In June of this year, the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council was successful in its application to CDA to use $21,500 in community development funds to hire a professional consulting firm to study the Nina Place area and make recommendations for its future. This area includes a three block area, including Nina Place, as well as the 5900 blocks of McPherson and Kingsbury.
The goal of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council in submitting the application, as stated in the official document, is as follows:
The SDCC anticipated that in developing a plan and in subsequently receiving Housing Implementation Funds that the following will be accomplished in the Nina Place area:
A) To pursue a redevelopment program designed to maintain a socially and economically integrated area that will include the provision of housing opportunities for various sizes of low and moderate income families.
B) Nina Place will be stabilized as further deterioration and abandonment is prevented through reinvestment and rehabilitation of structurally sound buildings. “You All Come” 6275 Delmar Boulevard Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
C) Rehabilitation efforts by present owners will be supported and new individuals and organizations will be encouraged to participate in the rehabilitation program.
D) SDCC will be an active participant in both the planning and development stages to assume protection of resident interest and needs.
The Board of SDCC subsequently accepted the recommendation of its subcommittee (the Nina Place Study Committee) to hire Team Four, a professional consulting firm which has been employed by several, diverse communities, e.g., they have done studies for the No. Side Team Ministry for the No. Grand Water Tower Neighborhood and for the city of Clayton, a study of the DeMun area to “make recommendations to assure that the housing stock in that area remains an asset to the neighborhood and the city of Clayton over an extended period of time.”
Some of their recommendations have been acted upon. Others have not.
Their vision of the end product of this project includes the following, as stated in their proposal to SDCC: “This planning effort will produce an indepth document which will provide the community and developers with the necessary information to make informed decisions regarding the revitalization of each building and the study area as a whole.”
The first stage of the planning procedure has taken place this past month: the committee and the Project Manager of the project for the consultants, Mr. Jack Pyburn, have held initial meetings with the owners of property in the Nina Place area, and with the interested community at large. These meetings have been very well attended, and ideas and opinions have flowed freely.
A group of residents and owners of property in the area which is to be dealt with in the study, have demanded representation on the committee, and the committee has agreed to carry their request back to the SDCC which will decide how many additional people may be invited to join the committee and how they will be chosen. This will take place at the regular meeting of the Council on Dec. 11.
Originally published in The Paper, December 1978.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Article reports $21,500; October report stated $21,000. Both source figures preserved.
Original source: SD_Times1978_12.pdf, printed page(s) 3; PDF page(s) 3.
