Last Thursday I published a story highlighting some of the items on that night's City Council agenda. One of the items I left out of that story is likely to be the most exciting. It wasn't an oversight, I just hadn't gathered all the info yet. But now I have so let's dig in to… Continue reading West Essex.
Manchester Road is the chicken and the egg problem at a Kirkwood-sized scale. New developments are built as auto-centric and car oriented because Manchester accommodates nothing else, and the Manchester corridor accommodates nothing else because everything that is built along it is built in an auto-centric way. If Manchester is to ever improve, if the… Continue reading Manchester Road
Update 04/17/2020 Since this article was first published the roads in Kirkwood Park have been closed to vehicular traffic which is a huge win! The fight goes on in trying to get beg buttons turned off as well as in getting some streets in Downtown Kirkwood opened to foot traffic. It appears that Trailnet has… Continue reading Coronavirus & Walkability: A Gameplan
A new 125-unit, mixed-use, independent living project is in the works for 300-350 N. Kirkwood Road, a site currently occupied by Commerce Bank and its parking lot. Sound familiar? No, this is not the Kirkwood Flats/UMB Bank proposal, (that one would be across the street), but rather a brand new project in what is turning… Continue reading 125 Apartments Coming to Commerce Bank Site?
On Thursday February 27th, Kirkwood City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed changes to our zoning code. Those changes cover four-ish main areas: Single-family lot coverage, multi-family density and height, signage, and bicycle parking. Lots of things will be tweaked but it appears that very little will change. All streets inside circle… Continue reading Height, ADUs & Kirkwood’s Backwards Vision
Update 06/07/2023 The fourth unit is back, and the design has changed as the project makes its way back before the Architectural Review Board this week. Update 10/17/2020 144 W. Adams is back on the agenda with a new look and one fewer unit. Where the previous plans called for four units and room for… Continue reading 144 West Adams
Update 07/07/2020: Construction on the site is underway and we've gotten our first glimpse of what the finished form of the product will look like. Turns out it basically looks like every other house in Kirkwood, just closer together and without a big garage in front. See everybody, building more homes can be painless! Rendering… Continue reading The Townes at Geyer Grove
Please Note: I should have linked to this Webster Kirkwood Times article on the rail spur that much of this proposal is based off of. It is interesting and informative, and great local journalism. But I did not because, like an idiot, I did not read it until after I finished writing this post. It… Continue reading Grant’s Trail Extension: A Silver Bullet
Update 08/19/2021 After receiving first reading approval on a 5-2 vote, Altus used up almost all of their year-long window to submit their final plans. That wait is finally over. At tonight's Planning & Zoning meeting, they will present the fruits of that process, and pending a pro-forma second reading approval by City Council, begin… Continue reading The James (formerly the Kirkwood Flats)
There's a case to be made that the hallmark of a place being legitimately urban is not tall buildings, a subway system or a perfectly intact street grid but rather the presence of alleys. And even if there's not a case to be made, I'm about to try and make one! Just because alleys are… Continue reading The Great Alley Revival
