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
If you haven't yet gotten the chance to check out my analysis of the six candidates vying to join Zimmer or Gibbons on the Council, I think it provides some good context for the article below and is worth checking out ahead of Tuesday's election! This coming Tuesday, Kirkwood will elect a new Mayor for… Continue reading Kirkwood’s Next Mayor
Yesterday, no excuse absentee voting began for April 2nd's municipal elections. Those elections will be pivotal for Kirkwood as citizens will be asked to choose which four Council Members and the Mayor, fully five of the Council's seven-member body, will chart a new course forward for the community. Next week, I will seek to tackle… Continue reading Decision 2024: Council Endorsements
On April 2nd, Kirkwood residents will have the opportunity to elect four council members and a new Mayor. Over the next month, I'll have plenty of coverage of the candidates for those positions, but this week I wanted to take a step back and look at the distinct electoral process by which that new five-person… Continue reading Kirkwood’s Strange Electoral System
Kirkwood is set to apply for a Surface Transportation Program (STP) grant funding for the final phase of Grant's Trail extension to Downtown Kirkwood. The application will first go before City Council at tomorrow's meeting (Jan 18) and then will be submitted to East-West Gateway (EWG) for consideration. EWG is expected to announce the applications… Continue reading Final Phase of Grant’s Trail Comes Into Focus
The natural way neighborhoods have traditionally developed was as follows: People decide to live in an area and then a smattering of businesses that cater to those people open up shop nearby. Or perhaps the opposite happens: Some place is well-suited for business (maybe a canal is built, or gold is discovered, or, as in… Continue reading Urban Villages: A Vision for a Quainter Kirkwood
Kirkwood has issued a request for proposal (RFP) for two prominent city-owned lots in Downtown Kirkwood according to a newsletter from Council member Liz Gibbons. The two lots, 107-115 W Jefferson, and 125 E Jefferson are both zoned for B-2 General Business, the city's most intensive use. The eastern lot sits right next to the… Continue reading Lots Leveraged: RFP Issued for Downtown
Update: 02/02/24 Last night's public hearing saw seventeen people comment against the proposal and just six in favor of it. Written comments submitted to the Council prior to the meeting had a much stronger St. Peter-skew with ~240 emails in favor and ~60 opposed. Council members' lines of questioning offered little insight into how they… Continue reading Jefferson, Clay, & STP’s Cul-de-Sac
