Old Orchard Business District Advisory Commission

Old Orchard Special Business District Advisory Commission MEETING MINUTES APPROVED MEETING DATE: Tuesday, July 11, 2017 LOCATION: City Hall CALLED TO ORDER: 8:10 AM MEETING ADJOURNED: 9:04 AM NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, August 8, 2017 NAME PRESENT ABSENT Joe Fichter, Chair X Angel Venegoni X Claire Winkler X Mary Jane Armstrong X Steve Scheipeter X Holland Saltsman X Robert Weber X John Barr X Steve Zielinski X Frank Janoski, Council Liaison X Mara Perry, City Liaison X Also in attendance: Fran Sudekum – Administrative Support APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion to approve the June minutes as was made by Mary Jane Armstrong, seconded by Claire Winkler, motion was unanimously approved. BDC’S THREE QUESTIONS 1. What is the vision for your district? 2. What businesses would you like to see in your district? 3. What do you believe that you have in common with the other business districts? • The reality of the spread-out geography of all the business and shopping areas makes it difficult to bring it all together; there is no main business corridor in Webster. Each of the districts have their own culture, style, focus, and revenue source. • Pooling dollars to do city-wide advertising is a good idea and all the districts have participated and agree that is a good approach. • Getting new business and new customers into the City is tough. • We need to look at what would be a good compliment to what is already in the District that would further diversify the mix and not duplicate things that are already here and would compete against each other. Things that bring people into the area, but then keep them there to do other things. • Currently, Old Orchard has several eateries, but not many places to do shopping. Retail is missing from the mix. • We know that Webster residents want to spend their dollars locally in Webster, so If we look at what consumers are spending their money on outside of the District and then focus on attracting/bringing those types of businesses into the District. What types of retail, what types of services, etc. • Boutique-type retail businesses are lacking in Old Orchard and seem to be a good fit for the District; however, we also need to look at what can we do to help businesses succeed. If a business is not making money; it will have to close its doors.  • How do we control the design of the District; the proximity of the various types of businesses to one another to maintain walkability and business success. • Addressing property owners’ willingness to lease out their property to retail businesses is also a concern. How do we get landlords engaged in this process? • Available parking for all is priority; all are affected negatively or positively by the parking environment. • Emailed from Commission Member John Barr: “1) What is the vision for the district? A: To bring fresh retail and restaurants to the district through the refurbishing of the great architecture and buildings. One of the great assets of Webster Groves is our inventory of historic districts and buildings (and homes). If we fill these buildings with the correct businesses (forward thinking retail and restaurant) it will Help the district become a destination for outside tax dollars. Once we have a strong retail core in our historic buildings, more opportunities in retail development as well as residential development and mixed use development will be possible. 2) what businesses would you like to see in your district? A: More restaurant and retail. 3) what do you believe that you have in common with the other districts? A: We all have great old historic buildings that if refurbished/redeveloped are very attractive to people. But just in our community, but, outside the community as well. People want to come to Webster to enjoy our quaint semi-urban historic downtowns. If you give them progressive options, they will come. "If you build it...". All three historic districts could be huge retail draws if landlords and the city worked together to preserve our buildings and get the correct mix of retail and restaurant. The other thing we all have in common is that we are all ONE Webster and that we are all worse off by being different districts that don't share the economies of scale and purchasing power that we would all receive by being one.” PARKING • Bethesda Strip – Mara Perry has a verbal agreement from Bethesda to turn over the strip of parking spaces behind the businesses on the north side of Big Bend (North Old Orchard east) as City public parking. She should receive the final confirmation from the COO this week. Once received an ordinance will be issued to allow 2-hour public parking between the hours of 8AM to 5PM which will go before the City Council on August 15, approved on September 5 with parking signs up that week. A letter with all the new parking changes and restrictions (with a map) will be sent to the John Gabriel, President of Nerinx Hal, asking him to share this information with his student body and their parents prior to the start of the new school year. • Log Cabin Avenue Strip – Change the currently hourly-restrict parking spaces on the Commerce (east) side of the street to Blue Permit parking spaces. • Log Cabin Avenue Public Parking Lot – There are currently signs indicating Blue Permit parking at the rear of the Log Cabin Parking Lot, but they are not in the records. A decision on these spaces was tabled until the next commission meeting. • North Old Orchard Avenue Public Parking Lot – A discussion was held on the possibility of adding signage to the public lot identifying it as parking for Old Orchard Employees and Customers to discourage student parking in the lot. Mara will find out legal options from the City’s attorney and bring the info to the next commission meeting. • Webster Groves Animal Hospital Frisco Parking – The hospital owns four parking spaces on Frisco Avenue and would like to get them marked as such when all the discussed changes in parking take place. • Parking Map – Mara will bring an overall map of the District with all the parking changes to the next commission meeting. ST. LOUIS CVC MEMBERSHIPS AND RENEWALS Individual business St. Louis CVC memberships are due to Mara by July 30th. At least 15 individual businesses are needed for Webster Groves to receive special treatment in the CVC guide/magazine, maps, and website. The cost of membership for individual businesses is $150. CITY UPDATE • The new dermatology group in the former Block Buster Video space on Watson is opening soon. • Half and Half in the former First Watch location in Old Webster is opening soon. • Civil Alchemy has purchased the ROAR space in Old Orchard. • Webster Garden Café in Old Webster has a new owner. • Work is ongoing for the Airbnb business licensing component. • Minor change being made in the new liquor code to clarify micro-breweries. • Re-zoning for former YMCA location to multi-family is up before the next Planning Commission meeting. • Personnel changes in the Planning and Development Department: one retirement and two new hires. • The Novel Neighbor is expanding; the expanded space will be called Next Door at the Novel Neighbor. The space will be used for special events and meetings. NEXT MEETING Tuesday August 8, 2017 at 8:00 AM – City Hall. ADJOURNED Meeting adjourned at 9:04 AM