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PLANNING

Community development requires a mix of public and private activity. Private investors are a necessary ingredient-people interested in buying a home, running a business, and otherwise investing private dollars into the bricks and mortar that build and rebuild a neighborhood. But government is typically necessary to build the streets, parks, and all the other public facilities that are also necessary ingredients for a community that works.

At the intersection of public and private investors are the planners, building officials, and other development officials who strive to obtain the proper balance. Their job is to articulate the goals and objectives of the community in the form of city plans, and to guide the zoning, development plan, and related implementation mechanisms that help shape those plans.

Code enforcement officials have to find a balance between a private owner's property rights and the rights of the community in order to ensure that buildings are safe. In St. Louis, there is a special role for those concerned with preserving our heritage. Their concern is that important buildings are not lost, and that building and community improvements contribute to the authentic character of historic neighborhoods.

A special concern has to do with energy efficiency - with reducing the waste of energy and especially with finding ways to lighten the utility burdens of the poor.

PLANNING NEEDS

The urban planning function in the city of St. Louis has been part of the Community Development Agency since 1974. It was then that the independent Planning Commission was combined with three other groups (the Beautification Commission, Business Development and Model Cities Office) to create CDA. That 25-year approach ended in summer 1999 with the formation of a new City department, the Planning and Urban Design Agency (PUDA). Its mission is to give new prominence to the role of city planning in reviewing, guiding, and inspiring the City's future development.

Current Services

The new department has a 13-person planning commission that replaces the Community Development Commission. Like the previous commission, there is a mix of citizen members and members who serve by virtue of their position. In keeping with the recently enacted ordinance, the new commission consists of:

• Seven citizens appointed by the Mayor. Several are ordinary citizens; others represent city planning, architecture, landscape architecture, and engineering professions, respectively.
• A representative of the Mayor's Office, the Comptroller's Office, and the President of the Board of Alderman's Office.
• The Aldermanic Chairs of the Transportation and the Housing, Urban Development and Zoning legislative committees or their designees.
• The President of the Board of Public Service.

The citizen members select a Commission Chair from among their numbers. The Commission will have traditional planning responsibilities, including reviewing all proposed redevelopment plans, zoning changes, neighborhood plans, and appeals from the Cultural Resource Board, as well as overseeing of the city's comprehensive plan.

Specific functions of the department are:

Small Area Planning. There is a great deal of planning activity currently underway in the city. It takes a variety of forms:

• Downtown Now. For the last two years a large-scale planning effort has been underway with the joint sponsorship of the City of St. Louis, the Regional Commerce and Growth Association (RCGA), St. Louis 2004, and the Downtown Partnership. A state of Development Principles and Priorities (November 1997), First Directions report (June 1998), and Framework Plan (July 1998) have been reviewed. Now the Final Plan report and the Design Plan for the Downtown Core District are being completed for consideration by the Planning Commission and the Board of Aldermen. A major implementation effort will begin shortly to coordinate the many public and private investments.

• Sustainable Neighborhood Plans. Fourteen city neighborhoods are contained in the 5 (out of 9) neighborhood clusters that are the attention of the Sustainable Neighborhood Initiative that has grown out of the St. Louis 2004 program. The status of these efforts varies; all, however, have a common approach-they are community-based, with equal attention to desirable physical, economic, and social service improvements. Coordination comes from the Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance (RHCDA) and Area Resources for Community Human Services (ARCHS).

• Other important initiatives. Small area planning efforts are underway in other parts of the city. The Garden District has a large scale planning effort underway in order to address the needs of the Shaw, Southwest Garden, McRee, and Tiffany neighborhoods. The Missouri Botanical Garden and the Danforth Foundation have provided resources and leadership for this community based effort. A similar effort is getting underway in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood, again with strong help from the Danforth Foundation. Here the impetus is the new Vashon High School being built on the north side of Cass, west of Jefferson. The challenge is to create a state-of-the-art school that also serves the neighborhood, and to encourage adjacent redevelopment that will benefit by proximity to the new institution. Still another planning effort is being organized for the Hyde Park neighborhood, with special focus on the area around Salisbury and Blair. Lastly, an initiative is underway to better use and identify potential commercial and industrial sites along the North Riverfront.

