O’FALLON, MO. • More than a decade after the city dropped a controversial $200 million downtown redevelopment plan, officials are looking anew at reinvigorating O’Fallon’s historic core along Main Street north of Interstate 70.
But this time, they’re seeking early input from commercial and residential property owners, including people who loudly opposed the failed 2003 plan.
Moreover, officials say the new effort — which included two “visioning workshops” Thursday for the general public — is centered on the city’s own role and doesn’t involve private developers.
Several focus groups, including one for property owners, also were held recently. The city is paying a North Carolina-based firm, Stantec, about $30,000 to oversee the Main Street study.
“We are only talking about what the city can do, which is improving the public realm, the public right of way,” said Mike Hurlbert, O’Fallon’s economic development director. “This is the first step of a planning process.”
He said the hope is that O’Fallon, with a population of about 80,000 and numerous suburban-type business areas, could draw people to a more pedestrian-oriented downtown.
He added that the district’s older buildings could be used to help O’Fallon take part in “historic tourism” that pulls tourists and others to St. Charles’ Main Street area and some other parts of St. Charles County.
The unsuccessful 2003 plan, pushed by a private concern called Main Street Ventures, called for new stores, offices, homes and parks on about 100 acres along and around the thoroughfare.
The plan would have included using the city’s eminent domain power to force relocation of more than 40 homeowners and dozens of businesses.
That spurred formation of an opposition group, the Old Town Preservation Committee. The group’s effort helped prompt the city administration to drop the whole idea after months of debate.
Two leading opponents back then — Don Detrich, who heads a downtown neighborhood group, and Steve Blechle, whose family owns the area’s O’Fallon Plaza shopping center — said they’re pleased with the city’s current approach.
“I am cautiously optimistic,” Blechle said. “We see this as the city attempting to set the table for future business attraction.”
Mayor Bill Hennessy is adamant that eminent domain won’t be attempted for any future downtown development and says the City Council agrees.
A few years after the failed 2003 plan, a different developer announced plans for a less far-reaching pedestrian-style shopping and residential complex, O’Fallon Station, for 15 vacant acres it acquired near City Hall. But that also never got off the ground as the general economy soured.
In the current study, Hurlbert said, residents and business owners are being asked to weigh in on improvements such as the type of street lights, signs, benches and landscaping that could be used.
A survey offered on the city’s website also asks people what types of new businesses and amenities they’d like to see.
Participants also are asked to choose from photos of various alternate “streetscapes” in other cities.
Attendees at one of the Thursday sessions scribbled short descriptions of their opinions of Main Street on large wall boards in a City Hall meeting room.
Ruth Rothermich, 82, wrote “sad, unattractive.” She elaborated in an interview, saying she’d like to see a “Mom-and-Pop restaurant” aimed at families. Greg Beckerle, 32, suggested adding a bike path.
Others wrote “old,” “boring,” “congested” and “hodgepodge.” But someone else wrote “old is just fine, don’t change much.”
Meanwhile, Tim DeGhelder, 50, said in an interview that the city should “tweak what we have” and “build on the base.”
Amanda Morrell, a landscape architect with Stantec, said initial survey results from 216 respondents indicate many people feel downtown is in decline and don’t take visiting friends and family members there.
The city also plans similar meetings in the spring on two other parts of the same north-south corridor — Highway K between Interstate 70 and Highway 40 (Interstate 64) and Highway M between highways P and 79.
The new downtown study isn’t the first one commissioned by the city for the area. For example, a report in 2001 by HyettPalma, a Virginia consulting firm, urged the city to give special attention to the area because it wasn’t keeping pace with the rest of the rapidly growing city.
Blechle’s father, Jim Blechle — who also worked against the 2003 plan — said he has good relations with current city officials but questioned the need for another study.
As for vacant lots, he said, “the economy will take care of those situations.”
“Property owners have a right to develop … any way they see fit,” he said.
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