Pitman Project Heads Back to P&Z

• Also at Last Week's Council Meeting: People lined up to speak both for and against the new stormwater regulations proposed by the city. Several homebuilders, homeowners, and architects expressed concerns that these regulations would dramatically increase the cost of housing in Kirkwood. The easy retort is that homebuilders can't be objective in their assessment of this policy (they have a clear financial stake in the outcome). That's obviously true, but the way this new policy would cost homebuilders money is by making their product (homes) more expensive, which I think would be very unpopular amongst the general public. But as proponents of the changes argued, flooding makes homes more expensive, too. The thing you want to do is strike a balance and find the one or two or three rule changes that would have the biggest flood-reduction impact at a relatively low cost to Kirkwood residents; a cost-benefit analysis, if you will. Maybe it would be a good idea to bring together a homebuilder, one of Kirkwood's many tree advocates, an architect, and the city Engineer to form a working committee and strike a compromise that they can all live with before this thing comes to a vote.
• 7 New Townhomes: In very exciting news, the seven townhomes that had been proposed for 507 S. Holmes, directly next to the Grant's Trail extension, went back before the Architectural Review Board (ARB) on Monday (renderings start at pg. 193 of the agenda). The development, aka The Maje Residences, had previously tried to get a variance to preserve some old oak trees on the property but had been rejected by the Board of Adjustment. Now the developer is back with a new design that is in full compliance with the code.
• A First Look at Lona's: Just below the Maje Residence renderings, on pg. 209 of the ARB agenda, we got some of our first looks at the new Lona's Lil Eats location in the former Graham's Grill building on Woodbine and it looks great!
• Last week's Webster-Kirkwood Times:
  • Speaking of trail-adjacent development, on pg. 3-B, there was a great write-up of the new Perennial Brewery location opening up in Oakland along the Grant's Trail. That's amazing but it's very frustrating that Kirkwood is going to lose out on tax revenue to places like Oakland because our zoning doesn't allow for things like beer gardens, restaurants, or homes on the industrial-zoned land that surrounds 95% of the land along the trail's extension to Downtown Kirkwood
  • On pg. 4-A, there's a good update on the work on Essex and why it's taken so long
• I'm very very glad to hear that the Kirkwood Police have arrested a man accused of being the person who has assaulted several cyclists around town this Summer! Great job to everyone involved.
• Finally, this evening (Friday, 4-7:30pm) and tomorrow morning (Saturday, 8am-12:30pm), Meramec CC is hosting an open house for its brand new horticultural facilities! As I've mentioned before, Meramec has a very well-regarded horticultural program (proud of you Uncle Jerry!) and this is only going to make it stronger. You can check out more details by scanning the QR code below or by visiting: http://stlcc.edu/exchange