The City of St. Louis Planning Commission has approved an overhaul to the city’s Strategic Land Use Plan (SLUP), which Mayor Tishaura O. Jones says “will serve as a guiding legal document on how to best use the land and development.”
“Our zoning code has not been holistically updated in more than 70 years, and it is often a barrier to constructing new housing”
“It’s been 20 years since St. Louis last comprehensively updated its land use plan, and best practices for building cities have changed drastically in that time,” said Mayor Tishaura O. Jones.
“Over the past century, American cities have increasingly prioritized cars and sprawl, becoming less inhabitable to the people who actually live here. With the new SLUP, we are truly turning a corner in making St. Louis a more walkable city full of life and growth. This new plan is one part of the hard work in the city to reverse decades of population loss through quality investment in people and place.”
The plan will:
- Promote development and mixes of uses near existing and planned bike, pedestrian, and transit infrastructure.
- Support active uses (e.g., restaurants, retail, and offices) on ground floors in key corridors so they are walkable and vibrant.
- Ensure residents are supported to remain in their communities through growth and change.
- Allow a greater variety of community-serving uses in many neighborhoods, including supporting the historic pattern of neighborhood-serving businesses tucked in between places where people live (as currently seen on The Hill).
- Support a range of different building shapes and sizes, including historic buildings and new construction, across the city.
“The city can set rules that make it easier to build things like housing, grocery stores, and restaurants near bus and light rail stops, so people have more choices about how to get around the city and access what they need,” said Miriam Keller, city planning executive – general planning and design.
“[We can] prohibit new gas stations where the pedestrian experience is really important, and instead encourage small businesses. Also the city can use its funding tools to attract key services to neighborhoods where people don’t have what they need.”
Data has shown that when population changes in the city, it tends to show a significant trend upward in neighborhoods where people have walkable access to services and amenities, Keller said.
Don Roe, executive director of the Planning & Urban Design Agency called the new plan “a big step for the city.”
“This plan gives us the solid foundation we need to take on the big, long-overdue project of updating the city’s zoning code. Alongside the great neighborhood planning work underway, the SLUP gives us a north star for what we’re trying to achieve as we create a modern, 21st-century zoning code,” he said.
The SLUP will make it easier to build new housing across the city. SLUP calls to increase the supply and diversity of housing options, including through “missing middle housing,” housing types like Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), and universally-designed, aging-friendly housing.
SLUP also calls to lower the barriers for more people to be involved in housing development, for example by creating pre-approved housing plans that anybody could use to build quality housing in their neighborhood, and by modernizing zoning rules so the approvals process is not so cumbersome or confusing.
“Our zoning code has not been holistically updated in more than 70 years, and it is often a barrier to constructing new housing,” Keller said. SLUP will create clear goals for housing, and also set the stage for a long-overdue update of St.Louis City zoning code.
Later this year, the Planning and Urban Design Agency will also seek adoption of an updated Sustainability & Climate Plan, as well as the Transportation & Mobility Plan, the first plan in decades to re-envision how transportation infrastructure is built and maintained in St. Louis, and which will support the City’s strategic efforts to make our streets more people-friendly. After approval, both the SCP and TMP will become part of the City’s Comprehensive Plan, alongside the SLUP. Other policies, strategies, incentives, and other public and private investments will advance the implementation of these guiding documents.
Implementing many of these ideas will rely on zoning changes. The City will next be working to overhaul its zoning code to ensure that the regulations for development fully align with community priorities. This process will include further community engagement in the coming months.
“We know there is a lot that plays into where people choose to live, but when it comes to land use, we see that creating a range of convenient places to shop, play, work, and learn is an important piece of the puzzle for supporting current residents and attracting future residents,” said Keller.
To view the SLUP plan, please visit www.slup-stl.com/slup-parcel-map