The four routes regional leaders are mulling for MetroLink expansion snake through wildly different neighborhoods.
Crumbling buildings and weed-choked lots line parts of proposed corridors. Other routes would run near tidy shopping centers and trendy restaurants, reaching deep into the suburbs of 50度灰视频 County.
Experts say younger workers and empty-nest boomers are increasingly looking to live next to light rail stops and the amenities that seem to sprout up around them. Those changing preferences have made the land around light rail stops in other cities valuable real estate, attracting development dollars and residents that will shape neighborhoods for decades.
With a potential development magnet up for grabs, over where the next route should be built. While 50度灰视频 Mayor Francis Slay strongly backs the Northside-Southside line through the heart of the city, 50度灰视频 County Executive Steve Stenger has , arguing that three other routes that mostly extend into the county also should be studied.
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Wherever the next light rail line goes, it will do more than connect people to jobs and entertainment. It could help revitalize a long blighted swath of north 50度灰视频, or it could help catalyze pockets of dense development near 50度灰视频 County employment hubs.
The debate is not just about transportation. Otherwise, the region could spend a fraction of the cost of light rail and buy more buses.
鈥淏uses do not shape cities, rail does,鈥 said Todd Swanstrom, a professor of public policy at the University of Missouri-50度灰视频. 鈥淏uses accommodate existing patterns of development. Rail can shape patterns of development.鈥
Choosing a line
A decade has passed since the last MetroLink expansion, when the 8-mile line opened to connect Clayton to Shrewsbury. It was a messy process, going at least $132 million over budget and $276 million more than first estimated, with an additional $27 million in legal fees. And it opened 15 months late.
The first MetroLink line opened in 1993. The initial phase cost $464 million to build, with federal dollars covering about three-fourths of the cost.
Competition these days for federal money is fierce, and the planners must evaluate each of the four proposed MetroLink lines against each other to see which has the best chance of securing that money, said Jerry Blair, director of transportation planning for the East-West Gateway Council of Governments. It鈥檚 the region鈥檚 planning arm, and the decision of where MetroLink expands next will be made by a board of directors who come from both rural and urban areas and hold vastly different priorities.
鈥淓ven if we had the money today, we鈥檇 be looking at seven to 10 years for it to be complete,鈥 he said.
Blair said leaders hoped the studies on each route could begin this fall. Examining the county routes is expected to take a year, he said, and the north-south study will last 18 months.
The cost of light rail expansion is estimated between $60 million and $80 million a mile, although design plays a big role in that number. Tunneling is expensive, but cars that run in the street 鈥 as they would in the plan for the north-south extension 鈥 are much cheaper, Blair said.
Regardless, federal money will be essential, and Les Sterman, the former executive director of East-West Gateway, said the three routes that are mostly in the county just won鈥檛 have enough ridership to sway the feds. Stenger鈥檚 insistence on studying them 鈥渟eems more like a political gesture than any serious attempt to expand MetroLink.鈥
He鈥檚 not opposed to them in principle, but 鈥渋t鈥檚 a question of the order you take them on.鈥
鈥淚n my view, none of the corridors proposed by the county will come remotely close to qualifying for federal funds, so spending the considerable sums on planning work for these corridors is simply a waste of tax dollars,鈥 said Sterman, a backer of the north-south line.
That was refuted by Tom Curran, Stenger鈥檚 senior policy adviser.
鈥淧revious studies have supported the viability of these routes. They are ideal candidates for federal grant dollars,鈥 he said in a statement, which also said the three county routes had been identified as regional priorities during Sterman鈥檚 tenure at East-West Gateway.
One of studying would stretch north along Interstate 170 and include a stop next to the Boeing plant that employs thousands of workers. A Boeing spokesman would not answer questions about MetroLink expansion, including whether the company supports the line and new station near its facility.
Another would pass a planned plant science district near Monsanto鈥檚 headquarters, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and tech incubators before reaching Westport, where World Wide Technologies is building a new headquarters that will house hundreds of jobs. Maryland Heights Mayor Michael Moeller said in a statement that the city was encouraged by Stenger鈥檚 interest in re-studying the line.
The third would snake through southwestern 50度灰视频 and into south 50度灰视频 County, into an area where it could be heavily used by commuters.
Spurring investment
Planners trying to decide on a line need to look at the current needs of those likely to use public transit and have their eye on where they鈥檇 like to see future investment, said John Renne, an associate professor at Florida Atlantic University who studies public transit and the development around it.
Extending rail through more stable or affluent neighborhoods can make dense development more difficult because land is more expensive, Renne said. Though it might be a decade or more before development around light rail stations takes off, many cities have successfully attracted development near stations in poorer neighborhoods suffering from disinvestment.
鈥淚f you put in rail, you鈥檙e going to ultimately get a return through increasing property values and property taxes,鈥 Renne said.
The part of the 50度灰视频 region seemingly most in need of new investment is north 50度灰视频, which would contain a large share of the north-south line backed by Slay. The new line would run from West Florissant Avenue near Interstate 270 in north 50度灰视频 County, down through the city 鈥 including downtown 鈥 and along thoroughfares such as Goodfellow Boulevard, Natural Bridge Road and Jefferson Avenue, and ending at Meramec Bottom Road in south 50度灰视频 County.
