|
|
To kick things off, I wanted to link to News Channel 4's follow-up on the opioid-settlement-money-for-snowplows (aka Plowgate) story they first broke last month. The story reveals that the State Auditor has alerted Mayor Gibbons that he is investigating the transaction and goes on to quote Senator Eric Schmidt as saying a snowplow "does not sound like a good use" of the settlement money he helped secure.
|
|
A sitting United States Senator condemning the city's conduct is a bad look; I hate to imagine what the guy might have said had Mayor Gibbons, CM Rheinnecker, and CM Jaksetic not collectively donated over $10,000 to his campaigns!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- St. Louis County is hosting another Open House today (April 24th) to solicit public input for its first comprehensive plan in forty years. The event will be held from 4:30-7:30 (with presentations at 5 and 6:30) at the Grant View branch of the St. Louis County Library (near Affton ice rink). Show up and let them know you support allowing more housing in unincorporated St. Louis County!
- Kirkwood has come up with a preliminary plan based on the ongoing Southeast Kirkwood (Meacham Park) Connectivity Study that you can review here. All in all, it seems like a pretty good plan, implementing several pedestrian safety, traffic calming, and lighting improvements, and avoiding potential boondoggles (like a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks). Still, I'm sure there is room for improvement, so make sure to offer the city some brief feedback on the preliminary plan here.
- The only thing I want to highlight in last week's Webster-Kirkwood Times is this Saturday's Arbor Day Festival highlighted on pg. 8-A, Things kick off with a tree planting demonstration at the police station at 9am. Volunteers will then fan out to plant 50 trees in the community, and then reconvene at city hall for bbq, live music, and more. Sounds like a great way to spend a Saturday helping the community! Volunteers can sign up here.
- Finally, the City Council's April 10th work session minutes reveal that the Council may finally be preparing to take its first action in response to the Attainable Housing Study the city commissioned all the way back in 2023. The only problem is that the tweak they've settled on will likely have no effect whatsoever. According to the minutes, the Council has directed the City's Planning Department to draft regulation that would waive Floor Area Ratio (FAR) restrictions —which govern how much square footage a building is allowed to have— under the following conditions:
-
- It's a single family home
- The home was last built or added onto more than ten years ago
- Adding additional floor area does not increase the building's lot coverage (i.e. the addition is built above an already existing part of the house)
I am supporter of eliminating the FAR requirement, but piling on so many requirements reminds me of the concept of "everything bagel liberalism," the tendency of policy makers to try and achieve so many unrelated policy goals simultaneously that they don't wind up accomplishing much of anything at all besides making the rules more confusing.
|
-
- Why are Kirkwood's handful of duplex owners not allowed to take advantage of the change (and thus contribute additional property tax revenue to the city)?
- Why are homeowners only allowed to take advantage of the additional floor area in cases where doing so doesn't increase lot coverage, even if that lot coverage is still less than what's allowed by the code? That was not part of the study's FAR recommendation. If the reason in concerns about flooding, then maybe we need to consider reducing the lot coverage maximums more generally or come up with a different strategy for flooding prevention.
|
If this policy change was one of many the Council was pursuing to try and improve housing policy in Kirkwood, then I could live with it. But as the Council's singular effort at implementing the attainable housing study, it is overwrought and grossly insufficient. Here are four better tweaks that would preserve Kirkwood's existing character while improving its affordability and aesthetic sensibility. Please, Council, steal them, I'm begging you. I'd be more than happy to give you all the credit.
|
|
|
|
|
That's it for this week! Have a great weekend everyone!
|
|
|
|
|
