The City of Chesterfield has a working concept for the bare hillside at Chesterfield Parkway and Lydia Hill Drive: stairs, a switchback ramp and a planted slope connecting Central Park to the Downtown Chesterfield site. The open question is how people will get across Chesterfield Parkway once they reach the bottom. One version uses a pedestrian bridge and has an estimated total project cost of about $10.1 million. The other uses an improved crosswalk at street level and has an estimated total project cost of about $5.1 million. So the crossing, more than the hill, sets the price, and so far it is the part with the fewest answers.
Where the 3.89 acres actually sit
West Newsmagazine places the site on roughly 3.89 acres on West Chesterfield Parkway, between Park Circle Drive and the proposed Downtown Chesterfield Boulevard. Anyone who drives past it knows it as an open dirt slope. On paper it is the hinge between two very different places: the established park on one side and the old mall site, now being graded, on the other.
"It's a 48-foot grade change from top to bottom," Elliot Brown, Chesterfield's assistant city administrator, told KMOV's First Alert 4. "So we have to come up with a way that transports people quickly and safely down the hillside, but we also want to provide an opportunity for them to slow down and savor the environment."
The land came from the developer. The Staenberg Group, which is building Downtown Chesterfield, reportedly donated the 3.9-acre site and paid $300,000 toward its design. The city coordinates design and construction planning from here. The published project updates reviewed don't identify a confirmed funding source for construction.
The hill was the easier half
The slope has already gone through one round of narrowing. At a special City Council meeting on August 18, Public Works Director Jim Eckrich introduced Chip Crawford and Tim Buescher of the design firm Kanopi Gap. They presented two concepts, as West Newsmagazine reported.
- Option 1, about $5.1 million. A walk through nature or a sculpture garden, with stairs, an accessible switchback ramp, a path across the grass and concentrated plantings between the ramps. It would sit mostly along the straight edge of the site.
- Option 2, about $7.9 million. A more engineered flexible space, with modular retaining walls and an accessible path forming two circles that create a gathering area across the whole site.
Council members generally favored the first option, though no vote was taken. When the public open house came on September 24 at City Hall, the hillside description followed that leaner version: stairs for the 48 feet of elevation, a switchback ramp, a path through the grass and organized plantings between the ramps. The design remains preliminary.
What residents were asked at the open house was mostly about the feel of the place. One planting concept used cultivated native and adapted plants in "a layered garden with seasonal color, habitat value and an immersive landscape experience." The other was a flexible lawn with planted edges, built for informal recreation, gathering and clear views across the site. Attendees quoted by First Alert 4 asked the city to keep as much nature on the hill as it can. One suggested adding water features.
"We want this space to become a memorable part of Chesterfield," Eckrich told West Newsmagazine. "Community feedback will help shape its design, character and experience."
Chesterfield Parkway sets the price
In August, the bridge was presented as an add-on. Either hillside concept could include a walkway over Chesterfield Parkway, built right away or later, for about $5 million more. By the September open house, the crossing had become the headline choice. The two figures line up: the $5.1 million hillside concept, plus about $5 million for a bridge, gives the $10.1 million estimated total project cost.
Pedestrian bridge | At-grade crossing | |
|---|---|---|
Estimated total project cost | About $10.1 million | About $5.1 million |
How walkers cross | Above Chesterfield Parkway, separated from traffic | An improved, marked crosswalk at street level |
Safety features discussed | Separation from traffic | Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons are possible |
Traffic signal | Not needed at the crossing | Unlikely to be permitted |
Assistant City Engineer Zachary Wolff said a full traffic signal is unlikely because the Missouri Department of Transportation would not allow one so close to the existing signal at Lydia Hill. He said a crossing at street level could include Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons. No final MoDOT determination was identified in the published accounts. The only way among the two proposed options to separate walkers from parkway traffic completely is to go over it. Brown put the whole project at "$5 million-$10 million when all is said and done." The bridge accounts for most of that estimated cost difference.
The first neighbors arrive before the crossing is chosen
The reason the crossing matters now is who will be using it. Parks, Recreation and Arts Director Wayne Dunker pointed to new projects like the Villas at Downtown Chesterfield and said the area will see more people living nearby.
That project moved fast this fall. According to West Newsmagazine, it covers a 16.82-acre tract east of Chesterfield Parkway West and west of Chesterfield Center. The plan was approved in April as 105 attached rental units, then amended to 87 attached single-family villas for sale on Lot 3B, with 88 additional units planned on Lot 3C, for a combined 175 homes across the two lots. The revised plan serves the villas on Lot 3B from Burkhardt Spur or an extension of Burkhardt Place, using one road instead of two. It also drops a 20-foot retaining wall the earlier design needed. That street is also home to the former Samuel C. Sachs Branch of the St. Louis County Library at 16400 Burkhardt Place. The branch closed for replacement construction in January 2026 and is being succeeded by the Guy and Judy Jaffe Family Branch, expected to open in 2027. The library lists the location as closed for construction, with holds sent to the Thornhill Branch.
The Planning Commission recommended approval 8-1, the Planning and Public Works Committee voted 4-0, and City Council approved the revised plans at its October 5 meeting. Developer Matt Segal of Tri-Star Properties said he was excited to bring one of the first residential projects to Downtown Chesterfield. He planned to close on the property within a couple of weeks and hold a groundbreaking sometime this winter.
The larger site is on a longer schedule. Tim Lowe, The Staenberg Group's vice president of leasing and development, said work on utilities, roads, parks and bike paths is continuing. Grading and infrastructure are expected to run until spring 2027, when vertical construction is projected to begin. About 800 to 1,000 homes are expected in the first phase. "We've got to have a good phase 1," Lowe told West Newsmagazine. "You can't flood the market too much at one time."
Homes across the parkway have been approved, with the developer planning a winter groundbreaking, and hundreds more are planned behind them. The route those residents would walk to Central Park still depends on a council decision between a marked crosswalk and a pedestrian bridge, with estimated total project costs of approximately $5.1 million and $10.1 million, respectively.
Where each piece stands this week
- Hillside design: Leaning toward the lower-cost stairs-and-ramp concept since August, but not formally finalized. Kanopi Gap and LJC Design + Engineering are refining it after the open house.
- Planting plan: A layered native garden or an open lawn with planted edges, shaped by the feedback gathered September 24.
- Crossing: A bridge option with an estimated total project cost of about $10.1 million or an at-grade crossing option at about $5.1 million, with a traffic signal considered unlikely under MoDOT requirements.
- Next step: The designers make final adjustments and then submit a proposal to City Council, per First Alert 4.
- Construction funding and schedule for the grand entry: No confirmed funding source or construction schedule identified in the published project updates reviewed.
- Villas at Downtown Chesterfield: Revised plans approved October 5, with the developer planning a winter groundbreaking.
Kanopi Gap has posted its own notes on the community process for anyone who wants to follow the design as it returns to council.
If you'd like to talk through what the grand entry and the first Downtown Chesterfield homes could mean for your own street, Nika Leoni would be glad to help. Schedule a private consultation.