Slay pointed out in an interview that the new line runs through a federal 鈥淧romise Zone,鈥 which moves parts of north city and north 50度灰视频 County up in line for federal dollars that pay for projects such as transit expansion. The new line could also run past the new at Jefferson and Cass avenues, which will employ thousands when it opens early next decade.
As the city works to attract housing and other development to the area, the MetroLink line would provide needed transit to a population less likely to have access to a car and send a signal to developers.
鈥淲hen you build a light rail line, it鈥檚 permanent,鈥 Slay said.
While attracting development to the nodes around light rail stations is an important goal, Sterman said providing low-income people with transportation to jobs will also help lift the area. Expanding public transit was one of the signature 鈥渃alls to action鈥 of the Ferguson Commission report, completed last year, and Sterman argued that a north-south line would connect lower-income people with a higher propensity to use public transit to the central corridor line that connects downtown 50度灰视频, Clayton and the hospitals and tech companies of the Central West End.
鈥淚ncreasing incomes and providing jobs for people who need them is a significant form of economic development,鈥 Sterman said.
And, Renne said, it鈥檚 a bet that affinity for urban areas and walkable communities will continue to increase.
鈥淲hen the baby boomers were buying homes and Generation X were buying homes, they were the folks moving out to the suburbs,鈥 he said. 鈥淓ven the baby boomers now are selling large homes in the suburbs and live in more walkable, transit-oriented communities.鈥
That was echoed by Darnell Grisby, director of policy development and research for American Public Transportation Association, who said demand was high for working and living near transit. 鈥淗ousing near public transportation is like beachfront property.鈥
The debate shouldn鈥檛 even be about which line to build, said John Hoal, an urban design professor at Washington University whose H3 Studio has done transit-oriented development planning work for Metro.
鈥淪o often these transit discussions get posed as one against the other,鈥 Hoal said. 鈥淲e should design for the long term a great system we know will be viable and say how we will get there, step by step.鈥
Attracting development
The 50度灰视频 region has a mixed record attracting development to its current MetroLink stops. It鈥檚 starting to take off near stable areas in the bustling central corridor, Hoal said. The delay, he thinks, stemmed from the old industrial rail corridor the region chose to build along.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had to build our communities back toward the line,鈥 Hoal said. 鈥淐learly that is beginning to happen, and it鈥檚 more successful in some places rather than other places.鈥
Since 2011, roughly $5.7 billion in new projects have been built, are under construction or are in pre-development within half a mile of MetroLink stations, said John Langa, vice president of economic development for Bi-State Development.
One of the goals of such development is to make it as dense as possible, he said, with as many uses including commercial and residential, while making sure it鈥檚 accessible not only by train, but by bus, car, bicycle and on foot.
There are examples of where stations have attracted development. A is under construction on Delmar Boulevard near the MetroLink stop. Centene鈥檚 plans include mixed-use near the Forsyth Metro stop as part of the city鈥檚 transit development plan.
Elsewhere, it鈥檚 a different story. Vacant lots and boarded-up buildings still surround the Fifth and Missouri station in East 50度灰视频. Almost 16 acres of vacant land owned by 50度灰视频 County鈥檚 Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority sits next to the Wellston MetroLink station.
Near the Rock Road station down the street from Normandy High School, 50度灰视频 County owns vacant lots, as does the city of Pagedale in the adjacent subdivision.
But efforts are underway to better use the asset. The nonprofit recently bought six acres and the former flea market building that sits on it next to the station.
Studies envision new mixed-use office and retail and residential and retail buildings near the station, along with multifamily housing. Beyond Housing President and CEO Chris Krehmeyer says his group is interested in using tax increment financing or other incentives to help pay for infrastructure next year and, hopefully, start work on the first building in 2018.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a terribly underutilized asset in the community,鈥 he said. 鈥淭wo thousand people roll through there everyday and the extent of economic development is a 7-Up vending machine.鈥
To the north, the University of Missouri-50度灰视频 is in discussions with private landowners near the Hanley and UMSL South MetroLink stations to develop additional housing or retail nearby, said Betty Van Uum, an assistant to the chancellor for public affairs and economic development. The university owns land near the stations and is trying to come up with a plan with other landowners to build more densely around them.
Since the university鈥檚 community development corporation, University Square, began working to beautify Naturncreased near UMSL South, she said. And at Hanley, she estimated the university could be months away from finalizing a plan with other landowners and developers for construction around the station.
鈥淲e think there is need for more retail development,鈥 Van Uum said. 鈥淐ertainly we have strong interest in it.鈥
In Maplewood, construction began a few months ago near the city鈥檚 MetroLink station on a $100 million project on Hanley Road south of Manchester and north of Deer Creek Center. It includes a 174-unit apartment building; a Maserati and Alfa Romeo dealership; and a Porsche dealership.
鈥淚 really believe that this will be an ideal for the young professionals and millennials who they say aren鈥檛 interested in going out and buying cars,鈥 said Maplewood City Manager Marty Corcoran.
He said the 50度灰视频 area hadn鈥檛 grasped the idea of transit-oriented development and was way behind what鈥檚 happening in other cities.
鈥淗opefully we鈥檒l catch up with the rest of the country,鈥 Corcoran said.