“Design Downtown STL,” a community-driven planning process, is seeking public input on a draft of the official 10-year comprehensive plan for the Downtown and Downtown West neighborhoods in St. Louis, Mo.
Once public input has been received, the plan will go before the St. Louis Planning Commission for approval and adoption.
“This plan aligns and empowers Downtown residents and businesses with a unified, diverse vision for change for our common future,” said LaShana Lewis, Board Chair of the Downtown Neighborhood Association and member of the Design Downtown STL Advisory Committee. “Design Downtown STL was developed over the past year through a community-driven process and represents the hopes, dreams, and vision of all who participated. It also reflects their input and hard work.”
The plan established five goals for the Downtown St. Louis area – realize the area’s potential for being a walkable and diverse urban neighborhood; expand the area’s economy to support new and existing businesses; redesign the area’s streets to create a bike, pedestrian and transit network; invest in open spaces and green infrastructure; and tell the public about what makes downtown St. Louis unique.
Led by a 30-member advisory committee, the process was driven by the feedback from people who live, work, and visit the St. Louis region, including 100 stakeholder interview and focus group meetings, 1,000 collaborative map comments, 1,100 community survey responses, and over 1,200 people who attended in-person and virtual events.
The draft of the plan can be viewed online. Public comments can be made on the plan from Sept. 10 through Oct. 4. Comments made on the plan will be integrated into Design Downtown STL before the plan is officially submitted to the city for adoption.