100
270
141
64
70
55
44
170
100
ELLISVILLE
WILDWOOD
ROCK HILL
BRENTWOOD
MAPLEWOOD
METROLINK
DOWNTOWN
S T. LOUIS
TOWN AND
COUNTRY
M I S S O U R I R I V E R
MERAMEC RIVER
BALLWIN
WINCHESTER
MANCHESTER
DES PERES WARSON
WOODS
LAMBERT
A I R P O R T
1/4 mile walking radius
1/2 mile walking radius
Metrolink Lines
Manchester Road
Corridor
+16,332
+82,331
+25,619
-20,606 +1,379
(City of St. Louis)
Declining Population Increasing Population
+7,883
+10,623
POPULATION CHANGE BY COUNTY
2000 - 2010
0
5
10
15
20
Goal
Standard
Existing
Condition
Office Regional
Retail
Local
Retail
Vacancy Rates
10.9%
5% 5%
8% 8% 8% 8%
16%
10.1% %
0
50
100
150
200
Existing Standard Goal
Condition
For Sale Price
Lower-Density Residential
$130
$175 $175
$
Rental Rates
per square foot
$16.99
$22.50
$22.50
$25.00
$18.47
$15.78
$1.15
$1.50
$22.50
$22.50
$25.00
$1.50
$
0
5
10
15
20
25
Goal
Standard
Existing
Condition
Rental
Residential
Office Regional
Retail
Local
Retail
HIGH VACANCY LOW VALUE DECLINING RETURN
CAULKS CREEK
FISHPOT CREEK
KIEFER CREEK
GRAND GLAIZE CREEK
HAMILTON & CARR CREEK
CREVE COEUR CREEK
BONHOMME CREEK
Potential Regional
Stormwater Connections
Drainage Ways
Stream/ River/
Water Body
100 year Floodplain
Contour Line (50 foot interval)
Watershed Boundary
Study Area
Municipal Boundary
Roads
0
20
40
60
Goal, using
Porous
Pavement
for Parking
Goal, using
Conventional
Pavement
for Parking
Standard
Existing
Condition
Impervious Surfaces
50%
42%
35%
24%
%
0
5
10
15
20
Existing Goal
Condition
Porous Pavement
0%
11%
%
0
10
20
30
40
50
Existing Standard Goal
Condition
Tree Canopy
(percent of total land area)
Source: Davey Resource Report:
American Forests (2002),which suggests
canopy cover in a business district should
be 15% of total land area.
%
8.24
15.00
35.89
100
270
141
64
70
55
44
44
141
170
100
ELLISVILLE
58 71
55 17
77
83
62
74
75
68
WILDWOOD
15
BALLWIN
WINCHESTER
88
KIRKWOOD
BRENTWOOD
MAPLEWOOD
METROLINK
DOWNTOWN
S T. LOUIS
TOWN AND
COUNTRY
M I S S O U R I R I V E R
MERAMEC RIVER
62 MANCHESTER
DES PERES WARSON
WOODS
ROCK HILL
LAMBERT
A I R P O R T
WALK SCORE www.walkscore.com
0
2
4
6
Existing Condition Goal
Crosswalks per Mile
1.62
5.14
COMBINED LANDUSE MAP
Hutchinson Rd. Macklin Dr.
Old State Rd.
Pretoria Dr.
Weis Ave.
Kiefer Creek Rd. Clarkson Rd.
Vesper Dr.
Oak Hill Dr.
Mar El Ct.
Flesher Dr.
E. Meadow Ln.
Ellisville Towne Centre Dr. Ruck Rd.
Tartan Strecker Rd. Potential Park Area - 50’ Offset
from Floodplain
Manchester road
s t . L o u i s c o u n t y , M i s s o u r i
120 East Main Street, Aspen, Colorado 81611
t e l ) 9 7 0 9 2 5 8 3 5 4 f a x ) 9 7 0 9 2 0 1 3 8 7
w ww.designworkshop.com
North 0 0 3 M a y 2 0 1 0 200400 800 feet
Preferred illustrative Master Plan
Forest Leaf Pkwy.
Old State Rd.
Clarkson Rd.
Mimosa Ln.
Shirley Ln.
Manchester Rd.
Eatherton Rd.
