Old Webster Business District Advisory Commission

Old Webster Special Business District Advisory Commission MEETING MINUTES APPROVED MEETING DATE: Tuesday November 26, 2019 LOCATION: City Hall CALLED TO ORDER: 8:00 AM MEETING ADJOURNED: 9:05 AM NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, January 28, 2020 NAME PRESENT ABSENT Ron Clipp, Chair X Joe Rath X Mark Hinkle X Tim Delanty X Micki Hansel X Gary Schoenberger X Margaret Stevens X Bill Newhouse X Stacie Swederska X Emerson Smith, Council Liaison X Mara Perry, City Liaison X Also, in attendance: Fran Sudekum – Administrative Support APPROVAL OF MINUTES A Motion to approve the October minutes was made by Joe Rath, seconded by Tim Delanty, and unanimously approved. OLD BUSINESS • Holiday Season o Old Webster Holiday Open House Feedback – The Open House event was the best ever; possibly a record-breaker in attendance and businesses. “An extremely good day!” The event draws not only local residents but many visitors from the St. Louis metro region and out-state Missouri and Illinois as well. Commission Members gave a shout out to the Public Works and Parks Departments for the work they did in getting the holiday decorations up and the district sidewalks cleaned up in time for the Open House. o Webster Holiday Cookie Walk Event – Sixteen businesses will be participating in Old Webster and seven in Old Orchard; some repeats from last year and some new. Printed maps will be available for Cookie Walk patrons this year. o Candle Lights – The Williamsburg-style candle lights in the upper-floor street- front windows have been well received and add an extra accent to the holiday decorations. MOTION: Joe Rath made a motion to buy additional candle lights now to be used for next year in a quantity large enough to get the same discount as the first order. The motion was seconded by Bill Newhouse and unanimously approved. Page 1 of 3 • MoDOT Signs – The Missouri Department of Transportation is removing all brown historic highway signs which means the Historic Old Webster sign on Highway 44 will be removed. In its place, a small version can be included as one of the squares on the regular wayfinding signs (i.e. lodging, gas, food at this exit signs) for a fee. As a result, Public Works may make Historic Old Webster wayfinding signs at the end of the two Highway 44 exit ramps on Elm Avenue. • Rooftop Lighting – o The lights on the buildings housing Acme Printing, The Hub, Shelter Insurance, etc. are not working; Stribe will be asked to handle. o The resolution of the bulb corrosion on the rooftop lights has not yet been resolved. • Banners – Need to get the design for the spring and fall banners completed in time to put them up this coming spring and fall. • Valet Parking – moved to next meeting. NEW BUSINESS • Budget Pre-Review – Mara Perry handed out two budget worksheets for Commission Members to review and start thinking about budget planning for next year. A review of expense items on the current year’s budget and past year’s budgets was reviewed. Note: the lease on the employee parking lot on Gore is currently under negotiation to extend it for another four years. A history of revenue was also reviewed; a couple of years had a bump from a financial tax. Possible items to consider during the January budget meeting was discussed, such as starting back up funding holiday lights on District trees as was done for the trees located in front of The Clover and the Bee, Olive + Oak, and Designer Appliances, which was done several years ago. • Auto Vehicle Incident – A car ran up on the sidewalk in front of Olive + Oak and plowed thru their patio seating area around 12:30 AM several weeks ago destroying four of their planters and sending tables askew everywhere. Fortunately, no one was seated in the patio area at the time. The driver drove off when approached; an employee was able to get the license plate number. Mara stated she would attempt to get an update from the police. BDC UPDATE • New Members – The BDC has three new Commission Members; they’ve been getting them up to speed. • Small Business Saturday Social Media – The Explore Webster Groves Facebook page will be doing various postings focused on Small Business Saturday, such as a “tag a friend” give away, using the holiday KTVI Channel 2 television ad, and more. • Interactive GIS Mapping Application – City Staff is working on an interactive GIS mapping application for Webster Groves restaurants. Restaurant locations, hours, types of cuisine, and more will be available on the application. After the restaurant application is complete, additional applications can be added. For example, a Cookie Walk map as well as public art, historic walks, and other business applications. The application works well on smart phones. It will be a link on the City’s website. When the restaurant application is complete, it will be rolled out and restaurants will be asked to look at theirs and give feedback on any changes for their business. Page 2 of 3 CITY UPDATE • Construction continues on The Elle at Lockwood. • Construction continues on the project at the former Auto Beauty location. • Construction continues on Regions Bank. The second building on the same lot for retail will have a different owner. • Crossroads is possibly getting a couple of new retail businesses, one in the former Porter Paints location and the other a little further west of Porter Paints. • The building housing the former Krueger Pottery location has a new owner who will be doing a new roof and white boxing for three spaces. • Le Macaron’s permits have been issued. Construction was held up by the building owner on some code issues. • Edward Jones in Old Webster is expanding into the former Loesch Engraving location. Note: That location is not currently under a formed-base zoning code so a non-retail businesses can reside there. • Jiffy Lube is changing ownership; it will be Valvoline. • Staff is working on text amendments covering such items as dog kennel uses, updating parking codes, and non-conforming uses. • The new building code adoption is going before City Council; involving 12 ordinances. • There is a very high number of businesses and developers interested in doing business in Webster Groves. NEXT MEETING • Tuesday, January 28, 2020 from 8:00 AM at City Hall. Page 3 of 3