condos would range from $750,000 to $1.5 million. That's a lot of dough, but if Kirkwood can stockpile 42 rich families on a single… Continue reading 42-Unit “Aria” Coming to Downtown
This piece is part two of a series on workable policy solutions to address the shortage of attainable housing in Kirkwood. Part one, on reforming our minimum lot size regulations, can be found here. I've been working on Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) policy a lot for my day job recently and the more I've delved… Continue reading Attainable Housing Part 2: ADUs
This is Part 1 of a series on politically-workable ways to add housing in Kirkwood and make living here more attainable. This piece covers the topic of minimum lot sizes and lot splitting, while Part 2 covers ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units). Last August, Webster voters killed the two-family zoning provision that their elected representatives on… Continue reading Attainable Kirkwood Part 1: Minimum Lot Sizes