Project Planning and Review. The Department also engages in a variety of special planning and review projects. For example:

• Housing Conservation Districts. Every proposed district in the city for enhanced inspection services at the time residential buildings change ownership or occupancy, is examined in order to determine the appropriateness of this service and the likely impact on city personnel. As required by ordinance, the Agency's report is forwarded to the Board of Aldermen, prior to consideration of the new district.

• Rezoning and Community Unit Plans. Proposed changes to the zoning ordinance or to the zoning map are reviewed and approved by the Commission prior to consideration by the Board of Aldermen. Similarly, community unit plans and related zoning mechanisms receive periodic attention from the Agency and Commission.

• Street Vacations and Renaming. Any decision to "vacate" city streets or alleys, thereby allowing the land to be conveyed to the adjacent property owners, is reviewed by the Commission prior to legislation. The Agency examines the wisdom of changing street names.

• Development Plan Review. State legislation allows development rights, including tax abatement and eminent domain, to be conveyed to redevelopment corporations under the terms of Chapter 99 (Land Clearance for Redevelopment), Chapter 100 (Planned Industrial Expansion Authority), or Chapter 353 (Private Redevelopment). The Commission must review these proposed plans prior to consideration by the Aldermen.

• Soulard Market. This is an example of a special project where detailed analysis of potential improvements is being carried out. Similar projects have been carried out around MetroLink stations and other high profile sites such as the Kiel Opera House. Typically, these assignments are conducted in a collaborative manner with the involvement of various civic and community groups.

Comprehensive Planning. An interim comprehensive plan for the city was last prepared in the mid 1970s, and the last formally adopted comprehensive plan was in the late 1940s.This dearth of citywide planning reflects the fact that, over the years, many have viewed the exercise as having relative low priority, and that when it has been tried it has been controversial. Like the CDA ordinance before it, however, the new Planning and Urban Design Agency (PUDA) calls for the development and maintenance of a master plan for the city. Moreover, there appears to be new enthusiasm for creating such a plan. Still to be resolved are the methodologies to be used and the source of the necessary resources.

Cultural Resources. PUDA incorporates the former Heritage and Urban Design staff. In recent years this group has reviewed about 500 applications for building permits in city historic districts and carried out several hundred federally mandated Section 106 reviews for housing and other projects being supported with federal funds. It has also reviewed several hundred structures each year that are proposed for demolition with CDBG (federal) funds.

These services will continue under the new agency. Less clear is the process for proposed projects that used to be reviewed because of their proximity to parks, their commercial/ industrial use, or their demolition status, regardless of historic district. These previous functions are no longer mandated, and there is legitimate debate about whether such a degree of aesthetic and historic review, in areas outside of historic districts, is still desirable.

Research Services and Capacity. The Agency receives ongoing requests for information about the city. A small section exists to process these requests and to conduct special projects of one kind or another. The section devotes time to assembling and packaging information for dissemination to the community in traditional hard-copy and electronic form. The Five-Year Consolidated Plan Strategy, annual Performance and Evaluation report, annual lending study, and Impediment Analysis to Fair Housing are among their assignments.

Urban Design. The urban design function has received prominence in recent years because of its role in large, important projects such as the Forest Park Plan, the Washington Avenue Loft Study, and the Downtown Now Plan. Yet there are many who fail to appreciate the importance of good design, either at the macro or the micro scale. This section is charged with devising design excellence that is affordable, as well as concurrently educating the community about the importance of good design.

Graphics and Mapping. The graphics section has a long tradition of providing outstanding maps and graphics for both the development agencies and for the City as a whole. The group has been an innovator in using computer technology to create maps, charts, aerial photography, and related graphic art that is critical to the planning function.

Needs and Challenges

City planners face some common challenges no matter where they work; other concerns are unique to their respective communities. Common problems often have to do with the fact that, at some level, everybody is or can be a planner. Planning is more art than science. There are few absolute answers, and everyone is entitled to an opinion. Thus, often there is a continuing need to convince citizens that planning makes sense-that simply dealing with projects on a case-by-case basis doesn't necessarily lead to a satisfactory and sustainable solution over time.

Planners have an especially challenging time when they work in a community where the demand for new development is weak, and the needs of the citizens are high. Over the years St. Louis has typically had to fight for investment projects, rather than deal with multiple developers looking to build. In this environment it is difficult, and not always wise, to let the plan, or the design standards, get in the way of the project. The city official is faced with the difficulty of striving for adherence to a professional plan and to high development standards, without letting the investor get away. Fortunately, there is some evidence that demand is growing in the city, and that increasingly developers and investors realize the importance of planning and design.

