Spotlight on future of city's southside

The 100 block of East Dunklin Street, the commercial heart of Jefferson City's historic southside "Old Munichburg" neighborhood, received a fresh look with new sidewalks and landscaping, as shown in this Nov. 5, 2015 photo.
The 100 block of East Dunklin Street, the commercial heart of Jefferson City's historic southside "Old Munichburg" neighborhood, received a fresh look with new sidewalks and landscaping, as shown in this Nov. 5, 2015 photo.

It was labeled a "public open house," and the Thursday night presentation before the Jefferson City Planning and Zoning Commission at City Hall was almost certainly the first of numerous meetings at which the Historic Southside/Old Munichburg District and Neighborhood Plan will be the main attraction.

The proposal is the latest gesture toward community leadership spawned by Capital Region Medical Center (CRMC). Gaspare Calvaruso, CRMC president, introduced the more than one-hour presentation with a formal statement of the hospital's intent to fulfill its role as a good corporate citizen with a commitment to Jefferson City in general and to its neighborhood specifically.

"We're not going anywhere," Calvaruso said of CRMC, giving way to Timothy Breihan, a principal in H3 Studio, the St. Louis firm retained by CRMC almost two years ago to craft the plan to revitalize the Old Munichburg area. H3 Studio describes itself as practitioners of urbanism, architecture, landscapes, sustainability and codes. It's renowned in St. Louis for its work in the restoration of Forest Park and, more recently, the recasting of the once-blighted Midtown area around St. Louis University.

Breihan and Calvaruso presided over a June interactive workshop at CRMC that attracted about 50 interested persons, about twice the number which attended the presentation Thursday night. The June gathering suggested a 20-year outline for changes and goals for the area generally bordered by the Whitten Expressway, Stadium Boulevard, Chestnut Street and the Broadway-Myrtle link. Thursday night, Breihan offered a plan that indicated dramatic near-term facelifts to Old Munichburg, but also 10-, 20- and even 50-year developments in the neighborhood.

The debut of the proposal Thursday actually followed four presentations by Breihan before at least 120 individuals. He explained Calvaruso and other Jefferson City leaders had assisted him in assembling an all-star panel of about two dozen leaders to provide input, commentary and criticism of the plan as it evolves.

Eric Barron, the senior planner in the city's Planning Department, said Thursday a final proposal from H3 Studio and Breihan was likely to be offered at a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in early January. Breihan said he envisioned that meeting triggering a series of sessions with various city government entities, culminating in a polished plan the City Council could adopt as another pillar of the city master plan.

The presentation took the audience into computer-generated imagery of renovated streets, sidewalks, street furniture, landscaping, roundabouts, gentle improvements to the historic buildings in the region and, by and large, an Old Munichburg which would welcome re-investment, re-habitation and gentrification.

It featured the improvement of the Stadium Boulevard and U.S. 54 interchange with a roundabout at Jefferson Street, alterations to virtually every street within the zone, improvements and beautification of the U.S. 50 corridor, a focus on jump-starting the core business district around Dunklin Street, multiple expansions and improvements to parks and greenways. A long menu of urban enhancement would ignite multi-generational investment in Old Munichburg, Breihan said.

Thursday's presentation is not on the city website but will be, Breihan and Barron said.

Breihan is not sure how much additional fine tuning his 10-step proposal will undergo in the next few weeks, but he was anxious to launch the formal process of public hearings.

Breihan said funding for the Historic Southside/Old Munichburg District was not in place now, but he anticipated the need for a funding stream to establish an office staffed by at least an executive director and one support personnel. He indicated such funding was possible from stakeholders like CRMC, Lincoln University and other public and private institutions in the immediate area.

The Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Thursday ended with Mayor Carrie Tergin and Chairman Chris Jordan presenting retiring Planning Department director Janice McMillan a proclamation citing her for 22 years of service to the city and its residents.