{a commercial storefront and what could be a town green}
The Post-Dispatch recently had a brief mention of an excellent urban development opportunity in Maplewood. With a new bus transfer station located at the nearby Metrolink stop, the city has the land at 2815 Sutton Avenue to repurpose.
What’s the vision? From the P-D:
Mayor Mark Langston presented a sketch he and former public works director John Openlander drew as a possibility. The sketch shows parking spaces on the Maple and Hazel sides and at the back of the site with green space and a small playground in the heart of the plot. Sidewalks crisscross the site diagonally.
Luckily the city council has agreed to have the Maplewood Community Betterment Foundation solicit ideas from architects and publicly display designs at the May 30 Taste of Maplewood. I can only hope that the sizeable plot will be re-envisioned and not just filled with grass.
This in an ideal opportunity to increase density, create a town green and add a mixed-use building. The land is bordered by a number of commercial storefronts and adding retail to the south portion would define the greenspace. There is a large surface lot across the street to serve parking needs. Sutton north to Manchester is lined with commercial storefronts.
While the south side of Manchester in Maplewood has wonderful historic density and scale, the Shop ‘n Save kills any intimacy and the sidewalks are too narrow for sidewalk dining. The Sutton Loop as re-envisioned below would bring outdoor dining and an intimate scale to Maplewood.
{the Sutton Loop today}
{the Sutton Loop re-envisioned: new commercial solid yellow, existing commercial outlined yellow}
{east side of Sutton across from Loop looking north}
{east side of Sutton across from Loop looking south}
{a closer look at the commercial storefront at Sutton and Hazel}
