Webster Groves Safe Streets project pauses demonstration installations until NEPA review finishes

At a meeting of the Webster Groves Traffic Advisory Commission, Safe Streets project staff said the city must complete a federal environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act before it can buy or install demonstration equipment planned for this fall.

The Safe Streets staff member, Sean, told the commission the city holds a planning and demonstration grant under the Safe Streets for All program and that the demonstration projects described in the executed grant agreement remain in place. “We are in the process of our environmental review … that should be completed in September,” Sean said. He added that the review must be finished before the project moves into the demonstration phase and purchases can be made.

The planning and demonstration grant is intended to produce a comprehensive safety action plan and to fund temporary demonstration projects that test technologies and measures before any permanent installations. Sean said the city will not pursue an early application for implementation funding this year after concluding its proposal would not have been competitive. “We are no longer trying to pursue that implementation grant,” he said.

Commissioners and staff reviewed the demonstration projects that are part of the planning grant. The list provided at the meeting includes speed humps, adaptive signal timing, an adaptive/variable speed limit sign, a multiuse path, in-road warning lights, a pedestrian hybrid beacon, and a firehouse signal trial. Sean said the demonstrations were included in the city’s executed grant agreement and cannot be changed; installation will be staggered, with the first demonstration likely this fall after NEPA review is complete.

Safe Streets staff said community engagement for the safety action plan will begin in August or September, including a public open house, focus groups and surveys. The project team has completed an initial community survey; Sean summarized early findings by saying the top concerns were speeding/aggressive/distracted driving, unsafe pedestrian crossings and a lack of sidewalks.

A resident, Hunter Delf of 545 West Kirkham Avenue, raised a separate but related request for a push-button flashing crosswalk near Larson Park. Hunter said drivers often do not stop for pedestrians and that flashing LED lights would make crossings safer: “It'd make me feel a lot safer crossing the street, safer for all the families in the area too.” Sean and commission members said the request is the kind of issue the safety action plan and upcoming demonstrations are intended to study, and they encouraged participation in the fall engagement events.

Sean said the project team has posted monthly updates on the Safe Streets Webster Groves website and is hiring a community liaison. He also clarified that while the city is inside the East‑West Gateway Metropolitan Planning Organization area, the commission should disregard prior discussion of using the MPO plan to pursue implementation funds early; the project will continue under the current planning and demonstration grant until a safety action plan is complete and a future NOFO (notice of funding opportunity) is issued for implementation funding.

The commission asked staff to share the project’s monthly executive memo and to notify the commission when consultant-led community engagement events are scheduled so commission members can participate. The commission did not take any formal votes on the Safe Streets program during the meeting.