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!
Previous Story:
On December 19th, we’re going to try this again. A little less than a year after Savoy’s 48-unit apartment complex got shot down, a proposal for 24 row houses at 11204-11224 Big Bend Rd, now marketed at “The Townes at Geyer Grove,” will attempt to make it past the finish line.
Consort Homes LLC is the developer of the 1.9 acre project. This would be their first project within the 270-loop with most of their projects located in Wildwood, Chesterfield, St. Charles and beyond. The homes, distributed between seven buildings, each two stories tall, would be owner occupied and range from 1,222-1,680 sq ft.
Second Try, Still Pretty Good
While not as ambitious in its density or ownership (the row houses would be owned rather than rented), this project is head and shoulders above the site’s current use. Five homes become twenty-four, five curb cuts become one and an undesirable piece of land (surrounded by: railroad tracks, a gas station, and a community college parking lot) gets put to a productive use. This is also a project for dense housing right across the street from a major Metro bus stop. It is a project of unintentionally transportation-oriented-design —which might be partially oxymoronic— but let’s run with it.
Public Sentiment
Even more importantly, these humbler plans seem to have undercut the resistance that neighbors were able to organize in opposition to Savoy’s proposal. That previous attempt made it to the Public Hearing phase of the approval process before being pulled by Savoy prior to its first reading due to a lack of support from council members and the public as a whole. In that process, many of the commenters noted that they would approve of a town home-like proposal, just not the 48 apartments being proposed. Whether they meant that or not, it is what they said and it would a rough look to now argue against that very suggestion. It is also likely that the Kirkwood Flats proposal has absorbed some of the NIMBY ire that otherwise would have been directed at The Townes. Even if the Flats don’t go anywhere, don’t say they never did anything for ya.
Next Steps
At the December 19th city council meeting (Thursday) the two legislative components of the project, the proposed rezoning of the site from R-3 (single family residential) to R-5 (multi-family residential) and the site plan for the project itself will have their public hearings. (Join the facebook event, —or don’t, idrc— show up and give a couple minutes of your time to say you think its a good idea. It’ll likely be the single most impactful thing you can do for other people, Kirkwood, and the world this week). As long as the developer doesn’t pull the proposal as Savoy did, the two bills will have its first reading, its second reading, and then be voted on by the council in late January or early February.
Conley Estates
Another such positive step is also set to be approved at the December 19th Meeting. Resident Mike Conley is seeking the division of the single residence at 608 E. Monroe, into three.
Under the proposal, the main portion of the house will be moved to one of the three lots (Lot 2 and top right in the above drawing). The other two plots will then be available for two additional single family residences. Because these subsequent plots meet the minimum lot size, the proposal has to be approved by the council. As long as the necessary paperwork gets in, approval by the council is a technicality.
608 E. Monroe, is a fatttt house. And it’s really pretty! But the house will still be there and the land will still be there. Kirkwood is a town, built for people. It is not a museum. And the motivations aren’t altruism or anything like that. It’s just one person responding to the market and being allowed to (mostly) do what they want with their property. And it happens to help people. More of this please. (One note: it would be preferable that Conley could place as many homes on his property as could fit if he wanted to. Reduce the minimum lot size to zero; everything will be okay.)
Chipping Away at Density
While apartment and condo complexes will get us to where we need to be more quickly, small changes in density add up. Below is a chart demonstrating how significant these small and sparse improvements can be in comparison to more drastic changes within the context of the bay area but easily proportionally transferable to Kirkwood.
If converting 1 in 10 single family homes in Kirkwood to two family homes can have this drastic of an impact, projects like the Townes and Conley Estates are important and a significant step in the right direction. And we deserve to treat them as such, and to be proud.