On February 7th, the City of Kirkwood submitted an STP (Surface Transportation Program) grant application to East-West Gateway for the overhaul of Argonne Drive from Taylor in the East to Geyer in the West. Last week, the application itself became publicly available, and after reviewing the plans, I'm pleasantly surprised by what the city staff… Continue reading Argonne Drive: Spitting Distance from Perfection
At tonight's meeting, Kirkwood City Council will approve a grant application to overhaul Downtown Kirkwood's most iconic street. If East-West Gateway approves the city's STP grant application, the federal government would foot $2,089,600 —80%— of the $2,612,000 of the total estimated cost to redesign and repave Argonne between Geyer and Taylor, with the City covering… Continue reading Argonne Deserves a Bike Lane
Kirkwood has issued a Request For Proposals for mixed-use development on 6 city-owned acres in the heart of Downtown. The city hopes the responses will yield a multi-faceted windfall for the community, but the stipulations listed in the RFP and the —$12.5 million the city has already sunk into facilitating such development— may mean that… Continue reading Public Works Site RFP Issued: Kirkwood Seeks to Recoup $12.5M
Update 9/30/2024: I made a mistake in estimating the tax revenue impact of this project. While I originally estimated the city would have brought in $900k in annual tax revenue from the project, upon further review, the impact would have likely been closer to $300k annually. For transparency's sake, I would like to thoroughly explain… Continue reading HDA Plan Rejected; City Loses $300k a Year
I've long made the case that in order for Kirkwood to get the most out of its significant development in the Grant's Trail extension, they should clear the way for the private sector to invest in the land alongside it. That mostly means loosening zoning restrictions for what uses are allowed on adjacent land, but… Continue reading Present & Future Development Along 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
Back in December, Kirkwood issued a Request for Proposals on the two city-owned parking lots on Jefferson Avenue, which ultimately yielded six separate proposals for each of the two lots. By mid-June 2024, however, the newly elected City Council reneged on the forward-looking initiative and opted to reject each of the twelve proposals submitted in… Continue reading IPG Boutique Hotel & Parking Proposal Rejected by City
On nearly every new post I publish, I get some variation of the same comment: "What about parking?" Many of these commenters will acknowledge that all of the official studies of Kirkwood's parking have found no shortage of available parking but insist that their own informal experiences prove otherwise. Go to Downtown Kirkwood on any… Continue reading How to Solve The Parking Problem (and Cut Taxes)
Last Fall, Kirkwood City Council agreed to reduce the number of lanes on North Kirkwood Road from four lanes down to three from Adams to Bodley. It looks like this fall, the battleground will move further South. Phase 2 of the Kirkwood Road project will look to overhaul the city's premier thoroughfare from Monroe to… Continue reading South Kirkwood Road’s Turn for a Diet