Recommendations

a) Resolve procedures, priorities and staffing for the new agency.

The Agency needs to adopt a set of by-laws and a work program for the coming year. A central question is the extent to which the staff can be increased, and whether additional funds can be raised to support planning initiatives. If not, careful thought must be given to the projects that can be undertaken with the existing resources.

b) Initiate a new comprehensive plan.

In keeping with the recently adopted ordinance, the City is committed to moving forward with development of a new comprehensive plan. Background research has begun that will be helpful for this effort, with the gathering of recent comprehensive planning experiences in other cities, and with the Five-Year Consolidated Plan Strategy, Neighborhood Planning initiatives, and the Community Information Network (CIN). This assignment will be complicated for many reasons-memories of past experiences, strong expectations on the part of many citizens, and the overall difficulties faced by the City. Nevertheless, the Agency needs to assemble resources and define an approach that will gain the support of neighborhood citizens and City-wide professional and advocacy groups.

c) Provide technical assistance to community-based planning efforts.

The Agency cannot do all the planning-nor should it. Community-based planning will continue in many neighborhoods regardless of the City's presence. The likely success of each plan will be increased, however, if there is a good interactive dialog between the neighborhood planners and the city government throughout the process. If the plan is to be endorsed by the Planning Commission, and to receive support from the CDBG, Capital Improvement, and other funding sources, the chances are substantially increased if Planning Agency staff participates actively from the beginning.

d) Revise and disseminate design standards.

St. Louis cannot expect design excellence unless guidelines exist that are appropriate, clear, and feasible. Too often in the past, guidelines have been subjective, too subject to interpretation, or simply not known to the developer. The result is that some commercial parking lots, for example, are characterized by brick, trees, and wrought-iron fencing. Others are lucky to have a plastic flower pot.

It is appropriate that different standards apply to historic districts, redevelopment plan areas and different zoning districts. To the extent possible, these standards need to be communicated, and administered, quickly and professionally.

e) Monitor trends and conditions throughout the city.

Every organization needs to measure its health on an ongoing basis. A city is no different. Both positive and negative indicators need to be maintained on a routine basis, and made available to the public. There are several major efforts, such as the United Way's Report Card Project funded by the Danforth Foundation, that are underway. The department needs to complement these initiatives, especially in terms of tracking conditions at the neighborhood level. Both the good and the bad news should be disseminated, but reportage should be done in a way that enables readers to understand the numbers in context.

f) Improve coordination with Neighborhood Stabilization Officers (NSOs).

Since the early 1980s, a group of ombudsmen has been working in City Hall to help solve neighborhood problems. Neighborhood Stabilization Officers are sometimes planners by training, and often engaged in the development and implementation of short-term action plans. NSOs and the new Planning Agency need to explore ways by which they can inform and educate each other on an ongoing basis. Close coordination will be critical to effective delivery of city services.

g) Develop improved Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Members of the Planning Agency have traditionally adopted a leadership role in building Geographic Information Systems that will support the City. With help from the City's Capital Committee in recent years, hardware, software, training and data accuracy improvements have occurred. Yet in comparison with many cities, our ability to access data and portray it geographically is poor. An interdepartmental program needs to continue and expand so that skills are increased, as are the tools necessary to conduct geographic analysis.

h) Contribute to the City's Five-Year Capital Plan

Planning departments everywhere have a role to play in the development of the Capital Plan. An effective planning department can make a major contribution to the understanding of population, transportation, housing, public facility, and many other needs. The Agency needs to work out a relationship for providing information and ideas to the Budget Office and other members of the Capital Committee.

Resources

The Planning Agency today consists of 27 people and several vacant positions. In addition to the Acting Director and his secretary, there are five planners, seven in Graphics, two in Research, two in Urban Design, and 9 in the Cultural Resources Office. There is also a modest amount for rent, computer equipment, and other administrative costs. This budget provides nothing in the way of consulting monies necessary to undertake a large planning project such as the Comprehensive Plan or additional neighborhood plans. Most master planning efforts in large cities, for example, typically take between $300,000 and $1,000,000 depending upon scope and time frame. An amount like that will have to come from other sources.