Report to University City Council

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Key Themes from Handouts by Lehman Walker and Frank Ollendorff John Solodar Nov 11, 2004 STRENGTHS: (1 )The Planning and Development Dept has set up a thorough and easily accessed one-stop shop for developers. There is a series of flyers concerning permits and inspections, variances, site plan reviews and conditional use permits. There are maps of citywide land use and zoning, a summary of land targeted for redevelopment by the most recent Comprehensive Plan, a list of University City owned property, demographic profiles, a slick Economic Development folder, copies of the 2004 Development Subsidy Policy, etc. (2) About 45% of our population has a Bachelor's degree or higher. WEAKNESSES: (1) Between 1990 and 2000 University City experienced a decline in the income level of its least well-off residents. This suggests that retail businesses that are located in the area adjacent to this population will be confined to providing the basic necessities and will not provide any upscale shopping. Note, however, that the average (or mean) household income increased suggesting that those who are more well-off did better. Evidence for this is shown below. 1 999 or 2000 1990 Change Median Household Income Average Household Income Percent below Poverty Level $40,902 $60,941 14.7% $41,944 $54,130 12.8% -$ 1 ,042 $ 6,811 1.9% (2) The outlook for residential landlords also declined during this period. 2000 1990 Change Median Gross Rents $603 $637 -$34 Note that U. City currently has 248 units of Section 8 housing *. The Planning Dept would like to cut this number drastically. OPPORTUNITIES: (1) Whereas the population of University City declined from 40,087 to 37,428 between 1990 and 2000, one of the six census tracts, that in the southwest portion, had an increase in population. That trend is probably continuing in this section with the upscale developments by Medve in the Delcrest area and by Londe near North & South and Delmar *. The opportunity that is present is to redevelop some key tracts of commercially zoned land in this area to serve this community *. (2) The best opportunity to generate income for city government is to increase our population. A 10% increase in population would generate about $ 1,000,000 in revenue, about 2/3 from the pooled sales tax and about 1/3 from utility taxes.