Olive/Lindell Streetcar or Bust: Why a New St. Louis Line Must Build On Success

The Partnership for Downtown St. Louis has released an RFQ (PDF below) for consultants to "a streetcar feasibility study for connecting the areas of Downtown, Midtown, CentralWest End, and Skinker-DeBaliviere in the City of St. Louis". This is step one in a long, necessary process that must be followed to develop a streetcar line. Citizens for Modern Transit offered a mock-up of the best potential route (image below). The Post-Dispatch put a piece online titled "So you want a streetcar, eh?" and offered a wacky Locust-Olive-Walton-McPherson route (OK, Locust would be pretty cool). Here's why the only feasible route will prove to be Olive-Lindell:

Below is the proposed form-based zoning code being proposed for the south side of the Central West End (north side of the 17th Ward). Public meetings were held over the summer of 2009 to explore development patterns to be pursued by the CWE. The hope is that a new form-based code will eventually replace existing zoning. As can be seen in the image, the new zoning would seek development of 10+ stories along significant corridors that would be served by a Lindell line. What would this theoretical height envelope look like?