|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Open House #2 for the Kirkwood Safe Routes to Schools initiative will be held next Wednesday, April 23rd, from 4-7pm at Kirkwood High School (use the Essex lot). This is a great opportunity to learn about recommended improvements for walking and biking safely to school, review updates from the last open house, and offer your own idea for improvements. Remember, this initiative is seeking to improve routes to both public and private schools in the community, so if you have school-aged kids, this event is for you!
- The only real item of note on tonight's City Council agenda is the first reading (initial vote) to approve the changes in Architectural Review applicability that I mentioned two weeks back. These changes were brought by the city's Planning Department, but it's the kind of effort reduce red tape that I was optimistic our current conservative-minded council would focus in on when they were first elected a year ago. Hopefully they'll approve these changes and then feel inspired to go after some burdensome regulations of their own. (For what it's worth, my top efficiency recommendation would be to change accessory dwelling units (ADUs) from a special use to a permitted use since the Council has little discretion to deny compliant proposals on their own and making proposals seek multiple rounds of pre-ordained approvals is a waste of everyone's time and money).
- Last week's Webster-Kirkwood Times had a few items of note:
- Pg. 4-A brought the news that the effort to preserve Marshall Fields for use as a baseball field has hit a snag as the City Council has communicated that they would prefer to sell the site rather than lease it to the non-profit leading the effort. Apparently, the city has already received two unsolicited purchase offers for the site, so people are definitely interested in it, but probably not for Little League. Before we offload the flood-prone fields, though, I really hope we do kick the tires on placing some sort of green energy infrastructure here. Electricity demand is set to skyrocket as the world continues down the road towards clean energy transition and the broad adoption of energy-intensive AI, Kirkwood owns its own electric utility, and the site is very close to a substation where three different high-voltage transmission lines come together so interconnection costs could be fairly low. It would be a bold move, but this could be our last best chance to ensure energy abundance for the people and businesses of Kirkwood.
- In the mailbag, someone please tell Cassie Campbell Wichlenski about Kirkwood for Everyone! It doesn't have to be this way!
- Speaking of Kirkwood for Everyone and the disappearance of starter homes, I recently came across this petition they are circulating to demonstrate to the City Council that their constituents want them to take action to remove barriers to affordability in Kirkwood. Sign your name, leave a comment, and share it with a friend!
- St. Louis County is hosting three open houses as part of its effort to draft "St. Louis County 2050," its first comprehensive plan in 40 years. This is an excellent chance to encourage the County to loosen its zoning in unincorporated parts of the County, especially around MetroLink stops, as we all know that tight housing markets in surrounding communities help contribute to Kirkwood's own tight, unattainable housing market, our worker shortage, etc. The first of those open houses will be held next Wednesday, April 23rd, from 4:30-7:30pm at the St. Louis County Library's Meramec Valley Branch in Fenton. The second will be held the next day, Thursday, April 24th, 4:30-7:30pm, at the Grant's View Branch right by Affton Ice Rink, but I'll try to remember to remind you of that one next week.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
