Well folks, after nearly a year of waiting, the results of the Request for Proposals on the former Public Works site have finally surfaced via this week's Planning & Zoning agenda. The selected proposal comes from St. Louis-based Double Eagle Development and calls for 202 homes across six four-story buildings, accompanied by 247 parking spots.… Continue reading 202 Homes Proposed for Former Public Works Site
After winding itself through the approval process three times, the Council finally offered first reading approval to Pitman Place, the 60-apartment mixed-use project proposed for the former Commerce Bank site at 300 N. Kirkwood Road, at their November 20th meeting. The Kirkwood City Council was supposed to issue its verdict on the project in early… Continue reading Council Greenlights Pitman Place
I've long maintained that Kirkwood's tear-down crisis is merely a symptom of how expensive our land has become. After you spend $500k to purchase the lot, spending another $200k to tear down the existing small home that sits on the lot and build a new bigger one seems like small potatoes. The Venn diagram of… Continue reading How To Revive the Starter Home
Update 02/07/2025: At last night's meeting, City Council passed a modified version of the sidewalk infill zoning text amendment. Instead of ditching the requirement that homeowners building large additions be required to add sidewalks wholesale, the Council decided instead to expand Director of Public Services Chris Krueger's discretion in deciding whether or not sidewalk infill… Continue reading Foregoing Sidewalks Won’t Make Kirkwood Affordable
I've written 95 stories since I started Kirkwood Gadfly back in 2017. Of those 100 stories, my three stories covering the Jefferson RFP responses the city rejected rank 2, 3, and 8 in terms of numbers of views. Why? Well, my theory goes a little something like this: Kirkwood residents have repeatedly indicated that their… Continue reading Council Passes on $60m Investment & 362 Parking Spaces from NOVUS
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, we received word that East-West Gateway's has granted STP (Surface Transportation Program) funding for Phase 1B of the Grant's Trail Extension to Downtown Kirkwood. This is the second of four legs to be funded, with the first leg —running from Argonne to the corner of Fillmore and Monroe— having received TAP… Continue reading Grant’s Trail: Halfway Home, It’s Time for B-GT
Kirkwood has finally settled on a route to extend Grant's Trail to the city's downtown core. To sum it up, I think the city has done a really nice job with the whole process. The route is the right amount of direct, enjoyable, flat, and practical (by which I mean: I think the city and… Continue reading Grant’s Trail and Our Industrial Wasteland
Over the past three years, Kirkwood has notched numerous successes in adding to its housing stock. 38 new homes were approved on a one block long stretch of Madison, 24 new town-homes are coming to South Kirkwood along Big Bend, a massive parcel that once held a mansion will now hold three, a much needed… Continue reading Why Our Missing Middle Stays Missing
On Saturday, June 6th, I participated in the Kirkwood Teachers of Color-organized, Black Lives Matter Peace Walk. Early in the week leading up to the event, it seemed like the walk would be a somewhat controversial and divisive event for a pretty quiet, wealthy suburb; one likely attended by no more than a couple hundred… Continue reading Our Zoning is Racist: a multi-family housing story
