1. Black Creek Parkway Proposal
A Less Intrusive Alternative to the
Often Abandoned I-170 Extension
2. I-170
• I-170 was never meant to end at I-64
• Cost Overruns Shelved Southward Expansion
• 2 Proposed Routes were created one following
creek, the other follow railroad right of way
• Several Attempts at Resuming Construction
met with Strong Opposition
4. Extension Benefits
• Allows southern residents convenient access
to Central Corridor
• Reduce pollution caused by Stop and Go
Traffic
• Reduces Traffic from 3 Alternative Major
Streets
5. Original Plan
• Follow Black Creek with 6 Lane Interstate
• Consumes 152 Homes, 208 Apartments, 43
Businesses and 3 Parks
6. Changes Since Original Proposal
• Brentwood Promenade claimed nearly 80 of
the Affected Homes Already
• MetroLink built over railroad route, leaving
only Black Creek Alternative.
• Venture Store long shuttered (9 months after
County Councilman Kurt Odenwald used it as
an example of loss from Interstate
Proposal…Don’t Worry… He is no longer in
office… he’s a Circuit Court Judge now!).
7. Determining Original Route
• No County Proposal Map
Available
• Only Map comes from 1990
Newspaper Article
• Georeferenced Map,
Traced Routes, Inaccuracies
Manually corrected based
on verbal details listed in
several Newspaper Articles
8. Methods for Determining Interstate
Effects
• Using Traced Original Black Creek Route
• 120ft Buffer created to represent 240 average
width of 6 lane Interstate
• County Parcels Selected which overlap buffer
• Interstate would now only affect 93
properties, most would need to be completely
razed
• Property Values lost would equal $82 Million
Dollars
9. Methods for Determining Parkway
Effects
• Traced Original Black Creek Route
• 40ft Buffer created to represent 80ft average
width of 4 lane Parkway similar to Forest Park
Parkway
• County Parcels Selected which overlap buffer
• Interstate would now only affect 73 properties
• If all represented lost Property, Values lost would
equal $72 Million Dollars
• Most Properties would not be completely lost
12. Effects of Parkway Substitute
• Total Losses would include 2 Houses, 12
Vacant/Agricultural Tracts along Black Creek
Flood Plain and 1 Brentwood Park
• 7 Houses would loose some backyard property
• 2 Parks would lose approximately 1/3 total
area
• 1 Apartment Complex and 8 Industrial Parks
would lose portions of their parking lots.
13. Opposition Concerns Mitigated
• Eye-sore creek replaced with eye-sore Parkway
• Commuter Cars only and reduced speed limits
create less noise
• Introduction of Stead Speed Route reduces stop
and go traffic on 3 major street alternatives, thus
reducing pollution from emissions
• Elevated Parkway would actually block view of
Industrial Courts(and other blights) from many
neighborhoods
• Property Loss very minimal
14. Conclusion
• Parkway would provide many of the long
sought after benefits while minimizing the
effects on local residents
• Richmond Heights, Maplewood, and
Brentwood could all see increased tax revenue
as Parkway would conveniently bring
commuters straight to the heart of their retail
districts
