Subconsultant to YARD and Company

For the 3rd Ward housing and revitalization plan

Client

City of University City

Description

University City is a former “streetcar suburb” community of approximately 35,000 residents bordering the western City limits of St. Louis. The city is home to a significant stretch of the famed Delmar Loop commercial district and is adjacent to the main campus of Washington University, a nationally prestigious private collage. The three Wards of University City, largely following the contours of major arterial streets, are demographically distinct. Ward 1 residents have the highest household income, while Ward 2 is more economically and racially diverse than its neighboring Ward to the south. The 3rd Ward - the located primarily north of Olive Boulevard - has distinct demographics among the three Wards:

• The widest diversity of household income

• The lowest assessed property value

• The highest percentage of renters

• The only Ward that is majority minority demographically

Olive Boulevard, which forms the southern edge of most of the 3rd Ward is one of two primary commercial spines in University City. Residents talk openly of the “Olive Divide” between the more affluent and predominantly white Wards to the south and the working class, predominantly Black 3rd Ward to the north. The purpose of this plan is to provide strategies for investing the TIF funds in a way that increases housing values, promotes economic diversity, encourages homeownership, and revitalizes the 3rd Ward.