The Executive Board of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council, Inc. gave its approval to the redevelopment plan worked out by its Housing Committee and Team Four, an urban planning firm. Approval was tentative until the plan could be examined and considered by neighborhood residents.
The total redevelopment plan involves the area from DeBaliviere to Laurel and from McPherson to Delmar. The plan approved is for Phase I, which would redevelop the properties lying between the McPherson Alley and the Bi-State property.
As outlined by Mr. Jerry Pratter of Team Four, some 20 buildings in the area are presently cleared or marked for demolition. Planners are recommending the demolition of another 33 buildings which have obvious major structural faults. Another group of buildings is considered of doubtful structural soundness and their use or demolition will be recommended after careful inspection when the project begins. The fourth group consists of sound buildings which will be rehabilitated.
The present urban grid pattern will be maintained in the area because the public utilities run under the streets and alleys and these cannot be built over. The approved plan calls for the construction of some 95 two or three story townhouses, with one off street parking space provided for each unit. Some 103 buildings would be rehabilitated by the owners or, if purchased, by the redevelopers.
The Phase I plan also calls for the eastward expansion of the Hamilton School property which is at present not adequate for school purposes. The Bi-State property, which is in use at present, should remain in use until all phases of development are completed, according to planners.
To give Board members a comparison Mr. Pratter suggested that LaClede Town has a density of 23 dwelling units per acre. While the number of units per building is not final in the S-D redevelopment plans, the density per acre would be closer to 15. At present Cal Stuart and Team Four representatives are looking at architectural sketches for proposed new construction.
Architectural designs will have to blend in with present structures to preserve the appearance of the area. Open space for the redevelopment as estimated at one acre per 100 dwelling units.
The overall plan calls for a conventionally financed, professionally managed project. Mr. Roger Sachar, of Sachar Corporation, which has worked with the FHA in other redevelopments, remarked that Phase 1 which is purely residential, is relatively easy to finance, but of great importance because new construction encourages other new construction to mushroom in an area.
The redevelopment plan in its present form includes low income housing either under a rent subsidy or turnkey arrangement, but spokesman made it clear that federal guidelines for redeveloped areas have strict limits on the amount of subsidized housing.
As the situation presently stands, Team Four felt that the municipal Centralized Relocation Bureau should be notified that families will need housing as soon as the plans are approved by the Board of Alderman. A spokesman for Skinker-DeBaliviere indicated that even if the Council could find housing it did not have funds for relocation. Some families in the area will be eligible for a federal fund set up to help relocate families.
Board members agreed that from a neighborhood standpoint, the great problem would be relocation of families in the redevelopment area. Spokesman for Team Four and the Housing Committee made it clear that there was no way for every family relocated out of the area to be re-housed in the neighborhood when the development is completed.
Spokesmen for all groups concerned with the redevelopment plan agreed that if redevelopment were dropped or delayed the same families would have to move within a year or so in any event as the buildings involved will collapse or become totally uninhabitable within that time.
After presentation and discussion at local meetings, the redevelopment plan will be submitted to the City Plan Commission by October 6th. The Plan Commission has ninety days in which to consider it. Meanwhile the S-D Housing Committee will work to raise seed money for acquiring land and options on land in the target area.
Originally published in The Paper, October 1971.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1971_10.pdf, printed page 1, 4.
