Council Holding Joint Session With Planning Panel, Will Also Talk Trash

Creve Coeur's City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission will sit down for a joint work session Monday night as the community discussion about a pair of important planning topics picks up steam.

The much-discussed need to revisit and potentially update the city's Comprehensive Plan will be one area that comes up. The Plan was first adopted in 2002 and was seen as a 20-years out guide for evaluating how development projects fit into the bigger picture of the city's needs and community desires.

The plan was cited as being out of date by Delmar Gardens in the company's recent failed bid to build a residential and assisted living complex on Ladue Road. But even those on the Planning and Zoning Commission who supported the project conceded that any update of the plan would not have likely been enough to see the project as consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.

The joint session will also get a staff update on what's known as "form-based code" in development parlance. The code is what will guide the look and feel of whatever development comes in the proposed vision of a "downtown Creve Coeur".

Details on the work session can be found on the city's website.

Mayor Barry Glantz told Patch he hopes the joint discussion also includes talk about what's to come of the area along Olive Boulevard east of Interstate 270.

Business owners in the area have said the restrictions on keeping the residential feel of the buildings directly on Olive despite their commercial uses have led to a sort of stigma, and as a result, a number of vacant properties between Mosley Road and the Monsanto campus. 

Ward 1 Council candidate David Caldwell has been critical of individual zoning changes made along the stretch and has called for a different approach.

In the regular council session scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m., city staff will give an update on how the city will pursue its next trash contract. The city renewed a contract with Allied Waste, now Republic Services

According to meeting documents, an outline calls for services to be put out for bid in August, for the final decision in the hands of city council by November or December, with the new contract starting in July 2014.

Also Monday, council members have scheduled second and final readings on a request by Post II Sports Bar & Grill to open in the former Growler's Pub space across from CityPlace, in addition to a pair of text amendments on restaurant space and parking regulations.