Natural Bridge Boulevard is a four-lane road lined with a university, public library, elementary and middle school. That equals a lot of pedestrian traffic.
“It’s a nice road; it gets the job done,” said Thomas George, chancellor of the University of Missouri–St. Louis during his presentation of the annual Chancellor’s Report on Friday. “But what we’d like to do is mix it up and make it look a lot nicer.”
On Friday, George announced that Normandy collaborators hit their $14 million goal last week to transform a portion of Natural Bridge Road between Lucas and Hunt Road and the inner belt of I-170 into a more pedestrian-friendly street.
The plan is part of the St. Louis Great Streets Initiative, a program through the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, designed to encourage community leaders to use their streets to enhance economic development and social activities in their communities.
These projects promise a transformative effect on the community, said Betty Van Uum, senior official for public affairs and economic development at University of Missouri–St. Louis.
In 2007, Van Uum heard about the Great Streets Initiative and worked with City of Normandy Mayor Patrick Green and Rebecca Zoll at North County, Inc., which is a chamber of commerce, to develop and submit a proposal. Out of 36 proposals, the Gateway Council selected four. The projects are: Natural Bridge Road, Labadie, Manchester Road and South Grand.
The award was given to the three-member collaboration – UMSL, the City of Normandy and North County Inc.
From there, they embarked on a five-year, $2-million process to create plans and construction drawings. Federal stimulus helped with $1 million and the rest came from various other funds, Van Uum said.
As part of that process, city officials held public community meetings to listen to suggestions from community members and business owners.
Natural Bridge was selected for the Great Streets project because of the stable nearby communities, proximity to the MetroLink station and the amount of revenue UMSL students and faculty could generate for businesses such as restaurants, said David Wilson, senior manager for environment and community planning for the Gateway Council.
“There hasn’t been any development of this sort in 40 or 50 years, if not longer,” said Patrick Green, mayor of the City of Normandy. “This will spur economic development and make the space more useful for residents. It is a holistic, comprehensive way to tackle major issues along the corridor.”
What George announced on Friday was that the three collaborators have accumulated full funding, $14 million, for the project’s first phase, which stretches east of Hanley to Lucas and Hunt.
Most of the funding comes from MoDOT, yet a “significant hunk” comes from St. Louis County and Great Rivers Greenway, Van Uum said. For now, the money is spilt between $1,463,000 for engineering, $250,000 for right of way and $10,243,000 for construction, Wilson said. In addition, East-West Gateway will provide $1.2 million in “enhancement” funding, and that comes with a local match of $300,000.
One segment in the first phase is an “industrial area,” which includes the UMSL campus, two Normandy Public Schools and a St. Louis County library.
“We hope it will look like Wydown next to Washington University’s campus,” Van Uum said. “It will come down to one lane through traffic in both directions with a large planted median and separated bike lanes.”
Great Rivers Greenway also will create a 10-foot-wide jogging path on either side of the street, which will connect to the St. Vincent Greenway trail.
The next segment is what they call “the Wedge,” which is a roundabout with Florissant Road and Pasadena Boulevard.
“We hope it will be a kind of campus-town activity,” he said. “It will also serve the existing neighborhoods needs for retail. That area was historically the commercial town center, and we hope to bring that back to that purpose that it once enjoyed.”
Nancy Thompson, community outreach manager of Great Rivers Greenway, said it’s worth it to narrow the vehicle area on Natural Bride to provide better accommodations for pedestrians and bikers.
“I’m hoping the outcome is a more vital neighborhood east and west of the university campus,” Thompson said. “There are really good individual buildings and businesses, and tying them together in a more cohesive plan is very worth while.”
