Thursday, October 18, 2007

Bad to Worse?---Influx of Seniors Headed for Andy Busch's Land!!

The actual headline reads "Cor Jesu plans to double size of campus". The truth behind the headline is that the highly controversial residential development originally planned for the dozens of acres west of the school (owned partly by Andy Busch) are now going to become senior housing.

The Suburban Journals reported this week that Andy Busch and Erickson Retirement Communities of Baltimore have agreed to give Cor Jesu the land they wanted for future expansion in a deal that is part purchase and part donation. All this hinges on the change in zoning needed which is scheduled for hearing on Oct. 31. Your Mayor is pleased that the school has come out a winner in this deal, however this development will insure that Affton gets bombed back to the Stone Age.

Voting records and friends of the Mayor's with the County will confirm that it has been the Affton seniors that have voted down increased funding for Affton and Bayless schools, my beloved water park plan, and now hey are trying to kill the trash consolidation program. All of these things would make life better and more attractive to new families which would propel with future economic viability of the Affton area. Instead we will now have potentially hundreds of new seniors that will likely continue the status quo in our area.

It is my sincere hope that the great work done recently by the Affton Community Betterment Association and the fine folks at UMSL will be successful in reaching out to the Bosnian community in the area. Our only hope to get anything approved that might involve a vote on any tax increase for schools or amenities in Affton seems to lie in their hands. The families with children are far outnumbered by the seniors already.

Let me also make clear...I'm not a "senior hater" by any means. (I could not have been elected without them!) Not everyone over 55 automatically votes down a tax increase. But the recent trash consolidation issue could actually get us some savings on trash removal. It makes great sense financially and environmentally and the hundreds of vocal seniors are the ones trying to shut it down.

Links to some previous posts and backstory on the original land deal:
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2005/11/14/story1.html
http://afftonmayor.blogspot.com/2006/04/power-of-prayer-hotline.html
http://afftonmayor.blogspot.com/2006/06/gravois-creek-bridge-and-grants-view.html
http://afftonmayor.blogspot.com/2006/08/sour-grapes-grantwood-village-people.html
http://afftonmayor.blogspot.com/2006/09/deal.html
http://afftonmayor.blogspot.com/2006/09/pray-for-land-or-god-will-smite-you.html
http://afftonmayor.blogspot.com/2006/10/waking-sleeping-dog.html

5 Comments:

At 12:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

At least the use fits the space better, not 200 cracker-jack houses crammed into that green space.
I have two hopes: one, that people will remember that Cor Jesu abandoned the folks of Affton and the near-by home owners by NOT backing up neighbors against the original development plans after they got what they wanted (although that fell through)....they left all of Affton out to dry and would not support the calls against the first proposed developement...they acted very poorly and deserve no support from Affton now! And two, I hope Coru Jesu and the Senior housing leaves some green areas and trees, we are starting to loss too much green space in Affton.

A.T.

 
At 1:58 PM, Blogger Joe Thebeau said...

As if we don't have a high enough median age in the area. They're getting ready to convert a church into senior living right around the corner from me.

-joe

 
At 9:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't understand why people feel attached to that greenspace, no one was able to get any use out of it anyway. Better to have Cor Jesu get to use it for facilities for their students. I also think in retrospect the original proposal of some type of housing was better than the senior living center.

 
At 9:41 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The first proposal was an amount of housing in such a space it violated zoning. It would have created an unprecedented traffic problem in that triangle of the school, the exsisting homes, the new development and Grants Farm. If you don't travel that route in rush hour every day like I do, you would not understand.

 
At 9:43 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Also of note, the lower part part is in a flood-plane and nothing should be built on it anyway.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home