The 1.48-acre parking lot on the southeast corner of Euclid and Delmar is a great reason not to allow construction of another parking lot in the Central West End.In the late 1970s, the non-profit Union-Sarah West Economic Development Corporation demolished a row of vacant commercial buildings here to build the lot under the guise that the parking lot was necessary to serve the renovated Euclid Plaza Building. Today, the lot sits vacant. Not only is the lot closed off to public use, it is never used at all. The parking lot is weedy and blocked off. The Roberts Companies have proposed new construction on the site, but nothing is current in the works.
While the fate of this lot and the fate of any lot built by the St. Louis Archdiocese cannot be compared -- the Archdiocese will be a good steward of a new parking lot, I am sure -- this lot raises a planning question. Does a neighborhood with so many underutilized surface parking lots at prime corners need another?
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This prime example just proves that lack of parking is often a perceived problem, not an actual one. If Euclid Plaza really needed the parking, there would be some arrangement made to use it. Obviously, that is not the case. As long as people expect to park immediately adjacent to their destination, St. Louis will never achieve the critical mass of pedestrians that makes city life so vibrant and interesting. The madness has to stop. The fight for the San Luis represents much more than the building itself. What kind of future are we cultivating for our city?
This seems to be a problem that happens in many cities. It seems to me cities need to adjust tax policy so it doesn't encourage demolish, and have high runoff fees or fencing/landscaping requirements that encourage parking lot owners to sell or develop.
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