The big exciting news in the past week was that the bipartisan ROAD to Housing bill became law despite President Trump's refusal to sign the legislation. ROAD is both the biggest piece of federal housing legislation to pass in fifty years and also relatively modest in scope. You can read a nice overview of the full legislation here, but here's a quick rundown of the impact I expect it to have in Kirkwood:
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- Sec. 102: Directs HUD to establish guidelines for single-stair buildings to help states and localities permit them for buildings taller than three stories
- Sec. 208: Creates a $200 million annual competitive grant program for seven years for local governments that demonstrate measurable increases in housing supply
- Sec. 209: Gives local governments grants to adopt pre-reviewed designs for things like accessory dwelling units, duplexes, and townhouses. Pre-approved designs were one of the recommendations of our Attainable Housing Study
There are also a few changes that will affect the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding that Kirkwood gets from St. Louis County: Sec. 213 ties the amount of CDBG funding places receive to their housing production (allow more housing to be built and you get more CDBG funding; don't and you get less), and Sec. 204 allows CDBG funding to be used for the construction of new affordable units for the first time (previously it could essentially only be used for the rehab of existing ones).
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- Last night's P&Z agenda featured an outdoor dining application from Ivy on Monroe, the first named tenant of the Aria (the mixed-use project nearing completion across from KPAC. Ivy will feature breakfast, lunch, dinner, wine, and small plates and will be open 8am-5pm on M-W, 8am-10pm Th-Sa, and 8am-8pm on Sunday. Seems like a great fit!
- The best thing on tonight's City Council agenda is the public hearing on the proposed rezoning of 422 S. Clay Ave from B-4 to the B-2 general business zoning that predominates Downtown Kirkwood. If you get the chance, I encourage you to attend the meeting and speak in favor not only of this proposal, but also the broader rezoning of B-4 (which is dumb and should be eliminated). I wish I could link to the agenda of the meeting, but unfortunately the agendas and minutes keep getting dropped from the city website for some reason.
- I'm trying to take a week off from utility talk, but the June 11th City Council Work Session minutes (also not listed on the website) include the full Electric Department After Action Report, so check that out if you haven't yet. It also includes:
- A discussion of the Home Builder's Association's (HBA's) feedback on the new stormwater ordinance proposals. I'm glad the city consulted HBA as to which of the proposed changes might harm Kirkwood, but I also need them to consult Kirkwood for Everyone and their push to exempt ADUs from the regulations. You can sign up to testify before City Council on behalf of Kirkwood for Everyone here.
- Another discussion of the TDD projects and further explanation for why the Grant's Trail extension was dropped from the funding list (mostly that they didn't think it was eligible based on the TDD ballot language). Fine, but then we need to find another way to pay for it because it's a net positive for the City's budget, which brings me to...
- Between the S. Clay rezoning and Kirkwood's recent financial struggles, I've gotten increasingly interested in how much revenue Kirkwood is leaving on the table by hobbling itself with under-productive zoning. To show you what I mean, I made this simulator that allows you to rezone the industrial land that surrounds the proposed Grant's Trail extension and estimates the net present value of the additional sales and property tax revenue the city would bring in as a result. Play around with it a bit (it's best on a desktop) and let me know what you think/if you have any ideas for how to make it even better!
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That's all for this week! Tunes at 10 is back at the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning with Fox Creek Band. Have a great weekend, everyone!
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