City of St. Louis
Strategic Land Use Plan
FAQ
Who ultimately will decide to approve the updated SLUP?
The City of St. Louis Planning Commission is the body with ultimate authority to adopt or amend a comprehensive plan for the City. The City of St. Louis Planning Commission is composed primarily of citizens, and also includes city officials whose duties directly relate to issues addressed in plans (e.g., public infrastructure, parks, streets, etc).
What are the values guiding the SLUP update?
The Planning Team is building the SLUP conversation around three broad pillars: quality of life, resilience, and equity.
Quality of Life
focuses on the experiences of residents, workers, and visitors in the City of St. Louis, considering the things that make someone want to come to St. Louis and stay here long-term. This includes how we meet the needs of residents with diverse incomes and backgrounds, how land use decisions impact the health and wellbeing, and opportunities for development that can both expand population and retain current residents and businesses.
Resilience
focuses on resilience to shocks and stresses impacted by land use. This includes issues like severe weather, increases in heat, disruptions to City infrastructure, and health and well-being outcomes related to environmental stressors such as air quality and heat.
Equity
focuses on identifying, addressing, and seeking to rectify historic inequities, particularly racist disinvestment and decisions. This includes issues like how affordability can be maintained, how resilience impacts equitable outcomes, how we balance the needs and actions of the city with the region, and how future growth and development can have equitable outcomes for residents.
How does the SLUP relate to the zoning code? Will the zoning code be updated?
This process does not update the zoning code itself, but it is a first step towards updating the zoning code. What we learn in this process will inform a future update to the zoning code. For example, the SLUP will establish community goals for development and form, and then the zoning update will make sure our regulations support those goals.
What is the history of comprehensive planning in St. Louis?
The current Strategic Land Use Plan was adopted in 2005 and serves as the land use component of the comprehensive plan for the City of St. Louis. In a parallel process, the City of St. Louis is also creating a citywide Transportation and Mobility Plan, part of which will serve as the transportation chapter of the comprehensive plan.
In 1947, the City of St. Louis adopted a general plan, known as the 1947 Comprehensive Plan. In the early 1970s, efforts were made to prepare a new master plan (known as Team 4). Because of substantial controversy, that plan was never adopted. Neither the 1947 plan nor the Team 4 plan are utilized as part of City policy. When the SLUP was first adopted in 2005, it replaced all other citywide land use plans.
The City has also adopted many neighborhood plans over the years. All of these will remain in effect after the SLUP is updated—in fact, many of them are being used to inform the SLUP update.
How does the SLUP relate to neighborhood plans?
As a citywide plan, the SLUP will be a clear, comprehensive vision for land use in St. Louis. Neighborhood plans will “layer” on top of this citywide plan with more detailed visions for the future of each neighborhood.
How does the update to the SLUP impact ongoing neighborhood planning processes, such as Project Connect?
Current neighborhood planning initiatives, such as Project Connect, will continue in parallel to this plan. Planning and Urban Design Agency staff will work with community groups to ensure that any in-progress neighborhood plans align with new designations, and that the outcomes of neighborhood planning processes are reflected in the new SLUP.
Will the SLUP actually be implemented? When will we see
the things planned in the SLUP
in St. Louis?
The SLUP expresses an aspiration for what should be built in specific locations in the future through development processes. It is not a plan for development, and does not guarantee that something will actually happen at identified locations. Rather, when someone decides they want to invest money into a site, whether the investor is the City, a private developer, or someone else, the SLUP guides what can be put in a particular place.
How does the SLUP impact developer incentives, such as redevelopment plans and
tax abatement?
Tax abatement for a given project or in a given area is always authorized through a redevelopment plan—every redevelopment plan comes through the Planning Commission after it is initiated by the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority. The Planning staff and the Planning Commission review all redevelopment plans for compliance with the Strategic Land Use Plan.
How does the SLUP impact transportation decisions, like transit, bike lanes, or greenways?
While land use impacts transportation, including the destinations that might be where people are trying to get to, we can think of the land use plan as primarily impacting the use of land outside of the streets and roads — transportation issues like surface parking lots, driveways that cross sidewalks, and sidewalk furniture like benches and street trees are all part of land use. The City is also creating a Transportation and Mobility Plan, which will directly address roads, streets, bike lanes, sidewalks, greenways, and transit.
How will this process connect with the rest of the region, like
St. Louis County, St. Charles
County, or the East Side?
The SLUP is for the City of St. Louis. However, as the heart of our region, land use and growth in the City of St. Louis impacts all the surrounding municipalities. In addition to connecting with visitors to St. Louis from the surrounding region, the working groups include stakeholders from regional organizations, bringing perspectives that connect to the whole region.