Responsible Growth
Responsible Growth
Responsible Growth
Responsible Growth is about how we continue to develop. Growth is good but it has to be smart. For the past 50 years, we have built without growing our population and workforce.
These recommendations look at where and how the County should grow, with clear standards to make sure new development is high-quality and built to last for current and future residents.
All Responsible Growth Recommendations
Each card below is one recommendation. The icons on each card represents what policy buckets, key issues, and topic areas are addressed by the recommendation. The more icons there are, the more transformative a recommendation is. While every recommendation brings St. Louis County closer to our vision, cards with a purple background are identified as the most transformative recommendations.
Legend
Inclusive Economies
Complete Communities
Sustainable Infrastructure
Responsible Growth
Leading the Region
Population Stagnation
Jobs-Skills Mismatch
Housing Diversity & Affordability
Infrastructure Cost-burden
Social & Environmental Resilience
Economic Development
Housing
Land Use & Development
Open Space & Environment
Transportation & Infrastructure
Recommendation RG.1
Identify communities most vulnerable to the impacts of adverse weather events and craft mitigation policies, programs, and projects.
Recommendation RG.2
Prioritize concentrating multifamily and mixed-income housing development and transportation investments along major transportation corridors.
Recommendation RG.3
Hold semi-annual comprehensive plan work sessions during which lead and supporting partners provide implementation progress and targets.
Recommendation RG.4
Create overlay districts with design guidelines for key Countywide mixed-use corridors, developed in partnership with various municipal and governmental organizations.
Recommendation RG.5
Prioritize mixed-use development around under-utilized MetroLink transit stations to create a critical mass of transit users.
Recommendation RG.6
Conduct streetscape enhancements to define neighborhood identity, improve safety and walkability, and attract economic investment.
Recommendation RG.7
Foster a safe, convenient, attractive, and fiscally responsible land use pattern that includes a variety of housing, recreational, and commercial opportunities in a manner that is compatible with existing and planned uses of surrounding properties.
Recommendation RG.8
Retain rural community opportunities with specific design guidelines that permit community-based agriculture, small-scale farms, natural habitat conservation subdivisions, horse farms, and rural estate living.
Recommendation RG.9
Guide development within unincorporated County to areas where the proposed density and development types align with capacity and access to existing utility/transportation infrastructure.
Recommendation RG.10
Require that adequate public facilities be provided at an acceptable level of service concurrent with development. Develop a mechanism for development to pay its proportional share of infrastructure based on the demand created by the development.
Recommendation RG.11
Consider the character of the land, its suitability for development, and the preservation of natural, cultural, and water resources as part of the development review process.
Recommendation RG.12
Encourage infill development on existing vacant parcels in unincorporated areas to minimize impact on natural resources and infrastructure while improving the quality of life for adjacent residents
Recommendation RG.13
Discourage gated entry subdivisions to improve circulation and connectivity, as well as emergency access.
Recommendation RG.14
Facilitate a coordinated, reliable, and equitable network of public facilities that preserves resources, ensures public health and safety, and keeps pace with planned development.
Recommendation RG.15
Guide development within unincorporated County to areas with adequate public services and facilities.
Recommendation RG.16
Protect industrial and manufacturing parks and districts from incompatible uses where feasible, using buffers, appropriate technology, building enclosure, and other design techniques.
Recommendation RG.17
Engage the community in recreational planning, stewardship, and programming, through strategic planning and outreach efforts.
Recommendation RG.18
Support the acquisition of unique ecological features, streams, watersheds, habitat types for utilization as parks, open space and greenways while prioritizing those areas that contain and/or offer linkages that enhance wildlife movements and connect with existing open space.
Recommendation RG.19
Create, support and protect an established network of dedicated open space areas and greenways that provide regional connectivity between the Missouri River and Bluff, Columbia Bottoms, and Meramec River Corridor.
Recommendation RG.20
Maximize protection and enhancement of the County’s environmental resources by meeting and/or exceeding EPA standards for clean air and water, and land clean-up.
Recommendation RG.21
Preserve and enhance the County’s open space, green space, and wildlife habitat for permanent, sustainable preservation of genetically and physically diverse ecological systems.
Recommendation RG.22
Encourage the use of innovative planning, design and funding techniques to conserve high-quality natural resource areas.
Recommendation RG.23
Develop regulations and design guidelines for development in areas adjacent to significant ecological habitats and other natural features in order to preserve and enhance the provided ecological services and community benefits.
Recommendation RG.24
Develop a land suitability plan to discourage development in high risk, hazard, and environmentally sensitive areas, including flood zones, areas with topographical constraints, as well as seismic and geotechnical hazard zones.
Recommendation RG.25
Restore brownfields and other environmentally damaged sites for potential infill development and/or transformation into permanent open space.
Recommendation RG.26
Collaborate with state, regional, and local agencies to preserve natural resources and to ensure that the supply of natural resources is adequate for projected multi-generational growth.
Recommendation RG.27
Preserve high-quality and ecologically important open space and agriculture by using Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs) and Purchase of Development Rights (PDRs).
Recommendation RG.28
Support landowner rights to sell or convert land for natural resource and conservation purposes.
Recommendation RG.29
Encourage sustainable agriculture practices to ensure the longevity of agriculture as a land use and viable economic activity in the county.
Recommendation RG.30
Preserve prime agricultural land, and ensure all other existing agriculture land be developed in a manner that is orderly and compact with the necessary ecological buffers to minimize environmental impacts to the adjacent agricultural areas.