1 mile
WILDWOOD
ELLISVILLE BALLWIN MANCHESTER
I believe the best roadway solution on Manchester Road is…(select three)
Ellisville
Ballwin
Winchester
Manchester
Wildwood
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Boulevard Multi-wayConnected Parking
Lots
Back StreetsRemain as ExistingNone of the aboveI don't know, I'd like to learn more
All of the above
BOULEVARD MULTI-WAY BACK STREETS AND CONNECTED PARKING LOTSEXISTING CONDITION PROPOSED CONDITION
Manchester Road Great Streets Plan –St Louis County, Missouri Project Fact Sheet
Planning Category
Project Name: Manchester Road Great Streets Plan
Project Location: St Louis County, Missouri
Project Summary: Almost every community nationwide features a retail corridor that resembles Manchester Road and reflects the country’s pattern of development following World War II, yet few communities have executed a successful revitalization of a struggling suburban corridor. The vision for the project is to set a national example for how suburban communities can build a plan for the revitalization of suburban retail corridors similar to Manchester Road and, in the process, help fortify against urban decay and effectively compete against newer suburbs and developments. The Manchester Road master plan creates a roadmap for economic revitalization, the improvement of the corridor’s aesthetic appearance and community amenities, the creation of downtowns for suburban communities that had previously lacked a sense of place and a physical heart, and overall environmental sustainability. The project set new standards for public engagement, economic development planning, and inter-governmental cooperation.
Purpose of the Project: “Great Streets” function as transportation facilities that facilitate placemaking, contribute to the economic vitality of the local community, represent the local sense of place, allow people to walk safely and comfortably, support mobility for all travel modes, and support and enhance environmental quality. Great Streets serve as destinations, not just as transportation channels, and create complete streets emphasizing measurable improvement in transit, walkability, recreation, economic sustainability and safety. The East-West Gateway Council of Governments in the St. Louis region selected Manchester Road as a pilot project for its “Great Streets Initiative” in order to apply complete streets thinking to a major suburban retail corridor. Because Manchester Road evolved as a typical suburban retail strip, existing conditions create unsafe and hostile conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists. The declining retail and overall economic vitality of the corridor has threatened the fiscal stability of the five communities in the study area and calls for immediate intervention to prevent further fiscal and community decline. The Vision for the Great Streets efforts along Manchester Road calls for the creation of an improved streetscape environment that matches the goals of the community and to plan for land uses, environmental quality, community amenities, and aesthetics beyond the right of way in order to facilitate redevelopment and revitalization. The landscape architect led a comprehensive design process that built upon community input throughout the project and resulted in a master plan document that provides a roadmap for the corridor’s evolution over the next 30 years.
The master plan outlines a roadmap for the revitalization of the corridor over the next thirty years. Given limited funding options, the plan outlines first phase improvements, including lighting, signage, and pedestrian improvements. In a metropolitan area that includes well over 100 different municipalities and a myriad of various agencies and governmental districts, the five communities displayed unusual solidarity in joining together to complete the master planning process. The landscape architect outlined a series of tools and strategies to sustain this momentum while maintaining political support in each jurisdiction, including the creation of a corridor redevelopment authority and the streamlining of development regulations and processes across the five communities, including zoning, parking, lighting, and drainage. The communities plan to amend their comprehensive plans and zoning regulations in line with the corridor master plan. A form based code for the corridor provides guidelines for the design and implementation of new development in the four mixed-use town centers and other areas along the corridor and represents the application of form-based code to the longest retail corridor to date in the United States.
Proposed improvements include construction of sidewalks and bike paths, new parks and open spaces in town center areas and along streamways and other environmentally sensitive areas, improved traffic signals and signage, improved landscaping, transit improvements, center medians along Manchester Road, improved grading to resolve slope issues along the corridor, and the undergrounding or relocation of overhead utilities. A series of metrics created during the master planning process, addressing noise levels, accident rates, vacancies for various property types, community amenities, and stormwater runoff, among others, guided the landscape architect team and will help the communities in evaluating the success of the corridor plan over time.
The Manchester Road Master Plan lays the foundation for the ongoing revitalization of the Manchester Road corridor, and will provide the client and the St Louis region a model for future Great Streets Initiative efforts and similar redevelopment efforts. The plan has been endorsed by a number of regional agencies and private sector business interests in the St. Louis area.
