FERGUSON — It’s been almost a decade since civil unrest caused frequent shutdowns of West Florissant Avenue, the north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County road that was the epicenter of protests and looting in the months following the August 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown.
As the attention of the region, and the world, turned to the wide, asphalt-heavy thoroughfare lined with chop suey restaurants, midcentury strip malls and parking lots, local leaders at the time rallied behind a plan to transform it into a safer, greener, more inviting street.
Regional transportation planners elevated a plan to add the corridor to its “Great Streets Initiative,†with designs for slowing traffic and beautifying the busy stretch of road with medians, narrower lanes, a pedestrian path, landscaping and sidewalks. The mayors of Ferguson and Dellwood, two cities that bore the brunt of the unrest, argued back in 2015 the project would instill confidence and encourage economic development for residents and businesses hammered by civil strife. The ºüÀêÊÓƵ County executive at the time called it “extremely important.â€
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But today, as the 10th anniversary of the Ferguson unrest approaches, the long-awaited revamp to the road has yet to begin. Vacant lots remain from where rioters burned buildings in 2014. The mostly four-lane road stretches as wide as seven lanes near its intersection with Chambers Road, the site of hundreds of crashes and injuries over the past 20 years. There are no medians for pedestrians, and it’s been described as a “big asphalt mess†by local leaders.
“I have been on city council since 2016, and this has been talked about until I’m blue in the face,†said Ferguson City Councilwoman Linda Lipka, who revived the Ferguson Traffic Commission in recent years and has advocated for traffic safety improvements in the city. “West Florissant has always been a concern for anybody who’s lived here for 40 years.â€
Finally, after years searching for funding, a global pandemic and political change at all levels of government, the $30 million revamp of the 1.5-mile corridor between the Dellwood Recreation Center and the former Emerson corporate campus is poised to begin.
Dellwood Mayor Reggie Jones has been mayor long enough to remember when regional planners first began studying the project, which actually began in the months before Brown’s August 2014 death. It’s a bit “weird†that it’s finally coming together around the 10-year anniversary, he said.
“It was right on time because of the damage that was done to West Florissant,†Jones said of planners’ decision to add the corridor to the Great Streets Initiative. “And now it’s fitting that’s it’s being rebuilt.â€
After several rejected applications, ºüÀêÊÓƵ County, which is managing the project, in 2021 finally won an $18.2 million federal grant that enabled the project to move from the drawing board to reality. It cobbled together other sources of matching funding, including $5.2 million in county road funds, $500,000 from regional trail developer Great Rivers Greenway and $1.5 million from nonprofit Health and Homes STL that helped build a Mercy health clinic on West Florissant Avenue.
The roughly $26 million West Florissant project is slated to be bid out this fall and begin construction next year, said David Wrone, a spokesman for ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Public Works. Another $3 million project, with $2 million coming from a federal grant, will revamp the road’s intersection with Chambers Road as the larger West Florissant project is underway.
The East-West Gateway Council’s Great Streets Initiative has been credited with drawing investment and people to other stretches of roadway, such as South Grand Boulevard near ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ Tower Grove Park. Officials in Ferguson and Dellwood hope the project, which will run into 2027, helps calm traffic and draws redevelopers to the area, too.
Lipka, the Ferguson councilwoman, noted many motorists use West Florissant to get between Interstate 70 and Interstate 270. The project calls for narrowing lanes and adding medians to discourage speeding.
“I think this project is truly going to save lives,†she said. “When you provide a safer roadway and a roadway that’s going to benefit two communities, you’re going to attract businesses, you’re going to attract tax dollars, and you’re going to be able to give your citizens more services.â€
Maintaining the improvements, once they’re built, could be handled by a new special taxing district along the road that covers territory in both Ferguson and Dellwood.
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ Economic Development Partnership, ºüÀêÊÓƵ County’s economic development arm, is putting together the paperwork to create the Transportation Development District, which could levy a 1% sales tax along West Florissant Avenue. The tax would pay for maintenance of the landscaping and road improvements to ensure they don’t fall into disrepair.
The Economic Partnership board last month approved a $60,000 contract with ºüÀêÊÓƵ planning firm PGAV to develop revenue estimates and a maintenance plan for the West Florissant Avenue TDD. Ferguson and Dellwood each paid $10,000, and the nonprofit that owns the Mercy clinic, Health and Homes, is donating $40,000 for the effort. The nonprofit has also pledged $500,000 to cover maintenance until the TDD has generated enough money to cover those costs, according to ºüÀêÊÓƵ County’s transportation department.
The corridor has already seen some investment, though most of it is from nonprofits. The Urban League’s Ferguson Community Empowerment Center was developed on the site of a QuikTrip that burned in 2014. A new senior living low-income housing tax credit from the Urban League is opening this month, and the nonprofit has long had plans for a shopping center on two vacant lots across the street, where businesses burned down during the unrest.
To the north, in Dellwood, a former Schnucks shopping center, mostly vacant since the grocer left in 2006, recently reopened as the nonprofit R&R Marketplace, which houses social service providers, a pharmacy and a bank branch.
Jones, the Dellwood mayor, hopes the investment in West Florissant can also help lure some taxable businesses, especially some sit-down restaurants, to the mix.
“West Florissant is one of the most heavily traveled streets in the county,†he said. “And I think it’s important for Dellwood and Ferguson to have a street that represents the community in the right way.â€