Construction Budget Amount: N/A Role of the Landscape Architect: The landscape architects were hired in September 2009 with the charge of developing a complete master plan for the revitalization of the 7.4-mile corridor and led a consultant team including real estate and market analysts, civil engineers, transportation planners, public art specialists, lighting designers, and facilitation experts. The team conducted initial stakeholder discussions to understand the key issues facing the corridor and the challenges that had impeded previous planning efforts in the area. Through a series of five rounds of public meetings, the landscape architects drew from public input to create preliminary and final master plan concepts for the corridor. The public provided input on planning and design issues through keypad polling questions at each public session, and in an online version of the keypad polling questions, that helped guide the consultant team throughout the process. The first rounds of public meetings provided input concerning the key goals the public had for the master plan and key issues to address. Based upon a market study that informed a recommended development program for the year 2030, the public played the “Chip Game” during a second round of meetings to provide a vision for the future land uses along the corridor. In this exercise participants placed chips representing various land uses along the corridor. The Chip Game exercise indicated substantial support for the creation of distinct mixed-use “town centers” along the corridor that would represent future downtowns for the communities. In subsequent rounds of public meetings, the public provided input concerning the preferred number and location of town centers along the corridor and preferences for land uses. Citizens also provided input concerning access management strategies for the corridor, transit options, bicycle and pedestrian access and facilities, the preferred design speed, and preferences for various street section options for Manchester Road, as well as intersecting and parallel streets in the study area along the corridor. The public also provided input concerning environmental solutions for stormwater and parks and open space, aesthetic improvements including public art and lighting, community amenities, and economic development strategies. The project provides a good example of what industry practitioners sometimes refer to as “Context Sensitive Design”.
The master plan creates a vision for the ongoing improvement of Manchester Road to a tree-lined boulevard with a center median and bicycle lanes and improved sidewalks running parallel to the travel lanes. Bus rapid transit lines will run along Manchester Road and connect the five communities with suburbs to the east and the larger St Louis region, including the Metrolink light rail system. A series of four mixed-use town centers along the corridor will serve as the focal point for the communities and include primary transit stops, civic amenities and city parks. Each town center will develop with its own urban form and program of amenities expressing the local character of each community. A comprehensive access management strategy, including the consolidation and coordination of driveways and curb cuts, helps improve traffic flow, safety and access to businesses and residences.
Special Factors: The Manchester Road corridor stretches from downtown St. Louis to the western edge of the metropolitan area, and the project study area includes a 7.4-mile stretch in the communities of Manchester, Winchester, Ballwin, Ellisville, and Wildwood. The corridor developed as a typical suburban retail corridor from the 1950s through the 1980s and serves as the economic backbone or “Main Street” of the five communities. In recent years, however, retail vitality has diminished. Increased vacancies and diminished sales tax revenues from Manchester Road have threatened the fiscal stability of the five communities. In addition, the aesthetic and environmental quality of the corridor has declined, diminishing the overall quality of life. Planning for Manchester Road presented the five communities with an important opportunity to revitalize their Main Street and prevent further urban decay that could threaten the long term viability of each municipality. In a metropolitan area known for considerable infighting between over 100 different municipalities, this project provides an unusual example of intergovernmental cooperation to address a regional problem. Planning across city boundaries is a rarity in St. Louis, and elected officials across the metropolitan area followed the Manchester Road project closely.
The landscape architect executed an unprecedented public outreach and stakeholder involvement plan that actively worked with key stakeholders including property owners, business owners, community organizations, elected officials, and various public agencies throughout the St. Louis region with an interest in the project. The project team worked to engage and educate these groups throughout the process and to draw from input from the various groups in creating master plan ideas and concepts. The landscape architect met with public agencies and with elected officials from each of the five communities on a monthly basis throughout the year-long project and conducted a regular series of discussions with local property owners and elected officials concerning particular design issues and implementation strategies for the Manchester Road master plan. The team utilized social media including Facebook and Twitter as well as online surveys to engage different parties throughout the planning process. Outreach activities including one-on-one briefings, the five rounds of public meetings, meetings with special interest groups, online surveys, interviews with media outlets, and site tours, involving a total of over 1,000 participants throughout the project. The team staged public meetings at multiple locations throughout the corridor to gain input from a broad cross-section of each of the five communities.
